FCC Rulemaking Comments Deadline Set
I announced this on our home page (www.lwca.org) a little while ago, but figured I'd better mention it here as well so everyone will be aware ASAP that publication has occured in the Federal Register, so comment deadlines on the proposed LF and MF ham bands are now in effect. Comments must be filed on or before August 31, 2015 and reply comments must be filed on or before September 30, 2015.
The FR notice is at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-07-02/pdf/2015-15250.pdf, but you really also should read and digest details in the relevant portions of FCC ET Docket 15-99 before commenting.
Re: Have a clue????
Posted by Ward K7PO on July 03, 2015 at 00:54:07.
In reply to Re: Have a clue???? posted by John Davis on June 30, 2015
Just an FYI. . .
TON is on and running, I check it often. 7P is not back up yet, it's been way over 100 °F out here since I got back from Dayton, so I'll try to get it back up as soon as it's possible to touch anything metal before midnight. OK, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but it is really hot out here. There is a 70' top loaded LF/MF vertical waiting for cooler WX too!
Ward K7PO Re: Have a clue????
Tonopah, AZ
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 03, 2015 at 15:35:02.
In reply to Re: Have a clue???? posted by Ward K7PO on July 03, 2015
Thanks for the beacon info. I will keep listening, cw is a magical mode..."the wet processor between the ears" works fine for me...simple and effective...
Boy thats hot.... NDB
Stay cool if at all possible.
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 04, 2015 at 23:16:28.
Solid copy on NDB at 2308 utc...yep pee
the 10 wpm speed was a great help with the rapid fading found on the band at that time.
GNK was Q5 at 2250 utc.
VAN
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 04, 2015 at 23:20:28.
Nice Q5 copy on VAN followed with long dash time 2318utc Re: VAN
another great catch.
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 04, 2015 at 23:22:26.
In reply to VAN posted by Bill Hensel on July 04, 2015
forgot to put freq. 13.562020 Mhz
Re: VAN
Posted by John Davis on July 05, 2015 at 00:07:05.
In reply to Re: VAN posted by Bill Hensel on July 04, 2015
Wonder who (and where) that one is?
Re: VAN
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 05, 2015 at 17:07:06.
In reply to Re: VAN posted by John Davis on July 05, 2015
John, Re: VAN
E mail me direct...
Posted by Ward K7PO on July 07, 2015 at 03:45:37.
In reply to Re: VAN posted by Bill Hensel on July 04, 2015
Hi Bill,
Any chance that was TON? It's the only one on with a long dash after ID that I'm aware of. Just a thought. . .
Ton is down the band a little from NDB though.
Ward K7PO
UK Irish emigrants to be surveyed over RTÉ’s LW service
Posted by Mike Terry on July 07, 2015 at 14:54:36.
Radio Today
By Niall O'Keeffe
7 July 2015
Excerpt:
Diaspora Minister Jimmy Deenihan has said that government-funded research into the use of the long-wave radio service service, particularly by older Irish people in the UK, would help determine a decision on its future.
Last October, RTÉ postponed plans to switch off the long wave 252 signal after receiving an angry response from the Irish community in Britain.
It is now aiming to wind down the service before closing it altogether in May 2017.
...
The study will be managed by “Irish in Britain”, an umbrella group for Irish organisations in Britain, and will look at the frequency of listenership, attitudes to its content and perceived benefits and weaknesses in the service.
...
Full story: http://radiotoday.ie/2015/07/uk-irish-emigrants-to-be-surveyed-over-rtes-lw-service/ SAQ transmission - June 28, 2015- preliminary report
Posted by Mike Terry on July 07, 2015 at 15:02:06.
Radiostation Grimeton SAQ:
Preliminary listeners summary report from the SAQ transmission on June 28th, 2015
Unfortunately we got problem with the antenna at the first transmission at 09:00 UTC. It was a short circuit which caused fire in an isolator in one of the feeders. We were happy to be able to repair it fast and thesecond transmission at 12:00 UTC worked out very well.
In fact we think it was one of the best transmissions ever, and the frequency was surprisingly clear from interferences.
The number of reports were however less than usual, some 200, compared to the Christmas Eve 2014 transmission, when we received nearly 400 reports. Possibly the interrupted transmission is a reason.
We thank you for being so understanding when we had trouble and patiently waited for the next transmission.
The Alexander-Grimeton Veteranradios Vaenner Association.
