Re: NI5O QRV for Lowfer activity soon...
Posted by James on February 02, 2003 at 00:39:37
Kevin & Tom,
Howdy neighbors! I am in Texas City and I am also new to this lowfer world. I am using an R75 with Argo and Spectran software. Antenna here is an LF Engineering active antenna. A couple of us here in Texas City are working on a beacon that will be used with a helical antenna.
73,
James
Musicmann 279 on the way this year
Posted by Mike Terry on February 05, 2003 at 16:18:37
Planning permission has now been received for the construction of the offshore structure to house the 500kw transmitter off the Isle of Man, UK. It is hoped the station will start in the summer/autumn (the fall).
Details at:
http://www.longwaveradio.com/News.html
Mike
MP 137 copy
Posted by lloyd chastant on February 06, 2003 at 22:27:42
Well no problem copying Mitch's new 137KHz signal.Copy him at 137.780.4 hr in Maryland
www.geocities.com/lacwman/mp137.jpg de Lloyd W3NF FM19MH
Re: MP 137 copy
Posted by Mitch VE3OT on February 06, 2003 at 23:24:22
Thanks Lloyd:
Great capture - really nice and clear. Now I have to go out and brush off the snow to keep the current up - hi ! QSL is ready. May I have ur address ?
Many thanks.
Mitch VE3OT
And in MA....
Posted by John Andrews on February 07, 2003 at 08:42:09
Good copy on MP overnight with some fading. The signal peaked about 1/2 hour before local sunrise, with "dogbones" large enough to smear the characters together. A cleaner shot from 5:30 AM EST can be seen at:
http://webpages.charter.net/w1tag/files/MP020703.jpg
John Andrews, W1TAG
86kHz
Posted by Wolfgang on February 07, 2003 at 15:20:24
I did some test for trasmission on 86 kHz. We had a transmission in ssb over roughly one kilometer with 10 W. Has that been a good result or is the reached distance too short?
Wolfgang
MP on 137.78 Khz
Posted by Roger Magnuson on February 08, 2003 at 11:30:19
Good copy of MP on 137.78 Khz (QRSS-30) here in Duluth, MN. Signal appeared on ARGO about 7pm and dissapeared about 7am local. Nice work Mitch.
Re: MP on 137.78 Khz
Posted by John Davis on February 08, 2003 at 12:50:05
Wow! MP reaches into MD, MA, and MN pretty well.
Mitch, if you can get some reports now from Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, and Manitoba, I'll nominate you for a special "All M's Award."
I just hope some of us outside the M postal abbreviations will be allowed to copy you, too. :-)
John
All-M Award (Re: MP on 137.78 Khz)
Posted by John Davis on February 08, 2003 at 13:03:10
I see elsewhere that Lewis Denton (IP) copied MP on 2200m down in Mississippi also, so that's four out of the eight states and provinces beginning with M. You're halfway there, Mitch!
John
MP QRSS3
Posted by lloyd chastant on February 08, 2003 at 16:48:19
Just took a look and noted Mitch was in QRSS3--still not bad for 4 o'clock in afternoon
www.geocities.com/lacwman/mpqrss3.jpg
de Lloyd W3NF
Re: MP QRSS3
Posted by lloyd chastant on February 08, 2003 at 17:10:11
this capture is a bit better
www.geocities.com/lacwman/mpqrss3a.jpg
de Lloyd W3NF
Where to buy LW transmitter?
Posted by Curious on February 08, 2003 at 19:48:05
I really want to get started in LW broadcasting, and I would like to set up a beacon, but how/where could I buy a transmitter? Building one just is not an option.
Re: All-M Award (Re: MP on 137.78 Khz)
Posted by Mitch VE3OT on February 08, 2003 at 20:12:12
Hi John:
Now you've done it ! I must officially advise you that I have received a screen capture from VE4XC - in Winnipeg, Manitoba - with the 137.780 signal.
I used to have enough problems trying to work Montana on HF for WAS awards and in the Sweepstakes - this is becoming a real challenge. I would hope that if the 137 band becomes a reality that a lot of fellows will suddenly appear and the M challenge will become a reality :%) Maybe just having this signal available will get people looking down at the "low end".
Where's my road maps ?
