Bafa VLF transmitter - still active?
Is Bafa VLF transmitter situated in Turkey at 37°24'43"N 27°19'25"E still active? Does it use 19.8 kHz or 26.7 kHz? Re: Bafa VLF transmitter - still active?
What is the official name of the station?
Posted by John Davis on February 03, 2011 at 19:45:05.
In reply to Bafa VLF transmitter - still active? posted by Coney on February 03, 2011
It uses 26.7 kHz. There is some speculation in e-mail groups right now about the possibility of a second transmitter at that site on 26.0, as one has been heard quite prominently on that frequency lately and direction finding attempts suggest that general bearing.
Beacon "JAM" 187 khz is up now
Posted by Lee on February 04, 2011 at 17:29:09.
Beacon "JAM" 187 khz is up now until Monday 2/7/11 at 1200. Geomagnetic Storm in progress. Might be some good Great White North DX eh. Re: Beacon "JAM" 187 khz is up now
Lee
Posted by Lee on February 04, 2011 at 17:43:43.
In reply to Beacon "JAM" 187 khz is up now posted by Lee on February 04, 2011
Oh yea. 5wpm and QRSS30. Good sniffing to all.
HiFer "NDB" Changes
Posted by Jeff on February 05, 2011 at 06:27:41.
HiFer NDB is now transmitting CW only at 10 WPM on 13562.020 KHz. Thanks to all that have posted reception reports. 73, Jeff K8NDB
lowFER Watering Hole overnight 2-6-2011
Posted by Andy - KU4XR on February 07, 2011 at 09:09:19.
Hello lowFERs:
Signals did OK over night.. Both of the " Wm's " came thru, the lower " WM "
on 185,300.70 to 185,300.90 KHz, and as the night progressed, the upper " Wm "
started coming in, much weaker though, as would be expected with a lower
sampling period for the signal..It was showing up from 185,301.10 to
185,301.60 KHz..
I did see a few very faint traces of " UWL " on 302, identifiable
only by published frequency, and previous posted reports of reception.
Another " phantom " signal was showing up on 185,298.10 KHz..
The frequency was drifting ever so slightly, and no distinguishable
pattern could be determined by the screen captures as to the mode.
If Laurence was operating; the best I can give is; " I saw something "
I have never done well with signals to my west, I'm not sure why ??
But that is the case.. " WMS " peaked between 07:00 to 09:00 UTC
which is 2 to 4 am local time.. At some point during that time, all
the characters can be seen, but not in sequence..
" SIW " was workin ARGOs AGC pretty good from 06 to 09 UTC( 1 to 4 am )
Nice " Dog Bones " on the signal.. Solid from 11:20 pm local until fade
out around 7:15 am which is local sunrise time here.
A full screen capture can be seen in the LWCA Forum at:
http://lwca.org/community/YaBB.pl?num=1297097694
in: Part-15 Reception and Loggings
73 all:
Andy - KU4XR - EM75xr - Friendsville, TN. USA
SJ back
Posted by Sal, K1RGO on February 07, 2011 at 09:35:10.
During the thaw I fixed the antenna so SJ is back on 186.85 kHz from 16:00hrs to 00:00 local QRSS20 ....it has been a brutal winter here got over 6' of snow plus ice ...need snow shoes to get around. I used cable reel disks to stand on in the back yard to function, the snow was above my knees. Re: SJ back
later.........Sal, K1RGO
Posted by Andy - KU4XR on February 07, 2011 at 12:45:29.
In reply to SJ back posted by Sal, K1RGO on February 07, 2011
WOW !! Now that's dedication Sal !! I'll give " SJ " a look see, and post a capture on the forum page.. You came in well the last time I looked. Static is beginning to rise, but I should still be able to see you.. 73, and good lowFERing: Andy
Re: SJ back - There, then gone
Posted by Andy - KU4XR on February 07, 2011 at 18:38:56.
