Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 18:29:25 UTC
Here is a piece of news reported in the Shortwave Magazine February 1998
issue, page 5.++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
New Low Frequency Band for Radio Amateurs
The Radiocommunication Agency has told the RSGB that it hopes to be able to
release the 136Khz band to all UK Class A licence holders early this year.
The frequency limits of the new band are very likely to be as in CEPT
recommandation - 137.5-137.8kHz. Unlike the UK only - 73kHz band, a Notice
of Variation is not required so the 136kHz band will just be added to the
UK Table of Allocations.
Class A licence holders will be able to use the new band just as soon as
an official Gazette notice is published. Of course Class B licence holders
will not be able to use the new frequencies.
The 73kHz band will continue in parallel with the new allocation and the RA
have agreed to continue to issue Notice of Variation until 30 June 1998.
The 73kHz band will be withdrawn from amateur use two years later; ie. on
30 June 2000.
It is interesting to note that UK amateurs have acheived ranges of up to
400km on the 73kHz band and it is thought likely that this distance will be greatly
exceeded on 136kHz as the antenna will be more efficient.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jacques
Subj: Palomar VLF Converter
Date: 98-01-26 21:53:55 EST
From: (Ron Freeman)
I see two messages asking about low cost converters and the Palomar VLF
Converter. I have the Palomar VLF converter, plus an assortment of VLF
radios. The Palomar is the best, by far. I have not seen anything that
comes close to its performance. Mine is the 4.0 to 4.5 Mhz version, so
the frequency tracks the readout. I purchased it used from Universal
Radio for about $50. It will tune down to about 4 Khz before the
oscillator starts to cause the s-meter to rise with noise.
The receiver is an ICOM R71A. Just for kicks, I tune a signal in with
the Palomar and then go back and try to find it "barefoot" with the R71A
tuned to the same frequency. More often than not, I can't even hear it
with the R71A. The antenna is nothing more than a 20 meter dipole in
the attic. I also use a square loop antenna (about 30" per side). This
works well and gives great nulls, but the dipole is the day to day
antenna. I've been logging LF beacons for about 10 years and the ones I
get now, with the Palomar are the "hard to get" ones. I rate it a "10".
Ron Freeman W0LPZ
Subject: New Schedule for TEXAS 1/26
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 18:18:28 -0600
From: Bill Cantrell
TEXAS(space) will be transmitting the following on 184.400 kHz:
MS100, ET1, alternating BPSK and CW, with CW sent on odd minutes
and BPSK sent on even minutes, synchronized to WWV. If you would
like a special BPSK run, just let me know.
Regards,
Bill Cantrell
Senior Staff Engineer
MOTOROLA Cellular Networks & Space Sector
Subj: Northeast get-together?
Date: 98-01-23 20:24:42 EST
From: (Mike Staines)
Hi, all...Now that the ice has melted and the trees are standing
vertically again (thus raising the long wires from 3' above the snow
back to 30' in the air) I thought that those of us Lowfers and
listeners in the northeast could take a saturday and all assemble
somewhere to chat about our favorite hobby.
How is Saturday, Feb 7th for everyone? I would propose that we meet
somewhere in Mass., perhaps in the Lowell/Lawrence area. I think that
would have Bill Ashlock's vote. I will pick a place as soon as I get
some feedback.
Comments ???
73,
Mike
Subj: IS1HT
Date: 98-01-18 13:02:22 EST
From: W5YYaol
The beacon on 1742.2 khz is now identifying as "3FC". It id's at everyfour minutes with "3FC" sent 3 times. Signal here in Navarre Beach, FL is 5&8 to 5&9.
73,
Mike W5YY
Subject: Vlf converter
From: Korganswebtv (Shawn Korgan)
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 18:58:11 -0700
Does anyone know where I can get a used and cheap vlf converter? One that covers from 0-500 Khz or so?
Also, I'm interested in a vlf receiver if one is available cheap. If so, please send back any information.
Thanks, Shawn.