73 Mitch
LW Broadcast
Posted by Roger Magnuson on February 09, 2003 at 00:21:09
A longwave broadcast station is coming in quite strong on 189 Khz AM. Announcements are in a language I can't idendify but the music is in english. Now playing (Only the Lonely)
Re: All-M Award (Re: MP on 137.78 Khz)
Posted by John Andrews on February 09, 2003 at 09:05:19
Mitch,
Keep it up for a few months, and I'll hand you Maine in the Merry Month Of May.
John A.
Re: LW Broadcast
Posted by John Andrews on February 09, 2003 at 09:10:23
Roger,
The station is in Iceland, and is government-operated, I believe. Comes in quite well here on the east coast.
John Andrews
Re: All-M Award (Re: MP on 137.78 Khz)
Posted by Lewis on February 09, 2003 at 11:45:16
Great Job Mitch,
You got my attention, 137 is going to be a big challenge I am looking forward to it.
Lewis
Re: All-M Award (Re: MP on 137.78 Khz)
Posted by John Davis on February 09, 2003 at 13:06:02
Dang! I forgot Maine. That makes one more you have to achieve, Mitch. But with Manitoba in the bag, you're still over halfway there. :-)
John
North American Loran Line List
Posted by John Andrews, W1TAG on February 09, 2003 at 19:10:00
With the kind help of John Davis, we have generated a list of the 4000+ Loran-C lines between 135.7 and 137.8 kHz that are generated by the 12 North American chains. Several versions of the list have been posted at:
http://lwca.org/library/reference/index.htm
For those with sufficient Internet pipes, I'd suggest looking at the "big" version, as it has built-in links to site information for the various chains. Smaller text-only versions are posted there, as well. This might be an item that you'd want to download and save locally for quick reference.
John has agreed to keep the various versions on the LWCA site for the time being, but we may winnow out the lesser used alternatives later on.
Please don't be discouraged by the number of lines. No one of us can see that many! The list may be useful in identifying some of the garbage you DO see, however. Enjoy.
John Andrews, W1TAG
Re: 86kHz
Posted by John Davis on February 13, 2003 at 17:30:10
Hello Wolfgang,
I believe it should be possible to achieve more than 1 km with 10 watts on 86 kHz. Communication range will be very dependent on antenna efficiency, of course, and antennas capable of handling a relatively wideband mode (which SSB represents at such a low radio frequency) tend not to be as efficient as sharply resonant antennas which are suited for narrower digital modes.
Thus, I would not expect long ranges for voice at 86 kHz, but you might be able to achieve more with some antenna development work.
Regards,
John
RTÉ will shortly launch a long wave service on 252kHz
Posted by Mike Terry on February 15, 2003 at 01:47:10
According to a report in the Irish Independent. The service will cover the whole of Ireland and much of Britain and is expected to comprise of compilation programming from RTÉ Radio 1, 2FM, Lyric FM & Raidio na Gaeltachta.
More details at
Radiowaves:
http://www.radiowaves.fm/news/index.shtml
Friday 14th February 2003
Hifer GA copy in Texas
Posted by Tony Levstik on February 17, 2003 at 19:24:36
Was able to copy Hifer GA 13.55545MHZ here in Sherman Texas.
Here is the link to the screen capture.
http://home.att.net/~levstik1/hifer.jpg
Tony Levstik
LowFER beacon "NWNJ" changing frequency to 188.750 KHz
Posted by John Bogath on February 20, 2003 at 18:20:18
Beacause of reports of QRM on my present frequency, LowFER beacon "NWNJ" will be changing frequency to 188.750 KHz. This change will become effective on Friday, Feb. 21. Also, the beacon's operational hours have been increased slightly. New hours will be from 4:00 PM on Fridays until 4:00 PM-EST on Mondays (72 hours).
Re: LowFER beacon "NWNJ" changing frequency to 188.750 KHz
Posted by John Andrews on February 20, 2003 at 21:21:38
John,
I've been looking every weekend, but haven't heard or seen anything, despite hearing TH regularly. Will check out the new frequency this weekend. How close to 188.750 do you think you are?
John Andrews, W1TAG
Re: LowFER beacon "NWNJ" changing frequency to 188.750 KHz
Posted by John Bogath on February 21, 2003 at 11:29:21
Since the entire "NWNJ" TX is located outside at present, the frequency will vary slightly with temperature. With the temps predicted for this weekend, I would say between 188.750 and 188.752 KHz. Thanks for listening John.