In reply to SJ back posted by Sal, K1RGO on February 07, 2011
Sal: I started looking for " SJ " around 8 pm and found you immediately, and very !! strong.. I was making adjustments to my setup to get a good capture and at about 9 pm, " SJ " just disappeared from the radar.. I hope no problems have risen up with the antenna again.. 73 for now: TAG-WOLF, and SJ-QRSS at the same time
Andy - KU4XR
Posted by Andy - KU4XR on February 07, 2011 at 20:08:38.
Running WOLF to receive TAG in Raymond, Maine... and Spectran to receive " SJ " in East Haven, CT. Using both programs at the same time, works great !! WOLF is set to receive at 185.800 KHz at an offset of 550 Hz ( my CW offset ) , and Spectran is set to look at 1600 Hz which is the sum of the frequency difference - 1050 Hz ( 186.850 KHz ) and the CW offset 550 Hz which is 1600 Hz. As you can see in the screen capture; both did their job...
http://lwca.org/community/YaBB.pl?num=1297137665
73 all, and good lowFERing: Andy - KU4XR
Re: SJ back - There, then gone
Posted by Sal, K1RGO on February 08, 2011 at 11:33:39.
In reply to Re: SJ back - There, then gone posted by Andy - KU4XR on February 07, 2011
Hi Andy My First DX NDB
I think it was because I did some grabbing at that time, conditons were quiet. I didn't have much luck though, both wm's were weak and it was difficult to discern signals in the watering hole....put SJ on agn at 22:30 local.
later.......
Posted by Bill KB9IV on February 10, 2011 at 20:59:06.
Tonight I finally snagged a DX NDB. "PPA" 450KHz on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic.....some 2200 miles. This is with a poor antenna but a fine 313e Receiver. Signals don't usually travel this far inland to MN.
Best DX
Bill KB9IV
North Country Active Antenna Question
Posted by Lee on February 10, 2011 at 20:59:54.
Any thoughts about the "North Country" Active Antenna kit. Seems like a good product and I like kits. Everything in a box delivered to my door. 10khz to 30mhz, power through the coax and coax balun. Thanks for any opinions. Re: North Country Active Antenna Question
73zzzz
Lee
Posted by John Davis on February 11, 2011 at 10:06:49.
In reply to North Country Active Antenna Question posted by Lee on February 10, 2011
I hope someone with actual user experience of this unit will chime in, but until then, I can offer some general thoughts.
On the plus side: In general, other North Country products I've had occasion to use do pretty much seem to work as advertised, if assembled in accordance with the instructions.
On the minus side: All broadband active antennas carry a risk of intermodulation if confronted with strong signals. This is particularly true of AM broadcast stations, whose mixing products often fall below 500 kHz and thus can seriously obscure longwave reception.
The North Country antenna has a decent enough output spec to make me think it would be clean in most rural areas, and possibly in many suburban neighborhoods; but even a robust output is no guarantee of front-end linearity when faced with strong broadcast signals in a metropolitan environment. That's the big question mark with this unit, which I hope someone can address from first-hand experience.
It takes extraordinarily careful design to balance the conflicting goals of broadband operation, wide dynamic range, and low spurious signal output. That usually results in a heftier price tag. One of the few commercial kits I know that balances all these goals effectively is the Clifton Labs Z1501D, and it runs about $100 more than the North Country kit.
John
Re: North Country Active Antenna Question
Posted by Lee on February 11, 2011 at 17:42:52.
In reply to Re: North Country Active Antenna Question posted by John Davis on February 11, 2011
Thanks. Good info. I live in los Angeles County so if I buy the antenna I planned to mod it with a low pass input filter to keep out the AM Broadcast Band. I would not need the amp for anything higher than 540khz. Beacon "JAM" 187 khz is up now
Lee
Posted by Lee on February 11, 2011 at 19:07:33.
