June 1998 Longwave Messages

(Remember that e-mail addresses in these posts are likely to become outdated over time.)

• Subj: DA0LF QRT
  Date: 98-06-29 16:58:16 EDT
  From: BOBEK~compuserve (Peter Bobek)
  When talking to the officials of the RegTP (German licensing people) I really became frustrated when hearing "We are sorry, but we can not extend the permit for DA0LF"....
  I do not want to get into the details now but it looks like we are getting - not only a bit ! - OVER-regulated in DL at the moment. While hams in other countries gain access to LF right now without any problems, some of the German RegTP offices donīt even know yet LF exists!
  There is HOPE, however: the prefix "DA5" has been reserved for special stations including a suffix that will begin with the letter "F" indicating these stations have access to FREQUENCIES not yet allocated....
  W O W ! !
  This means DA0LF will definitely be QRT after June 30th, 1998 until they have solved all their internal problems and maybe a new callsign will be issued later if we agree to pay the money they are asking for. If this is not acceptable Iīll wait until I can use my own callsign DJ8WL on the LF band without throwing money away. I simply just do not know how long this is going to take but it is sad to report that Germany will probably be among the last ones now...
  But letīs look into the future! Time has come to modify the station, build a new antenna, improve receiving capability to be ready whenever we hear a faint whisper from the GODS....
  You will definitely see me back on LF as soon as possible.
  73,
  Peter/DJ8WL
  (DA0LF for another 25 hours before going QRT, lf-swl after that).

• Subj: One more country on LF
  Date: 98-06-29 04:09:26 EDT
  From: Rik.Strobbe~fys.kuleuven.ac.be (Rik Strobbe)
  I couldn't be QRV last weekend, on saturday gardening took all my time and on sunday I attended the open Dutch ARDF Championships (foxhunt).
  There I learned that the Dutch PTT has aproved the LF ham band in the Netherlands, official authorisation should come any day now. As far as I know it would be the 135.7-137.8 kHz segment with a power restriction of 400W TX output.
  Some hams are already bulding transmitters and antennas, at least one located in the north (near Zwolle) has TX and antenna ready and can operate as soon as he is authorised.
  73, Rik ON7YD

• Subj: RSGB Book
  Date: 98-06-25 12:22:01 EDT
  I recently purchased a copy of the 2nd Edition LF Experimenter's Source Book from the Radio Society of Great Britain. It's well worth the money!
  Arising from this, can anyone suggest suitable reading, or provide a brief synopsis of the theory of using GROUND RODS as an antenna instead of conventional wire? Since the Industry Canada regs allow lowfer operation based on either 1 watt to a 50 ft antenna or 10mV per metre field strength at 30 metres, I was wondering if this might provide an interesting alternative Tx antenna for those of us with small lots....
  Best regards,
  Keith Ballinger VA3QF

• Subj: lowfer
  Date: 98-06-17 08:15:29 EDT
  From: Drago.Jug~guest.arnes.si (Drago)
  Hello,
  In Slovenia from 13 June 1998 new Amateur bands are available, like 136 kHz, 40 MHz, 70 MHz, 3,4 GHz and 120 GHz.
  Club station S53DTB (op S51XK) and S55WT had first QSO on 136 kHz in Slovenia, 13 June at 00.00.
  73'
  Drago, S51XK

• Subj: New Beacon "BRO"
  Date: 98-06-16 08:24:55 EDT
  From: ki0le~cp.duluth.mn.us (Bryce Ofstie)
  Hello to all.
  After some encouragement and support from my good friend and co-worker Roger (RM), I finally got up the ambition to build a LF transmitter. I have it set up on 182.25 kHz and it ID's BRO. I'm located about 15 miles southwest of Duluth, MN in EN36 (about 6 miles south of RM). I still need construct a good transmitting antenna, but it is currently on the air into a chunk of wire fed with an old power line carrier tuning unit.
  I'm still in the "work the bugs out" stage so it may not be in operation 24 hours a day, but I plan to leave it on as much as possible. You can look at some pictures of the transmitter and other things at my web site: http://cp.duluth.mn.us/~ki0le.
  (special thanks to LEK for the simple transmitter idea and the strong beacon for rx antenna experiments)
  73
  Bryce Ofstie, KI0LE