Jan Steinbach/Chairman
P.S. The fire can be seen in a short film sequence on our website www.alexander.n.se. Next intended transmission will be on Christmas Eve, Dec 24th, 2015. D.S.
Preliminary Summary Report in Microsoft Word format;
Here is also a Preliminary Summary Report on transmission from Grimeton Radio/SAQ on 17,2 kHz on Alexanderson Day 2015-06-28.
An updated version of the report will be published on our web site www.alexander.n.se, later on.
Lars
(Source: http://alexander.n.se/preliminary-listeners-summary-report-from-saq-transmission-june-28th-2015/?lang=en) Re: VAN
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 07, 2015 at 20:40:10.
In reply to Re: VAN posted by Ward K7PO on July 07, 2015
No, I copied VAN .... I would not post unless I was positive...the wet processor can still copy code at 30 wpm. HI
MRHS "Night of Nights"
Posted by John Davis on July 09, 2015 at 16:33:06.
A number of coastal heritage stations will be on 500 kHz and their 400+ kHz working frequencies this Sunday night for the annual event (as well as their HF channels). The story at the LWCA Home Page (had) links to the complete list. A few ship stations sometimes show up as well.
John
Re: MRHS "Night of Nights"
Posted by Mike Terry on July 12, 2015 at 05:51:03.
In reply to MRHS "Night of Nights" posted by John Davis on July 09, 2015
A wonderful event.
Saturday HiFERs in SE Kansas
Posted by John Davis on July 12, 2015 at 22:56:06.
Sorry I've been so tied up as not to have time for retrieving and analyzing all the captures of the last few weekends. As of yesterday, QRSS20 and 30 have both continued to show benefit in retrieving copy of SIW slant mode even when the 9-second DFCW signal shows gaps during the afternoon. The slope of the trace is still significantly greater than 45 degrees at 30-sec speed, suggesting that some increase in detection sensitivity remains possible with either less deviation or longer symbol times.
Both EH and NC were fair to strong but drifting continuously, covering SIW slant at different times during the afternoon, but it remained mostly unperturbed nestled between two CODAR lines, though.
USC was good most of the day and evening with some brief fades all the way to invisibility.
WM was solid in late afternoon--at one point, so solid that a possible bit of power supply hum was visible 120 Hz below main carrier, around 25 dB down per Argo. It's probable there was a corresponding ghost 120 Hz above, but I could not see it under some audio mixing products from the clipper in that region.
I took a break from watering hole captures in late afternoon to recharge batteries and scan for CW beacons. MTI was difficult and intermittent copy at best, and the carrier was even hard to see at QRSS3. No sign of PBJ at all. Thought I might be hearing bits of CW around 13562 kHz, but it was very broken up by the ISM racket. GNK was present with reasonable strength for one or two characters per ID cycle at its maximum readability, sometimes fading to no readability for a few cycles at a time. No FRC this time.
After that break, SIW and WM were both apparently gone into the Illinois ionospheric Twilight Zone for the rest of the day, with only one brief ghostly "S" from SIW slant around mid-evening.
Most of the afternoon and evening sessions at the watering hole also had an Argo screen running at the last known haunts of the Florida sawtooth, but no luck there all day.
(I did discover at long last, however, just how many simultaneous sessions of Argo that Windows 7 will allow to share the sound card on my Acer notebook. Turns out to be five! After that, Argo 143 will kick up a sound card sharing message and politely decline to open a new session, while 134 will run but won't receive adequate processor time to handle time ticks, maintain consistent scroll speed, etc. at NDB speed.)
When I pulled the plug on captures a bit after 10 PM, USC, NC and EH were still present, and I could sometimes very faintly hear MTI, but nobody else was visible or audible...ecept CODAR, of course.
John
Re: Saturday HiFERs in SE Kansas
Posted by Dave on July 12, 2015 at 23:11:53.
In reply to Saturday HiFERs in SE Kansas posted by John Davis on July 12, 2015
Only EH was readily copied in central Florida over the weekend.
I am active listening for hifers west of the Mississppi with no luck so far and I've written AZ KF7Z about the details of his hifer.
The sawtooth is still active albeit with some drift, currently at 13551.305 KHz.
Dave Re: Saturday HiFERs in SE Kansas
Central Florida
Posted by John Davis on July 13, 2015 at 01:53:25.
In reply to Re: Saturday HiFERs in SE Kansas posted by Dave on July 12, 2015
13551.305 KHz... a typo?
Re: Saturday HiFERs in SE Kansas
Posted by Dave on July 13, 2015 at 10:20:01.