Beacon "JAM" 187 khz is up now until Monday 2/14 at 1200. 5wpm and QRSS30. Hopefully conditions will pick up while I'm still young. Ok Sorta young. Allright Middleaged.
73zzzz
Lee
What's wrong with my LF loop antenna
Posted by Chuck/N4aeq on February 11, 2011 at 23:38:31.
Thinking bigger was better I decided to improve on my LF antenna (240' dipole) VLF monitoring stations
with the main goal of receiving 150-270khz longwave from Europe and logging more cw beacons. I run 16ga aluminum wire ontop a wire mesh fence with 5" long insulators. the fence is aprox 2000' rectangle loop. My receiver is 50 ohm input so I used lmr400 coax, hooked to a 4:1 balun 1st, then tried hooking directly to the loop (no balun), then as a long wire, other end open, then with
the other end grounded. I didn't see much difference in signals and it didn't perform much better than the short 240' antenna. I would have though all that wire would have made a huge difference.
Posted by Renato Romero on February 12, 2011 at 01:44:57.
Three new articles are on-line at www.vlf.it:
1) How to start up a VLF observatory: from scattered VLF listening to methodically acquiring data
2) How to put a VLF observatory on-line, ...and share your data with the science community.
3) Create your own streaming VLF Audio program and bring your signal to the world.
73, Renato Romero Re: What's wrong with my LF loop antenna
Posted by John Davis on February 12, 2011 at 11:23:01.
In reply to What's wrong with my LF loop antenna posted by Chuck/N4aeq on February 11, 2011
At LF, a loop in the horizontal plane is not especially effective. It is parallel to, and (in terms of wavelength) almost lying on top of, the ground. It thus won't pick up vertically polarized incident waves very well, and horizontally polarized waves are not common at LF. The fence right below the loop may also have been acting as a shorted turn, which would not be helpful.
The other configurations you tried also have their drawbacks when laid out in this pattern. Now, a long wire running in a straight line a few feet above the ground can be useful in receiving vertically polarized electromagnetic waves if it's long enough to act--at least in part--as a wave antenna. (A lot of DXers like to believe they have Beverage antennas, but this is a big pet peeve of mine. It's not really a Beverage, or any other kind of wave antenna, unless it's a full wavelength long at the lowest frequency. It's also not a Beverage unless it's terminated at the far end. Otherwise, it's just a random wire antenna...which is fine, but it's not a Beverage.)
But back to your question: Unfortunately, 2000 feet is barely long enough to be 1/3 wavelength in total at your lowest frequency of interest. Moreover, it is folded into four legs. Since each of those is so short relative to a wavelngth, there is very little phase shift within each leg. The end result is that, when summed at your connection point, received RF flowing on one east-west leg is largely balanced out by the RF picked up in the opposite west-east leg, resulting in relatively little net voltage from signals arriving in those directions; and the same is true of the north-south legs as well. And, the close proximity of the fence may be a factor again, shorting out some of the electric field too.
This is why many NDB and SWBC DXers use a vertical loop antenna. It's impractical to build it to enclose such a large area, of course, but they make up for that fact by using multiple turns of wire. It can also be made steerable, which is very handy for nulling unwanted signals and other noise sources.
Here's a design for a compact version of such a loop, but many of the design principles apply to larger ones as well. (Also, this one is tuned, but for very large loops, you may not need or want to do that.)
Compact Receiving Loop Re: What's wrong with my LF loop antenna
Posted by Paul on February 13, 2011 at 08:38:59.
In reply to Re: What's wrong with my LF loop antenna posted by John Davis on February 12, 2011
Ditto what John said about the wire being too close to ground (and grounded fence) to be much good. What you have is sort of a capacitor. At LF, it is almost a complete short to ground. The idea at LF is to get some difference in current between the antenna element and the ground. If the antenna wire is a practical short to ground, there will be very little difference in current between the two "plates" at your feedpoint.