• Subj: Altair web page
  Date: 98-06-15 18:40:22 EDT
  From: will.e.payne~lmco (Payne, Will E)
  Howdy, folks !!
  I have put up web site www.altair.org to promote exploration of the electromagnetic spectrum as well as its responsible use and experimentation. Lowfer and Natural Radio figure are main themes in the Altair philosophy, as well as Tesla, microwave and ham radio experiments. Theres already plently of project info and diagrams, and more to come !
  This is still a fairly new site, your ideas of what it should become are most welcome. New project files have been posted in response to requests about the LF Wideband Low Noise Preamp, Gunnplexer projects, and a Tesla coil diagram. My Octoloop design and other stuff are linked to the LWCA site. Also, a new CHEEP 'N E-Z receive loop I call the SpooLoop was added today.
  The SpooLoop is something I whipped together for an unexpected trip to Patagonia, a sferics listening loop that can be thrown in an overnight bag. I made it in an hour, its rugged and sensitive. By laying it on the parking lot here in suburba Atlanta, I can null the hum quite well and hear sferic pops and tweeks. It consists of a plastic spool of telephone "bridging wire" which is used right on the original spool, with a connector installed in the hub. The two conductor wire is connected as a bifilar-wound centertapped coil for optimum use with the LF Low Noise Preamp.
  The trip to Patagonia has been postponed a few days. We are going to take an experimental airplane to Rio Gallegos, Argentina, for in flight Ice Testing, and the FAA and my company have not yet agreed on the test procedures. I really didnt want to miss a chance to listen so close to Antarctica, so the SpooLoop was a last minute quick-n-dirty project which ended up working much better than expected.
  So, while I'm freezing my %$%~! off on the other side of the world, please enjoy the web site ! The site promotes LWCA and also JJ Carr's new book. Theres a lot I still want to do with it, but you tell me what you want to see ! JJ Carr and Bob Confrey have pages there, as they have contributed to the Altair site and had no pages of their own. I hope to read plenty of suggestions and requests from y'all soon !
  
  William E. Payne
  Dallas, GA 30132

• Subj: ABC Update
  Date: 98-06-14 12:49:52 EDT
  From: n4zv~roanoke.infi (n4zv)
  I just finished talking to Todd on 40....and he wanted me to let you know that his medfer, ABC, will be on an intermittent schedule, but available by request thru the summer.
  Both VA beacons continue 24/7.
  Bart

• Subj: 1) VLF Rx Info; 2) Identify Beacon
  Date: 98-06-14 00:14:07 EDT
  From: harold~mmwt
  1) Can anyone help with info, circuit diagram etc for the following receivers:
      Watkins-Johnson VLF receiver type 357, 1-600kHz (WJ have no info)
      Measurement Engineering (Arnprior, Ontario, Canada) type CRC/FRR-2, 100-200kHz (company no longer in business?)
  2) Can anyone tell me where the beacon OG on 360kHz is located? Neither my reference books nor the Web search programs have it listed. I can hear it quite regularly in Ottawa.
  Best regards,
  Keith Ballinger VA3QF

• Subj: SAQ update
  Date: 98-06-13
  From: aa1a~radiocom
  Here is original msg. (from May 28) and SAQ QSL..

  Gudday,
  
  Although there was much QRN on 17.2 this morning at 0900Z, the 
  following was copied at about 18 wpm..  
  ( or thought to have been copied )
  It was weaker than EME signals and very noisy..
  
  0900z Intermittent Carrier
  0908z Cw in noise
  0912z between
  0919z passing development
  0921z CQ SAQ
  0926z radio
  0929z state
  0936z Key Down
        Long Dash
  0937z NIL sigs...
  
  Antenna is 10' loop out in the woods with Burhans amplifier, DBM,
  IC706 with active filter and NIR-10..
  QRN was about S4 and solid copy would have been possible
  without it..
  
  73s from Brant Rock, Massachusetts..  Home of the 'WESTERN TOWER'
  of Prof. Reg. Fessenden's 1906 voice broadcast and alternator fame..
  de Dave AA1A 
  =====================================================================

  Dave Riley
  - AA1A - www.radiocom.net
  
  Hello = goddag
  Thank you for the report. Very few in US could hear us. Details mentioned are correct. I had some difficulties to tune the alternator at the beginning, so I think the frequency varied when I tried to get the antenna tuned and get the alternator correctly compensated at 0900.
  I tested the day before, but a heavy rain in the afternoon changed load and tuning.
  The message was sent twice and ended at 0936.
  Al Klase, N3FRQ, had more luck to copy the message.
  (http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/page_2/otb/grimeton/grimeton.htm)
  Regards
  Telia Mobile, Grimeton
  Bengt Dagaas

• Subj: Which VLF Receiver to Buy?
  Date: 98-06-12 14:56:47 EDT
  Hi, Im new to Low Frequency listening and I'm trying to figure out which receiver to buy. Is there a "BEST ONE" or for that matter, four or five that are regarded to be really good.I use an old R390A for shortwave and ham listening and am very pleased with it. A friend wants to sell me an RCA SRR-11, Good radio??
  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
  Thanks
  Rob KE6ONN

• Subj: Beacon BK back on
  Date: 98-06-10 18:20:47 EDT
  From: b h koehler
  LF beacon BK at Shell Lake, WI is back on the air as of June 6. It sends the CW message DE BK BK BK WIND 6 TEMP 72 65. Values for wind and temp change of course. The first number after TEMP is the outdoor temperature, and the second number is the temperature near the waterpipes in the basement.
  The operators of LowFER beacons BK, IDF, IMG, LEK, OK, and SAM met this morning (June 10) east of St. Paul, MN. We were meeting Bill Bowers (OK) to get some cable from him. Thanks, Bill! It was neat to have 5 LowFER operators get together.

