A Visualization of Yearly Shortwave Activity with WebSDR

The WebSDR from the University of Twente, Netherlands is a wideband HF SDR that is accessible from all over the world via the internet. It was first activated in 2008 making it the very first WebSDR ever. The creator of the service Pieter-Tjerk de Boer PA3FWM has recently made available spectrum image archives which show the HF band conditions over the last two years.

Intrigued by this data, London Shortwave decided to make a timelapse animation of this image data. The results are shown in the videos below, and London Shortwave adds:

The X axis represents the frequency and the Y axis is the time of day, starting at the top. Conventional wisdom about band behaviour can be easily confirmed by watching this video: the 60m, 49m and 41m bands are mostly active after dark, with the 60m and the 49m bands being generally busier during the winter months. The 31m band is most active around sunset, but carries on all night until a few hours after sunrise. The 25m band is active during sunrise and for a few hours afterwards, and around sunset during the winter months, but carries on all night during the summer. Peak activity on the 22m and 19m bands is also clustered bi-modally around the morning and the evening hours, though somewhat closer to the middle of the day than on the 31m and the 25m bands. The 16m band is mostly active during the daylight hours and the 13m band is quiet throughout the year except for the occasional ham contest.