Two things you can do to save this experiment-
1. Raise the wire much higher on insulators (like 20 feet or more).
2. Make the wire straight, and get it away from the fence.
Regards,
Paul
Re: Beacon "JAM" 187 khz is up now
Posted by Lee on February 13, 2011 at 19:56:30.
In reply to Beacon "JAM" 187 khz is up now posted by Lee on February 11, 2011
I plan to leave "JAM" 187khz up through Wednesday 2/16 or later because of impending Solar activity. Re: What's wrong with my LF loop antenna
threats.
73zzzzzz
Lee
Posted by chuck on February 13, 2011 at 23:39:36.
In reply to Re: What's wrong with my LF loop antenna posted by Paul on February 13, 2011
Sounds good, I will try a different way I can run a long wire across the field. The antenna does work good it just dosen't a whole lot better much better than my 240' dipole I use for the 160m ham band. I can pickup longwave am stations from Europe and ham cw around 505khz I guess I was expecting too much on the 1st attempt at a large loop.
Re: What's wrong with my LF loop antenna
Posted by Paul on February 14, 2011 at 06:46:47.
In reply to Re: What's wrong with my LF loop antenna posted by chuck on February 13, 2011
Be advised, the ideal distance above ground for a loop is 1/4 wave (for NVIS) and 1/2 wave for DX.
hifers heard
Posted by Sal,K1RGO on February 14, 2011 at 08:44:28.
Well, this morning around 10:30 local, I copied SZX 429 wid QSB and GNK 539 which later came pounding in here for a while 579. Alot of hash on the upper end of the band. HiFER 'MTI' back to 24/7 op
later.........Sal,K1RGO
Posted by Thom Hogan on February 14, 2011 at 15:30:38.
FREQ: 13557.54
BEACON: MTI
LOCATION: Ellicott City, MD
GRID: FM19og
Mode: 5wpm CW
Pw: 4.24mW q-pk'
Ant: Indoor Folded Dipole
NOTES: back to 24/7 ops
Happy hunting!
Mahalo & 73, WE2XEB
Thom - AB3MM
Posted by Mark Dittmar on February 14, 2011 at 21:32:58.
Now hearing WE2XEB on 2200 meters, UTC 0505 2/15/2011
He's sending a slow regular CW signal ( not QRSS ) on ~137.28 khz and is about an RST 439 here in Westminster, CO.
I'm using a homebrew PA0RDT mini-whip up about 11' into a homebrew upconverter into an ICOM 746 and using a 500 hz filter. Made an mp3 recording if anyone is interested. 73 Mark AB0CW ( lowfer MBD )
FRC HiFer location incorrect on LWCA list
Posted by Paul on February 16, 2011 at 12:21:02.
Hi John,
Just looked at the list of HF beacons on the LWCA list, and saw that the beacon location for my HiFer is incorrect. It is actually in Patterson, CA not Valley Springs. The mailing address is Valley Springs, but that's not where the RF comes from.
Thank you,
Paul
Unidentified LF Data Carriers
Posted by Bill KB9IV on February 16, 2011 at 20:26:51.
I've noticed at 454 KHz and 458 KHz a unknown data transmissions that pulse about 1 second together with a tone. Pretty strong here in So. MN. Any idea's.
Bill
re: Unidentified LF Data Carriers
Posted by stormy01 on February 16, 2011 at 21:52:15.
In reply to Unidentified LF Data Carriers posted by Bill KB9IV on February 16, 2011
maybe this will shed some light:
http://forums.radioreference.com/hf-mw-lw-general-discussion/190248-454khz-data.html
I have been hearing this signal on 454 kHz for well over a year in Northern IL at night. Read somewhere before the TX is based in MD near DC and operates with around 10kW. A government run experiment. No trace here of the 458 kHz signal, though.
Re: re: Unidentified LF Data Carriers
Posted by Garry Hess on February 17, 2011 at 13:08:36.