• Subj: On the Road Again!
  Date: 98-06-07 15:10:44 EDT
  From: n4zv~roanoke.infi (n4zv)
  Chased by the "Sports Animal" (WNML), medfer VA has retreated to 1636.8 khz. CW only.
  73, Bart N4ZV/VA

• Subj: DATA
  Date: 98-06-07 02:54:03 EDT
  From: hvanderbeek~juno (herb b Vanderbeek)
  Dan Smith's PRK is back on the air.
  My G beacon on 180kHz is off for a few weeks while I rebuild the Power amplifier. G4 at 1683.2 kHz (no longer 1650.62) is still on and I'm making experiments with the antenna.
  The GK beacon is still on at 1620.1kHz Kailua-Kona HAWAII, 96740 in Grid BK29. I was on Hawaii in April and the beacon was on and healthy.
  73
  Herb WY6G

• Subj: E-mail address change
  Date: 98-06-05 11:31:19 EDT
  From: eagle~icubed (George M. Jacob)
  I have changed to a new internet and mail provider. My new address is eagle~icubed.com
  Lowfer beacon GIR will continue 24/7 operation through the summer and fall of 1998 on 189.2 kHz.
  George Jacob
  KA3GIR

• Subj: SAQ
  Date: 98-06-03 07:54:55 EDT
  From: ama05~mail1.rrz.Uni-Koeln.DE (Reinhard Klein-Arendt)
  Hello,
  I heard the 28th May transmission from SAQ from 09.25 UTC on here in Cologne/Germany with a good signal (RST 579). As the time was within my working hours, I had to look for a break from office, which came at approx 09.20, between two lectures. I had my Lowe HF-225 and an L-400B active antenna with me and rushed to the main campus of my University, which is a large green area with no nearby electrical devices. There I set up my equipment and had no problem to note down the whole transmission in slow morse, despite some qrm from a carrier tone on approx. 17.5 kHz.
  The text dealt with the Prize of Industrial Monument 1997, which was given to the Telia Mobile Museum at Grimeton, with the history of radiostation Grimeton, with Ernst Alexanderson and with future plans to establish an International Radio Science Center at Grimeton. The transmission ended with VVVVVVVV DE SAQ SAQ AR.
  Greetings
  Reinhard

• Subject: New spectrogram
  From: Jacques d'Avignon ()
  Organization: HF Monitoring & Propagation Forecasting
  Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 01:03:53
  Good morning:
  The latest version of Horne's Spectrogram, version 4.2, is now found at:
  www.monumental.com/rshorne/gram.html
  Have a great day.
  Jacques

• Subj: Sensing Subtle Tsunamis
  Date: 98-06-01 00:08:29 EDT
  From: stoskopf~tri (Lawrence Stoskopf)
  To: farmnet@rf.org , lwcanews@aol.com
  May 98 Scientific American, in The Amateur Scientist, has an article on measuring very slow changes in atmospheric pressure. The contents of the article are found at: http://web2.thesphere.com/SAS/
  It is an interesting way to measure air pressure changes with resolution in the 20 microbar range! Being an anesthesiologist and not a feedback/control engineer the inherent feedback damping must be interesting to model and I keep thinking that there is an easier way today.
  But why is this of interest? In the same magazine in a monthly column, Wonders, by Philip Morrison, a scientist of some reput, the subject is Double Bass Redoubled.
  Key words: Infrasonics. "Microbaroms ...peak at frequencies of 0.2 to 0.3 hertz...The infrasonic domain now under study begins an octave lower than that....A whole menagerie of large-scale eventss generates infrasound at a distance....Volcanic eruptions, meoteoric fireballs.....Detection begins with a quiet countryside site, a good capacitance microphone and a modest amplifier designed to work well at frequencies from a fwe tens of millihertz up to about 0.1 hertz. A noise filter against local wind noise is realized by a dozen simple pourous hoses that extend from the microphone into yards-long spokes.The infrasound energy density flowing undetected from a volcano far overseas matches roughly the energy flow from an ordinary whisper at your side....
  Great stuff in between, but this is the punch line:
  "Pressure waves from fast-moving meteorites high aloft often span the globe at still lower frequencies. The physics of such sound, called acoustic-gravity waves, are rather different. These waves are five to 10 miles long..... It won't be too long until these sounds from afar can help us complete the reliable world census of incoming large meteorites that so far we lack." (end of article)
  Leonids Nov 17 for a possible 33 year peak. A way of measuring what the guys in Asia are getting before we rotate around. Might be something to discuss at the CSVHF conference in July. The lowfers already dabble in such.
  N0UU

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