Station Compare

Compares your station's FT8/FT4 performance against all others transmitting from the same grid square right now. Same grid = same propagation conditions, so differences are down to antenna, power, and setup.

A stacked bar chart of how many stations heard each station's signal, broken down by band. The total bar length is total spot count; the colored segments show which bands those spots came from. More spots = your signal is reaching more receivers.

Signal-to-Noise Ratio in dB. Higher (less negative) = stronger signal at the receiver. A station with -5 dB avg vs your -15 dB avg likely has a better antenna or more power. The SNR chart shows each station's range from worst to best report.

Everyone in the same grid has roughly the same propagation conditions. Differences come down to station performance — antenna, feedline, power, local noise floor. It's the fairest comparison.

We sample PSKReporter's global feed every few minutes, so spot counts here are a subset — not the total. What matters is the relative comparison: all stations in your grid are sampled equally, so rankings accurately reflect real performance differences. Run a second compare after a few minutes for more data.

You need to be actively transmitting FT8/FT4 and being received by PSKReporter. Make sure your logging software reports to PSKReporter. The first time you search a callsign, we subscribe to live PSKReporter data for that station — spots start flowing within 30–60 seconds. Refresh after a minute for full results. Subsequent searches will have data ready immediately.

We subscribe to PSKReporter's live MQTT feed for each callsign you search. On your first search, we start collecting real-time spots — this takes about 30–60 seconds to populate. Your callsign stays subscribed for 24 hours, so return visits will show data instantly. We also subscribe the top active stations in your grid so you always have nearby stations to compare against.

Antenna type/height, transmit power, feedline loss, local RF noise, and ground conductivity all play a role. Two stations in the same grid with different antennas can have dramatically different results.

Head-to-Head finds remote stations (receivers) that heard two or more stations in your grid. It then shows each receiver's SNR reading for each station side-by-side. Since the same receiver, on the same band, at the same time, heard multiple stations through the same propagation path — any SNR difference is purely down to antenna, power, and setup. It's the fairest possible RF comparison. Green = best SNR at that receiver, red = worst.

The reverse of Head-to-Head. Instead of comparing how well your signal gets out (TX), it compares how well your station receives. It finds remote transmitters that were decoded by two or more stations in your grid on the same band. Since the same signal traveled the same propagation path to all receivers in your grid, any SNR difference is purely down to receive capability — antenna gain on RX, noise floor, preamp quality, and local interference. Green = best SNR (quietest/best RX), red = worst. Combined with the TX Head-to-Head, you get the full picture: a station that's strong on TX H2H but weak on RX H2H has a receive problem (high noise floor, bad preamp, etc.).

Both. Spots, SNR, and TX Head-to-Head measure transmit performance — "who heard your signal and how strong it was." RX Head-to-Head measures receive performance — "when the same signal reaches your grid, how well does your station decode it compared to your neighbors?" Together they tell the whole story. A station with great TX spots but poor RX H2H scores likely has a noise problem on receive — that grow light, switching power supply, or plasma TV next door.

Ionospheric paths aren't always reciprocal. A signal can travel from you to Europe on a completely different refraction path than the return signal. This is especially true on polar and auroral paths when geomagnetic conditions are disturbed (high K-index). The Direction Profile section can reveal this: if you're being heard strongly to the northeast but stations to the northeast aren't showing up in your log, that path may be one-way at the moment.