In reply to Re: Saturday HiFERs in SE Kansas posted by John Davis on July 13, 2015
Thanks for catching that operator error typo. 13555.305 KHz is what my receiver showed yesterday. I expect more stability with a rebuilt circuit planned after August 1. Re: Saturday HiFERs in SE Kansas
Dave
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 13, 2015 at 20:07:06.
In reply to Re: Saturday HiFERs in SE Kansas posted by Dave on July 12, 2015
Is AZ still on the air? Re: MRHS "Night of Nights"
So far I have heard NDB and TSN ( which is off the air because of thunder storms) both out of AZ.
Posted by Mike Terry on July 14, 2015 at 04:19:32.
In reply to Re: MRHS "Night of Nights" posted by Mike Terry on July 12, 2015
Anyone able to supply some feedback about the event please? Thank you.
Re: MRHS "Night of Nights"
Posted by John Davis on July 17, 2015 at 15:44:08.
In reply to Re: MRHS "Night of Nights" posted by Mike Terry on July 14, 2015
Hi Mike, I'm a little surprised that nobody reported anything here or on the two email lists I monitor. Here's all that the MRHS group have said about it thus far:
We at the MRHS had a great time at Night of Nights 2015. More work than usual was involved in the preparation since we launched a crash effort just a week before the event to get the MF Marconi T antenna back in the air at Bolinas (a winter storm took down one of its support poles). But this was done, the transmitters were tuned up and at 0001Z on 13 July (5:01pm pst) the signals of KPH, KFS and KSM were once again heard, arcing over the dome of the Earth and rising up out of the static to be heard by listeners around the world.
We're putting together reports and photos from the event for a special Night of Nights report issue of the MRHS Newsletter.
Once they issue that, we'll have a story at lwca.org, or I'll post a link to their newsletter here.
Hifers today on a morning hike
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 20, 2015 at 00:03:17.
Around 1500 utc while on a Hike near Bailey, Colorado in the National Forest...GNK and K6FRC were good copy on my KA1102. Boy the 22 meter band has been poor the past 3-4 weeks for me.
My LOWFER is up in Seattle, WA
Posted by KC7IBT on July 21, 2015 at 06:18:41.
Hello,
I am still working on the circuit, but I have an Arduino powered LOWFER station in the Seattle area on 170.000 KHz. It is putting about 200mW into a very crude loop wire antenna mounted in a tree.
There could be some serious SWR issues, but it does work around the yard. The beacon is sending very slow morse "KC7IBT SEA" using CW.
I hope to improve the design by adding a small amp to bring it up to my permitted 1W as well as matching the antenna properly.
Slash code Hifer change
Posted by Garry, K3SIW on July 22, 2015 at 22:00:42.
John,
I stretched the symbol period of the slash code hifer out further. It's now 3 minutes (compared to a bit under 2 minutes before). The ramp swing remains +/- 1 Hz. I see a few tenths of a Hz slow drift through the message, possibly caused by ambient temperature changes affecting the op amp offsets. The ramp angle doesn't look too steep even at QRSS30 rate.
73, Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL
Re: Slash code Hifer change
Posted by John Davis on July 22, 2015 at 22:18:57.
In reply to Slash code Hifer change posted by Garry, K3SIW on July 22, 2015
Cool. I'll try for it tomorrow, even though I may not be able to do it from the usual antenna.
John
Celebration and promotion of marine beacons
Posted by Mike Terry on July 24, 2015 at 06:27:53.
Southgate
July 21, 2015
The International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend has attracted 370 registrations from 33 nations, with at least 100 more expected before the fun event is held on August 15-16.
On the top of the registration table is Germany on 65, Australia with 60, USA has 50 and England about 40.
At least 10 registrations each are from Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Scotland and South Africa and Sweden. Many more countries have much fewer, but are most welcome.
If you want further information and the registration guidelines for a marine beacon, visit the website www.illw.net
Jim Linton VK3PC
www.southgatearc.org/news/2015/july/celebration_and_promotion_of_marine_beacons.htm How many are out there?
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 26, 2015 at 22:19:09.
Does anyone have an estimate on how many listeners actually attempt to hear the Hifers? I know this sounds like a pretty stupid question and perhaps it is. When I run a goggle on the beacons I receive very few hits.
This forum reflects very few listeners reports.
potrzebie