UK to Alaska on 136kHz
Posted by Keith VA3QF on February 22, 2003 at 11:42:06
The following is currently posted in the News section of the Radio Society of Great Britain web-page:
"Reaching Alaska from the UK using just one watt ERP is quite a feat for any band, but Laurie Mayhead, G3AQC, has just achieved this on the 136kHz band. In the early hours of the 15th of February he transmitted to KL1X in Anchorage, and just before UK dawn at 0615 his callsign was clearly identified."
(Editor's Note: The story is also here on the LWCA Home Page as of today's update. Congratulations to all involved.)
Regards,
Keith VA3QF Ottawa, Canada
HiFER RAD copy in TEXAS
Posted by Tony Levstik on February 23, 2003 at 20:01:20
Had good copy of HiFER RAD 13.5608 MHz in Sherman Texas.
Here is the link to the screen capture.
http://home.att.net/~levstik1/rad.jpg
Tony Levstik
WE
Posted by Roger Magnuson on February 24, 2003 at 18:40:48
I see Mike (WE) is now sending WEOH as a callsign, QRSS-30 on 185.3. Looks like you might be checking it out to see how WE0H, with a zero instead of a O in the call will work on the new LF ham band. If it were a zero instead of an o it would still fit the screen fine using QRSS-20 (slow). I was wondering about that too Mike. Looks good.. Hopefully many of us will be able to work regular cw in 2-way QSO's with 100 watts on 137.
Fingers crossed, Roger, (RM) 189.8 Khz
Re: WE
Posted by mike reid on February 24, 2003 at 21:07:55
I will guarantee that our local signals will be so darn loud with up to 100w that it will be armchair copy day and night. I can hear all the locals now at 1w input!!! I think this kind of power into our Lowfer type antennas will provide almost total reliable North America coverage in CW. Glad to hear that my callsign with the "O" instead of the zero makes it onto a screen. I could squeeze it tighter if I removed the CW portion of the ID but the CW is fun to listen to locally.
Thanks for the report,
Mike>WE0H (weoh)
Sakhalin, Russia 279 kHz heard in California
Posted by Gene on February 26, 2003 at 23:32:06
Feb 24th, 1018 UTC or 2:18 AM PST, I got a strong signal from the Russian LWBC station on 279 kHz. Mostly talk, I think it's part of the Radio Rossi network. It faded, but stayed in there until local sunset.
LWBC dx here (San Francisco) is mostly TransPacific Russians. Sometimes they boom in, sometimes there's nothing.
As a side note, the Japanese LW timesignal station, JJY on 40 kHz comes in strong enough to set the Casio brand JJY watches I bought over there.
"TH" is giving me "RF burns"; still looking for "JJX" and "HS".
Posted by John Bogath on February 28, 2003 at 16:58:35
"TH" has been extremely strong here in northwest-NJ (about 74 mi. DX) over the past 2 or 3 weeks. I am still listening for "HS" (83 mi.) and "JJX" (71 mi.) without any definite success. Last Wednesday, I may have heard "HS" briefly, down in the noise, but I haven't been able to confirm that reception. I am currently using a 52", home-made, shielded-loop. Future plans include a run of coax out to the "NWNJ" TX-ant to use it for RXing. Earlier tests show it to be an excellent RXing antenna; much better than the shielded-loop.
Re: "TH" is giving me "RF burns"; still looking for "JJX" and "HS".
Posted by Alan G3NYK on February 28, 2003 at 18:33:16
Hi John, you might like to consider doing away with the screening. It can reduce the Q of the loop a lot and thus reduce the sensitivity. We find it is not really essential. If local noise is a problem balancing the loop and using a good isolating tranformer can be better. I presume the loop is tuned ?? If not there are significant advantages to tuning it. I use a 4 foot diameter 16 turn loop made out of 25 pair telphone cable, indoors (!!) and I get as good a sensitivity as on a 120foot long 30ft high Marconi. 2000kms Inter-Eu signals heard on it plus Trans-Atlantic signals on 136khz
Cheers de Alan G3NYK
www.lwca.org
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