Subj: Medfer SOLAR off the air
Date: 98-01-17 18:37:23 EST
From: billietc.ca (Bill de Carle)
Sad to report I'm no longer copying SOLAR - it must have succumbed to
the ice storm.
I'll try to get up there at least to find out what happened, but I don't
expect to be able to fix it until next April or so.
Bill VE2IQ
Subj: FFT
Date: 98-01-15 23:56:22 EST
From: Aetupkeraol
I am a lowfer from long ago. Just happened to stumble onto the LWCA page. I may have to become active again now that I see all this activity.
Just a note to let you all know that there is an excellent FFT program (share ware) for downloading at www.iowegian.com. It's mostly intended for DSP work but would work for lowfer work. It's a win 95 program and the registered version handles massive files of several formats. I use it at my work place.
Allen Tupker
WA0JYF
Subj: Re: Antenna Assistance
Date: 98-01-14 12:22:34 EST
From: (Lyle Koehler)
Chris Curtis wrote:
The shack's roof is metal, I could use
this as a ground? Would you put the loading coil outside? or just inside
the shack. Do I loose any rf by putting my loading coil in a shielded
container or is there no shielding effect. How does 12" to 36" of snow
change things during the winter.
Yes, the shack's roof can be part of the ground system. My LEK beacon is
suspended above a garage with a metal roof that serves as the only
ground plane. However, my roof is about 30 by 44 feet. You will need
some wire radials on the ground to supplement the shack roof. A brief
description of my antenna system is contained in the article "Getting
The Most Out Of LowFER Transmitting Antennas" in the File Libraries
section of the Longwave web site.
My main loading coil is on a PVC pipe about 4 feet above the roof. It
has a little less inductance than it takes to resonate the antenna, and
there is a smaller tapped coil just inside the roof for fine tuning. A
high-Q loading coil for LF will be pretty big. Putting it inside a
shielded container will reduce the Q, unless there is a lot of space
between the coil and the shield. Copper or aluminum wouldn't be as bad
as steel. I'd suggest a plastic container or none at all. My loading
coil is unprotected, so when it gets covered with wet ice or wet snow
the beacon output goes to pot. But if it's way below freezing, the ice
doesn't have too much effect, and the basket-wound coil dries out fairly
quickly if the temperature is above freezing. The antenna impedance is
high above the loading coil, and quite low below it. If you put the coil
inside the shack, the "hot" part of the antenna will be exposed to snow
on the roof, and this could cause severe detuning and losses when it's
wet. Wet snow around the wire *below* the main loading coil has almost
no effect on antenna performance, although I do run the wire down inside
the PVC pipe that supports the coil, to a coax connector in the garage
roof. If your roof is nailed on, you might want to get some roofing
screws and put three or four in each roof panel joint to help make a
better connection.
I ordered an xmitter from North Country Radio. So the antenna is what I
have been thinking about the most. I would like to get a signal going in
the spring.
I'm not familiar with the North Country xmitter, and don't know what
kind of output circuit it uses. Should be OK unless it's one of the
designs that uses the loading coil as the final amplifier tank circuit.
Then you would have to put the transmitter outside the shack or figure
out how to remote the loading coil. There is a simple LF transmitter
circuit on my web site at http://www.qsl.net/k0lr/ which you may have
already seen. I've also included some thoughts on loading coils and a
coil design program that you can use to start planning your system.
73
Lyle, K0LR
Subj: stuff
Date: 98-01-14
From: RLLaneyaol
I received a signal report on RL from a ham in Maryland at about 50 miles. That perked up my interest because I have received very few reports for the 3 years or so that RL has been on the air. Probably 2 to 3 million people live in the area that RL could be received. I am surprised about the lack of reported LF activity in the Washington, DC area. This area of northern Virginia is rapidly becoming the high tech "Silicon Dominion" according to reports in the papers. Maybe LF is considered "low tech" by some. Along these lines, I have yet to hear my first LowFER this season. A few year back 4 or 5 could be heard regularly. On the MedFER bands I hear VA regularly at night and I think that I have heard ABC at night as well, but can't really be sure yet. Going to work on that. I haven't done much listening in the wee hours of the morning, so maybe I am missing some stations then.