In reply to re: Unidentified LF Data Carriers posted by stormy01 on February 16, 2011
These are experimental wideband DGPS transmissions (500 to 1000 bps compared to the normal 100 and 200 bps). The 454 kHz source is in Hagerstown, MD and the 458 kHz source is in Sugar City (Pueblo), Colorado (presumably it used to be in Hawk Run, PA). See http://www.dxinfocentre.com/dgps.htm.
Beacon "JAM" 187 khz is down UFN
Posted by Lee on February 19, 2011 at 12:40:31.
Beacon "JAM" 187 khz is down UFN. Water damage, static discharge, or something. Appears to be "Blowed Up Real Good". Saturday Night Special
Lee
73zzzzz
Posted by John Davis on February 19, 2011 at 22:01:22.
Some of you are aware of my daytime forays to the farm to use the future SEK LowFER antenna for receiving. Tonight was the first time it'd been simultaneously warm enough and nearly mud-free enough to enable me to do some after-dark monitoring too.
Amazing LWBC into Kansas on 162 and 171 right after dark, just as listenable as anything on the AM broadcast band...provided I understood a bit more French, and any Arabic at all. Both diminished in strength somewhat as the evening wore on. Allouis was considerably stronger at the start than Tangier (a good S9 from a 40 foot vertical with no tuner or preamp ahead of the R5000), but weaker than them later.
Skywave was being generous to NDBs as well, with vastly more signals pouring in than I had the patience to sort out from each other for very long at a time. Now that I have a good location like this, it's clearly time for a portable loop so I can attenuate some of the unwanted signals. And then, an outboard audio filter so I can minimize annoying heterodynes and/or idents just a little off pitch from the one I'm after. And then... who knows.
At any rate, some of the (relatively few) Iowans I haven't managed to copy in the daytime were coming through on skywave well enough to be heard over more-nearly-local stations that normally bury them. Example: ORC 521, Orange City, IA, is usually inaudible under the groundwave signal from TO in Topeka, a mere 120 miles away. However, at night, Topeka sometimes falls in the first skip zone, while ORC is sometimes enhanced a bit. Patience...lingering on one channel for a time and waiting for something new to show up--is frequently productive in NDB hunting. So is switching back and forth between the upper and lower offset on a given frequency. The TO lower sideband was sometimes stronger than ORC, while tuning to the upper sideband produced the opposite result. Eventually, that would shift the other way or both stations would be equal for a while.
On my daytime benchmark channel of 248 kHz, I always tune to 248.4 and note the signal level of the WG (Winnipeg, MB) 400 Hz offset, then up to 249 to do the same with the 1020 Hz PQF (Mesquite, TX) upper sideband. Tonight, hanging around for 20 minutes or so netted me FRT in Spartanburg, SC. (There were also a couple of other Canadians fighting to be heard under WG. You can tell by the 400 Hz offset and the dash-after-ID. This is where a steerable loop might have helped considerably.)
ZLS 526, Stella Maris, Bahamas, showed up at one point. I hadn't heard ZLS since I lived in Georgia, some 900 miles closer to them. In the daytime, there's nothing audible under OJ, which is on the same frequency and emanates from the Olathe (KS) Johnson County Airport--also roughly 120 miles away, and the place where my sister happens to work. Monitoring the lower sideband enabled me to copy the complete ident of ZLS under the relatively strong "local," whereas OJ was the one and only thing audible on the upper sideband the whole time.
A few of the other catches inluded YWA 516 from Petawawa, ON, and a few Ohioans for the first time in a long while, such as UGS 250 in Athens and HKP 239 in Middletown. UGS was only audible on its lower sideband, and thus had to compete with the upper sidebands of PQF and FRT. Once again, waiting patiently through lots of cycles to finally net the whole call finally paid off.
Eventually, for variety, I wandered up to 75 m in time to hear someone talking about spending a lot of time on longwave. That certainly caught my attention! It was Bob W2ZM operating W2AN for the A.W.A. AM QSO Party.
