WSPR on Ubuntu 15.10 using WSJT-X

The original WSPR software is an amazing construction, built with c++, Fortran, lots of library code and the UI is hung together with python. I've battled with building it and getting all the dependencies resolved in recent years.

Joe Taylor has re-written the suite as a C++ application that does not just the QSO modes but also the WSPR beacon mode. Here's a few notes on getting it going on Ubuntu 15.10.

Full documentation is here, but below are my abbreviated notes.

Grab the package from the URL on this page:

wget http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx_1.6.0_amd64.deb

Install it:

sudo dpkg -i wsjtx_1.6.0_amd64.deb 

I recommend you install the time synchronisation software ntp like this:

sudo apt-get install ntp

Apparently you also need the kvasd decoder:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ki7mt/kvasd-installer

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install kvasd-installer

kvasd-installer

Then you get a text menu with install and test options:

I ran WSJT-X, switched to WSPR-s mode. When the first 2 minute cycle ended I got an alert saying "/usr/bin/wsprd Error loading shared library libfftw3.so.3".

To resolve that I installed the library:

sudo apt-get install libfftw3-bin libfftw3-dev

I have no idea if -dev is required but sometimes it has helped in the past in other contexts.

Now all seems well and I'm merrily decoding WSPR beacons.

This runs nicely on an old MSI U200 laptop with a dual core 1.2GHz processor. The short but wide screen doesn't particularly work well with the dual window design of WSJT-X but it quite usable and seems to decode very well.