73,
Bob
Subj: STLMO schedule
Date: 98-01-13 22:43:53 EST
From: k0lremily (Lyle Koehler)
MedFER beacon STLMO is now sending BPSK at MS25, ET1 on even numbered
days (UTC) and alternating BPSK/CW at MS100, ET1 on odd numbered days.
His MS25 signal was printing here through heavy QRN this evening. The
frequency still appears to be 1690.798 kHz.
Lyle, K0LR
Subj: E-mail Change
Date: 98-01-13 19:03:02 EST
From: qa0057email.mot (Cantrell Bill)
Hi All,
We are switching from Macmail to Netscape Mail. Please note my NEW EMAIL
ADDRESS, effective immediately.
qa0057email.mot.com
Sorry for the inconvenience,
Bill Cantrell
"TEXAS" & WD5CVG
Subj: Re:Re: Antenna Assistance
Date: 98-01-13 00:55:00 EST
From: John Davis
Chris,
Lyle raises a very good point about trees interacting within the induction field. I should have thought of that earlier, having had heavy tree loss the last year I ran an LF beacon.
Keeping the antenna as much in the clear as possible helps. Also, there is reason to believe that putting the loading coil near the top of the antenna, just under the tophat, might help by lowering the RF voltage on the vertical run.
It will certainly make for some challenging experimentation.
Subj: LEK BPSK schedule
Date: 98-01-12 18:34:45 EST
From: k0lremily (Lyle Koehler)
LEK will be running continuous BPSK at MS100, ET1 on 186.750 kHz for the
next two days. After that, it will run in CW mode on odd numbered days
(UTC time) and BPSK on even days.
73
Lyle, K0LR
Subj: Re: Antenna Assistance
Date: 98-01-12 13:08:58 EST
From: k0lremily (Lyle Koehler)
To: ccurtisnidlink.com
CC: LWCANews
Chris, you have an interesting situation and I'm not sure how well you
would be able to radiate, but it would make for some interesting
experiments. The surrounding trees definitely pose a problem. Trees
produce very little attentuation of *radiated* signals on LF, but if
they are in the induction field of the antenna they can introduce a lot
of losses. On the other hand, you may have some great supports for a
suspended "flat top" type of antenna, which is usually a lot easier to
put up than a tall mast with a big top hat.
Terrain effects are an unknown to those of us who live in the flatlands,
although it sure would be better to have the antenna on *top* of the
mountain. The rocky ground probably has very poor conductivity so you
will have to depend on the radial system. But on the plus side, there
may be a significant effective height enhancement from laying your
ground radials all in the downhill direction from the base of the
antenna. Other than that, the only advice I can give is to use the kind
of antenna designs that have been successful for other LowFERs, and go
for it!
Lyle, K0LR
Subj: New Beacon
Date: 98-01-11 17:45:32 EST
From: (Michael Coffey)
Hi.
I just wanted to let you know that my new beacon, "K" is on 187.5 kHz.
It is located at my home. My mailing address is
Michael Coffey, Jr. KE4QDZ
105 Delmar Circle
Oak Ridge, TN 37830-4035
I can also be reached via e-mail at ke4qdzusi.ml.org
73,
Mike
Subj: Palomar VLF converter
Date: 98-01-11 16:09:03 EST
From: (Jeff Budzynski)
Does anyone know any thing about the Palomar VLF converter? Does it work
good? Anyone have a used one for sale?
I see that it receives 10-500kHz, which is very good for me.
-Jeff
Subj: Antenna Assistance
Date: 98-01-11
From: (Chris Curtis)
Hello Everyone.
I am interested in getting more involved in VLF work, and would like to
put up a beacon. The biggest problem that I feel I am up against is
the antenna because of my location. It my not be worth attempting a
beacon for location reasons, that's what I need to figure out. Any
assistance you can give would be of great help. I live 15 miles north
of Sandpoint Idaho, 60 miles south of the Canadian border. My "radio
shack" is a small building 150 feet in elevation above my house in the
side of the mountain I live on. Hiking to the shack takes your wind
out, but from there I can see across the vally. To get a clearer
picture, there are two mountain ranges, running NS, aproximately 10
miles appart. I am situated on the east side of the western mountain
range about 200 feet above the valley floor. The surrounding terrain
runs from 3500 to 6500 feet, and the vally floor is at 2000 feet above
sea level. The area around my shack is NOT level, very rocky, and
there are 100 ft trees all around.