He was chatting with WØVMC when I first tuned in, and both were S9+50 or greater, with magnificent clean audio. What a delight. Stations all over the northeast, down into Florida, and even Arkansas joined in over the next half hour. Eric KD5UWL (LowFER UWL) was calling as well, but I don't guess Bob could copy him in some of the pileups that took place after the most recent station signed.
Later, I took another shot at NDBs before rolling up the coax and returning to QRM Central after the eyelids started getting heavy. Great way to spend a Saturday evening, and hardly any chance of ending up in jail.
John HiFers Heard 19 and 20 Feb.,2011
Posted by EdWSlidell,LA on February 20, 2011 at 09:13:46.
While trying to copy the MTI and NDB beacons Saturday(19 Feb.), was hearing EH in the morning prior to 1500 UT , and after 2200 UT on ~13557.0 KHz. During the later period the signals got up to S6 or so, a solid 579. Also heard, after 2200 UT, were SZX on 13563, about 339, marginal with QSB, and GNK on 13564, about 4/5-5-9, good signals, with slight QSB. Some of K6FRC was heard on 13565, in the 2/3-2/3-9 signal range, with QSB below audibility at times. This morning(20 Feb.) with low noise on the frequency, heard EH suddenly appear out of nowhere around 1230 UT, and increase in strength until the signals were S7, and honest 589. Figured that MTI might have a chance, and sure enough, the slow MTI ID was copied on ~13557.6 around 1240, until it was lost less than 15 minutes later. Best signals were in the 2/3-2/3-9 range, before it disappeared, and the wideband interference, noise and buckshot from the SWBC stn. on 13570 KHz started its daily routine. I wonder if that station is as strong up in the region where EH and MTI are located? It is S9+40dB on the R-5000/20 ft. vertical here. Ed WSlidell,LA EM50cg
Re: Saturday Night Special
Posted by Paul on February 20, 2011 at 09:31:52.
In reply to Saturday Night Special posted by John Davis on February 19, 2011
VERY nice work, OM!!! The R-5000 is also still the "go-to" receiver here because of its capabilities.
As you have found, getting some radials in the ground is SO important to receiving performance and S/N ratio. A lot of ops never catch on about the importance of ground radials for rx purposes.
Also, was a gret write-up. Will save this one for sure! Someday, in the future, this exact kind of reporting will be all that is left for the younger generations who might like to know what it used to be like when the bands weren't flooded with digital noise. Or, when there WERE bands!
Re: HiFers Heard 19 and 20 Feb.,2011
Posted by Paul on February 20, 2011 at 09:33:15.
In reply to HiFers Heard 19 and 20 Feb.,2011 posted by EdWSlidell,LA on February 20, 2011
Very nice, OM. Would be happy to QSL that K6FRC catch.
NDB beacon heard 20/21 Feb., 2011
Posted by EdWSlidell,LA on February 20, 2011 at 17:29:23.
The conditions must have been much better than normal today. Beacon NDB, ~13562KHz was heard around 2322 UT, for several ID's, then was lost, only to reappear about 20 minutes later. This repeated over the next hour or so, with the NDB ID popping up every 10 or 20 minutes. Always very weak, around 2/3-2/3-9, but clear ID was obtained. Otherwise only GNK was still heard, it being just about as weak, but steady signals. Eventually GNK was lost, while NDB continued to reappear. Finally not heard any more around 0100/21 Feb. Ed WSlidell,LA EM50cg
Re: My First DX NDB
Posted by John Davis on February 21, 2011 at 19:37:39.
In reply to My First DX NDB posted by Bill KB9IV on February 10, 2011
Congratulations, Bill!
Somehow I neglected to reply to your message earlier, but I certainly meant to do so. That's excellent reception, and probably indicative of how good conditions were before the mid-month solar outbursts. Fortunately, propagation seems to have improved again, at least for a while, so perhaps there will be more such opportunities.
John HE3OM QRV on 137.7, 137,177 and 136,177
Posted by HB9TOB Olivier on February 22, 2011 at 01:06:55.
Hello dr LFer,
HE3OM using the now retiered broadcast antenna of Sottens in Switserland are transmitting on the 2200m band until 28.02.2011.
more information here : http://www.hb9mm.com/sottens-en?set_language=en
In French here : http://www.hb9mm.com/sottens/
Schedule here : http://www.doodle.com/bhdm7ccea7fpc3mc
With my kinds regards and my best 73's
HB9TOB QLS Manager for HE3OM
Corssband LF/HF Transatlantic QSO between HE3OM and W1VD
Posted by HB9TOB Olivier on February 22, 2011 at 01:19:03.
During the night of the 18.02.2011 23:15 UTC a Cross-band QSO was made between HE3OM and W1VD.
HE3OM operated by HB9CGL Claude-Alain was heard by W1VD on 137kHZ +-.
HE3OM was transmitting in QRSS10 using the "small" 128m antenna of the retired Sottens transmitter. The repport was "O"
W1VD reply in HF on the 40m
HB9TOB EMP Heard in Kansas
HE3OM QSL Manager
Posted by John Davis on February 23, 2011 at 22:13:03.
Another state to add to your list, Darwin!
I ventured out into my field tonight, despite a chance of thunderstorms later, and hooked up the Kenwood to the 40' vertical. Made my usual check of WWVB, listened to Allouis and Tangier biefly, then switched back to CW with no expectation of doing more than my usual survey of PLCs in the 1750 meter band. (The sound card is bad in my laptop, so there's no Argo or other software to help me out with QRSS, WOLF, etc.)
Suddenly at 10:17 PM Central, under all the static crashes, there was the unmistakable sound of Morse code! It took me a minute or so to adapt my ears to the cadence and be sure I was hearing "EMP." The CW IDs and the 5 second dashes came through OK sometimes, after which I thought I was experiencing fades every other ID. That's when I realized I was listening to (but could not hear) the alternate SSB voice IDs. Couldn't really tell when the 5-tone chime was happening, either, but the CW was very effective.
Did a little more listening for other things afterward, and caught Europe 1 on 183 for the first time in who-knows-how-long. (My nighttime session last weekend, and my previous late-afternoon sessions, had been before their regular sign-on time.) Caught a few semi-familiar aerobeacons that I hadn't heard since living in Georgia, including one from the Dominican Republic and one from North Carolina.
Then, while I was trying to sort out several Part 5 signals around 509 kHz with my pitiful Morse skills, awareness began to dawn that I was seeing bursts of light out of the corner of my eye simultaneously with the static crashes on the radio. The storms we'd been expecting were moving in from the west and south, and had managed to sneak within 20 miles of me.
So, I beat a hasty retreat, but with the satisfaction that I had finally heard a LowFER by ear for the first time in ages!
John
Why is QSL NET offline
Posted by Lee on February 24, 2011 at 16:46:58.
Why is QSL NET offline. I noticed I didn't have a pile of lowfer e-mail today. Tried to go to the web site and got the "not found" message. Re: Why is QSL NET offline
Lee
Posted by Paul on February 24, 2011 at 18:25:13.
In reply to Why is QSL NET offline posted by Lee on February 24, 2011
Working just fine over here.
Re: Why is QSL NET offline
Posted by Lee on February 24, 2011 at 18:39:52.
In reply to Why is QSL NET offline posted by Lee on February 24, 2011
Yup. Your right. It is back now. Must have been sunspots. Re: EMP Heard in Kansas
Lee
Posted by Andy - KU4XR on February 25, 2011 at 07:29:21.