Im not sure if I can radate a signal from here, after all, a top hat
antenna would be laying at 45% if you leveled out the hill. Do I have
any hope in a location and what things would you try?
Chris Curtis
208-265-1608 (Sandpoint Computers)
Subj: RB
Date: 98-01-11
From: k0lremily (Lyle Koehler)
Aitkin, MN 0400 CST
While tuning around looking for "BOB" near 187 kHz at 0330 CST, I ran
across a strong signal sending "RB"; RST about 469. Had to drag out the
homebrew receiver to check the frequency because the IC-751A only reads
to the nearest 100 Hz. The frequency was right on 186.92. First guess
was that it's my old friend Bob from Freeport, IL! So I fired up the
Internet and checked the LW message board -- Aha! Nice going, BOB.
By the time my homebrew receiver was on line the signal was fading, and
at 0346 it was gone. However, it's on tape so I'll know in the morning
that I wasn't dreaming.
* LowFER RB came back up out of the noise at a little after 0400 CST. I
didn't listen again until 1000 CST, when it was still RST 349. At that
time RB was the only LowFER signal I could hear other than the four (BK,
IMG, SAM and RM) that are within 100 miles of me.
73
Lyle, K0LR
Subj: Lowfer Beacon RB on the air!
Date: 98-01-10 16:36:17 EST
From: (Robert Bicking)
After running back and forth between the antenna and the shack, trying
different tuning schemes (in 10 deg F and 6 in of snow), I have RB
transmitting "plain old vanilla" CW on 186.92 kHz. Let me know if you hear
it. I already have one confirmation from a big 5 miles away! I'm using the
same antenna (Uni-Hat CTSVR) that I use for hamming, so it will generally
be on from 10pm to 4pm CST, at least until the lightning starts! Let me
know if you hear it and I'll send a QSL. 73 es DX. PS-- I'll be W9RB/KH6
16-21 Feb., incl the ARRL DX Contest.
Robert (Bob) Bicking, W9RB
Subj: LEK report for January
Date: 98-01-10 12:39:28 EST
From: k0lremily (Lyle Koehler)
Winter finally arrived. This morning it was -12 F with a nice stiff
"breeze" from the northwest. Maybe that will sweep away the QRN that has
wiped out most LowFER reception for the past week. Whatever we get in
terms of temperatures, I'll take it in preference to the ice storms that
have hit almost everyone northeast of here.
Thanks to a posting on the Longwave Message Board, I started listening
for Max Carter's CW beacon "X" and was happy to hear the familiar
identifier again on January 9th. Other recent catches include BPSK
beacon JDH at MS25 with and without ET, TEXAS running BPSK tests at
speeds up to MS5 (200 baud), and best of all, RED from Florida. It came
as a surprise while I was trying to receive RED on BPSK and heard his CW
identifier coming through the noise on New Year's Day. He was in there
again two days later on CW, and on the morning of January 4th I was able
to "print" RED on BPSK at MS25 (without ET) despite the increasing QRN.
LowFERs heard here during December and early January: KRY, X, TEXAS,
JDH, XJ, RED, BA, BK, MEP, IMG, NC, SAM, ARK, TH, IDF (BPSK only), RM
and OK. Only two LowFER QSOs so far this season -- one with BK in the
early morning hours of December 14th, and another with XJ late in the
evening of the same day.
On MF, STLMO has been readable on CW but for some reason, not on BPSK.
I've switched MIN to BPSK-only operation on even numbered days, using
MS25 and ET1. On odd numbered days (determined by UTC date), MIN still
sends alternating CW and BPSK at MS100, ET1. The only other interesting
signal on MF has been a strong FSK signal sending the Morse identifier
"IS1HT" on 1740.3 kHz. It has been heard all over the country and seems
to be originating on or near the coast of Texas. Maybe one of these days
someone will figure out what it is!
73
Lyle, K0LR
Subj: Remote Antenna Current Monitor
Date: 98-01-10 13:35:11 EST
RE: Bill Bowers article, Lowdown Jan 1998, P. 29
You might also try the Electronic Goldmine at http://www.goldmine-elec.com for their G8317 Electromagnetic field (EMF) detector at $8.95. It has all of the LEDS and a coil antenna that seems tuned for the LF range.
Mine lights all diodes when held 6 inches in front of my NEC MultiSync 5D monitor.
Bet you could drill a hole in the middle of the PC coil and use it as is.
N0UU
Subject: VLF Stations
From: Stan Wilson
Date: 10 Jan 1998
Does anyone know where I can obtain data on the coding and modulation
used by NAA and NSS (24 and 21.4 khz) ? I understand they contain time
coding like WWVB ?
thanks, Stan AK0B
Subj: Improving signals BK & LEK
Date: 98-01-09 20:39:11 EST
From: Bruce Koehler bhkoehlermmm
It's good to hear that TEXAS is back on, now I can listen for it again.
Any word on OK? The ice storms earlier in the week caused signals from
BK, LEK, SAM, and IMG to drop to low levels, but signal strengths seem
to coming back up again. I'm now hearing them almost up to normal
levels. I haven't heard RM here in Maplewood, MN but his signal was good
at Shell Lake WI last weekend. Apparently Duluth had 6-10 inches of snow
recently so RM's signals may be down a bit too.
73, Bruce W0BK, BK
Subj: TEXAS Back On-the-Air
Date: 98-01-09 11:26:57 EST
From: cantrell_billmacmail1.fwrdc.rtsg.mot (Cantrell Bill)
Damage fixed. ESD protection added. TEXAS is back on-the-air.
Regards,
Bill
"TEXAS" & WD5CVG
Subj: LowFER "X"
Date: 98-01-09 11:03:57 EST
From: k0lremily (Lyle Koehler)
This morning at 0600 CST, Max Carter's CW beacon "X" was RST 259 on
178.5 kHz. Nice to hear that familiar identifier after an absence of a
couple of years. Noise levels on LF have been too high for the past few
days to hear anything other DX, although BPSK beacon IDF came through
between 0630 and 0700 CST today.
73
Lyle, K0LR
Subj: IS1HT Mystery Beacon
Date: 98-01-07 22:31:22 EST
From: Mikenh.ultranet (Mike)
IS1HT is doing well into NH tonight (is it the ice storm helping ?).
The only varience I have from Lyle's report is that tonight I copy it
on 1740.8 with the FSK reverse image on 1740.
Strangely, the reverse keying is about 2 s-units stronger than the
"normal" keying.
Mike wa1ptc
Subj: Equipment Exchange
Date: 98-01-07 20:44:16 EST
From: bickingmwci (rbicking)
For Sale: MFJ 784B DSP filter with PS, like new, $ 125. Bob Bicking, W9RB,
815 232 2731.
Subj: Finally....
Date: 98-01-07
From: Mikenh.ultranet (Mike Staines)
Finally... After driving home tonight in a pretty serious ice storm
and having my pickup truck slide off our 300' driveway and into a
tree, shuffling my way up the driveway with about 1/2 inch of solid
ice and introducing my 42 year-old butt to the ground twice I finally
arrived home to see a thick coating of ice pulling down the 250' long
wire.
But that extra surface area must be working for me because I caught my
first medfer of the season. Usually by now I am up to 4 or 5.
PX is Q5 here tonight. Listening for other usual sure bets yielded zip
(even my favorite, PC, who seasonally clobbers my reciever is nowhere
to be found this season).
Gosh, what a hobby...
Mike
Subj: New LowFER Beacon
Date: 98-01-07 16:33:49 EST
From: nicklajbasf-corp (Nicklaw, Jeffrey M.)