In reply to EMP Heard in Kansas posted by John Davis on February 23, 2011
Regardless of how long you have been doing something; there are just some things that never cease to be exciting.... Re: EMP Heard in Kansas
Have fun with the new antenna John, I look forward to digging for your beacon signal when you get it up and running... 73: Andy - KU4XR - Friendsville, TN.
Posted by John Davis on February 26, 2011 at 00:08:52.
In reply to Re: EMP Heard in Kansas posted by Andy - KU4XR on February 25, 2011
Thanks, Andy. Very true words. The copying of some new signal is always exciting, and it's all the sweeter after so many years of being unable to pursue any reasonable reception due to location. (High tension lines on all four sides of my lot in town has been pretty limiting!)
On Wednesday night I also detected carrier at 186.15 by ear. As I mentioned before, though, without a working sound card, I have no idea whether that might have been yours. Fortunately, I may have a chance to find out in the next few days (assuming it ever dries out enough to get into the field again, I mean).
It seems there are some pretty good sales on low-end notebook computers right now. I bought an inexpensive Acer from Radio Shack earlier tonight. Turns out its features are not too different from the HP I bought six years ago, except for vastly more RAM and less than a quarter of the price. In the morning, I'm going to revise the method I use to connect the antenna to the 500 ohm terminals of the radio (no more clip leads on the end of the coax!), in hopes of preventing any digital hash from reaching the input. If that works out, then I'll install Argo and who-knows-what other software for monitoring, and all I'll have to do is await the return of dry land on the farm.
I anticipate that the same computer will also drive the (relatively) inexpensive AIM-4170C vector network analyzer I just bought from Array Solutions, allowing me to make more detailed measurements of the antenna properties than I've been able to do thus far. Those, in turn, will help me design the best matching arrangement for this particular setup; or at least, that's the hope. :)
John Beacon "JAM" 187 khz is up
Posted by Lee on February 26, 2011 at 13:01:45.
Beacon "JAM" 187 khz is up 1330 PST today thru Tues 3/1 at 1200. 5wpm and QRSS30. HiFers Heard 26/27 Feb., 2011
73zzzzz
Lee
Posted by EdWSlidell,LA on February 27, 2011 at 05:24:50.
Conditions continue to improve. On 25th caught K6FRC on 13565 KHz in the morning around 1100UT, peaking up to about S3 on the R5000--a very good 5-5/6-9--and it stayed in till after 1300UT. HI on 13557 suddenly appeared around 1230 UT, with signals in the 449 range, and was in throughout the day, till being lost around 2200 UT. GNK was also heard from time to time on 13564 KHz, with signals in the 449 range, as was SZX right below on 13563, with weak signals about 2/3-2/3-9--both following the 2200UT shutdown of the SWBC on 13570KHz. K6FRC reappeared later, up to 449, after 0000UT, and stayed in till 0400UT. This morning, 1130 UT, 26 Feb., again heard K6FRC getting up to 449, with AJO on 13557 about the same level. A little later NHVT was heard about 449 level at maximum. The first time it has been heard this year. A final check before the SWBC began at 1300 UT had EH on 13557 with 559 signals, and K6FRC on 13565 still coming in at 449. After the bcst began only EH was still heard on 13557, making its wasy through what sounded like pea gravel on sheathing. But, a little later at 1308UT, EH, MTI on 13557.3, and AJO were all heard around 5-5/6-9, despite the bcst interference. Behind EH, and lower in freq., was heard what sounded like ARQ pulsing, which changed to FEC at times then back to ARQ. A little lower some CW like signals around 13555 KHz. Perhaps spurs. HF conditions really good with the higher solar flux. Ed WSlidell, LA EM50cg
Re: HiFers Heard 26/27 Feb., 2011
Posted by Paul on February 27, 2011 at 09:54:32.
In reply to HiFers Heard 26/27 Feb., 2011 posted by EdWSlidell,LA on February 27, 2011
WOW!!! Stellar report, OM!!
Would you like an FRC QSL??
VY 73,
PS
potrzebie