LowFER CW beacon JMN on 187.47 kHz, with a intermittent broadcast
schedule, is up and functioning. The beacon operator is Jeff Nicklaw,
KF4PZA, located in Arden, NC, about 12 miles south of Asheville, NC.
Subj: RAK receivers
Date: 98-01-05 18:36:42 EST
From: (Edward Zeranski)
Howdy! I have not had much time to 'play radio' as wife calls it in recent
months but did pick up some sets. Got an RAK, 4 actually, 15kc-600kc to go
with my RAL 600kc-23mc. Has anyone used RAKs? An RAL user I know has run
his off batteries so thought I'd try the same with the RAK down in the
desert. I'd appreciate an info exchange with other RAK/RAL users. Also, I
have a copy of the manual which covers both receivers and reproduces well
if anyone needs one. Thanks for any input!
Ed
Subj: OK
Date: 98-01-04 22:13:37 EST
From: okbillbrightok
John: Please post that " OK " will be off the air until further notice.
Last week Oklahoma had a " wind advisory " in effect. I think the
strongest were across the hill where the new OK antenna is located.
Winds had to be in excess of 60MPH. The 15ft. diameter top hat is now a
half moon, folded over double. The transmitter and tank coil were in one
of these igloo type dog houses and that was all blown across the field.
The circuit board was floating in a puddle, and the tank coil was off in
the weeds . Hope to be back on the air in a week with half a top hat.
Bill Bowers
Subject: WWVB
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 1998
From: Rick Sealey
Greetings and Happy New Year! The LWCA homepage is lookin' good and I
noticed almost 250 hits already this year. Congratulations on an excellent job!
The other day (week?) I saw your comment about the signal strength of WWVB
not seeming to have change so far during the upgrade. I periodically
monitor it here in central NC, and while it doesn't raise the S-meter it has
seemed to be more solid recently.
In October, I bought a Radio Shack "Atomic Clock", and when I first brought
it into the ham shack, I could only find one spot in the room with adequate
24hr signal. After the update at WWVB commenced and I noticed the signal
seemed to be stronger on my LF receiver, I relocated the clock to a more
convenient place without any problems. However, this morning there was not
adequate signal strength for a lock. Hopefully that will change when they
get the transmitters up to full bore.
73,
Rick Sealey - W4SEA
Subj: Recycling Omega
Date: 98-01-04 08:44:25 EST
From: RMonty3aol
I found this note on WUN and thought it might be of interest and you can do what you want with it but think it interesting if just for reading! Wondering how much power they will use as I read somewhere that the orignal xtmr was running 600 kw. Geez, maybe I can hear this one! HI HI! See ya!
Bob Montgomery
Subject: 1st BPSK Received
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 1998
From: Dexter McIntyre W4DEX
I finally had success receiving BPSK last evening. It is hard to
believe how rewarding it was just to see three letters, JDH JDH JDH,
print over and over. What threw me a curve was the bandwidth required
for BPSK to work. I was trying to narrow the bandwidth for better S/N
as if in copying CW. After opening up both the IF and audio spectrum
door things worked. The noise on the frequency was horrible. Lots of
static and BC sideband noise from 183 kc. Even when I narrowed all
filters I could not detect a carrier on the desired frequency. I should
have known that a wider bandwidth was needed, especially at MS25, as I
have seen messages indicating bandwidth requirements and there is
reference to such in the software documentation. I just had to have
something to stumble over.
Lyles home page at http://www.qsl.net/k0lr/ was a great help. Thanks Lyle. Thanks also to Bill de Carle for his
time and efforts in providing the tools for us to experiment/play with.
Maybe by next winter I will be able to key Beacon NC with BPSK. My
vacation time has expired. :(
73, Dexter, W4DEX, LF Beacon "NC", 189.050 KHz
Subject: Re: BPSK Schedules
Date: Sat, 03 Jan 1998 23:55:39 -0600
From: "Thomas E. H. Gruis, Ed.D."
Please change my e-mail address to k0htfaol.com
Thank you!
Doc.
Subject: xmtr circuits
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 1998 08:03:36 -0600
From: Lyle Koehler
I have started a Web page at http://www.qsl.net/k0lr/
Not much on there yet, but there is some information on "BPSK basics",
and a simple LowFER transmitter circuit.
73,
Lyle, K0LR
Subject: LF Beacon
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 1998 10:00:52 -0800
From: Max Carter
Not very active on LF nowadays, been spinning CDs on three meters. LF
beacon is running, however: 178.500 kHz, CW ID: X. You wouldn't happen
to have Bill Bowers's address, would you?
Sincerely,
Max Carter
Wheatland, Wyoming
Subj: WWVB Clock Movement Available
Date: 98-01-03
From: bickingmwci (rbicking)
One of the catalogs I receive is from Klockit, which sells kits and
supplies for clockmakers. The latest catalog (Spring 98) has a radio
controlled movement, analog, but including a second hand, for $ 28.95. Runs
from a AA cell. They have a website, http://www.klockit.com and their phone
nr. is 1-800-556-2548.
Robert Bicking, W9RB.
Subject: TEXAS at MS5
Date: Sat, 03 Jan 1998
From: Lyle Koehler
In a 12-minute TRACE file obtained between 0444 and 0456 CST on January
2nd, there were 427 hits on "TEXAS(space)" with SYNC 60 and GRAB 6:11.
Copy was only about 30 per cent, but at MS5, ET1, the identifier was
sent approximately 1500 times, so it still yielded a lot of hits in a
very short interval. By comparison, last night TEXAS was printing solid
with no frame grabber at MS100, ET1 during the 1-minute BPSK
transmissions. At that time, the CW identifier was also readable through
the noise. This morning at 0430 there was no audible signal from TEXAS,
and I didn't try BPSK.
At MS5, copy was better with the 2.3 kHz CW filter in the IC-706 than
with the 250-Hz filter. However, the signal could still be printed with
250-Hz bandwidth even though it is theoretically much too narrow. The
trick of turning off the SYNC function once "TEXAS" started printing on
the screen didn't work too well at the higher baud rates. Sometimes the
startbit phase had to be adjusted manually by 1 or 2 steps in either
direction to restore copy. I noticed something similar the other morning
on JDH at MS25. In the case of TEXAS, the sync jumps seemed to be cured
by increasing the time constant (TC) from its default value of 4 seconds
up to 20 seconds.
Lyle, K0LR
Subj: Ramsey AM kit transmitter
Date: 98-01-02 20:12:17 EST
From: M Zavatsky
I was wondering if anyone has ever used a Ramsey AM transmitter kit for MedFER use, and what if any changes need to be made,just curious Thank you,
Mark Zavatsky N1MDI Fairfield,CT.
Subj: Great beginnings
Date: 98-01-01 11:02:09 EST
From: k0lremily (Lyle Koehler)
1998 started off with excellent conditions on the LowFER band. This
morning between 0530 and 0600 CST I heard CW beacons KRY, TH, SAM, IMG,
BK, NC, MEP, OK and RM (nice to hear "local" RM back on the air!). TEXAS
at MS10 on BPSK had been difficult copy last night, requiring GRAB
settings of over 100. This morning TEXAS was printing better than 95 per
cent with no frame grabber. It didn't seem to make much difference
whether the filter bandwidth in the IC-706 was set at 250 Hz, which is a
bit narrow for 100-baud BPSK, or 2.3 kHz, which lets an awful lot of
garbage come through.
The next BPSK reception attempt was for JDH, which
started printing immediately; about 70 per cent copy with no frame
grabber. By the way, this morning it was "JDH " rather than "jdh ". It
wasn't until I went to 185.0 to try for RED that I noticed that COHERENT
was still in ET1 mode. Apparently JDH is at MS25, ET1 now. No luck with
RED on BPSK, but my IC-751A receiver with the really narrow CW filter
was also tuned to 185.0, and there was RED in CW at RST 339, sending
lots of repetitions of "RED" followed by his location. At about 1170
miles, RED is the most distant LowFER CW beacon I've ever heard.
Now if the rest of 1998 would only be this good!
Happy New Year, everyone.
Lyle, K0LR