Awright! PBJ is back this morning! Although 13557.460 may be a tad lower than when I last saw it, many months ago, it's a good steady signal.
SAQ Reminder
Just a reminder that the Alexanderson alternator is scheduled to operate tomorrow (Sunday) morning for two transmissions on 17.2 kHz, at 4:00 and 7:00 AM CDT, with tune-up beginning up to half an hour before each.
For more information, read this message relayed by Mike Terry, or see the news story at the LWCA home page.
HiFERs Friday 3 July (KAH, BNC1, WAS, more)
Posted by John Davis on July 04, 2020 at 21:43:50.
KAH was on 13566.065, pretty much as advertised, last night half an hour after sunset. A few minutes later, at 9:14 PM CDT, WAS joined in at 13566.215. This was the first time I heard WAS by ear since early June. It was another hour before K6FRC showed up, by which time the other two had faded away. All were plagued by deep short-term fading, so it took multiple repetitions to confirm the calls by ear.
The same QSB and thunderstorm QRN plagued signals in the lower half of the band during the hour in the middle. At the watering hole, EH was faintly visible, 7P was fair to good, NC was generally good, SIW slant was vaguely present, while MTI and K5LVB were fair...and competing for the same frequency. K5LVB WSPR decoded twice during the evening. WM was nil to fair at times, and BNC1 started showing up right after dark, peaking (as usual) for one really excellent ID between 9:18 and 9:24 PM, before returning to intermittent copy.
WV ranged from visual-only to fair aural copy. AZ was present visually in the 9 o'clock hour, but was gone before 10:00. TON was faint visually, but not audible.
John SAQ Report
EM27kc
Posted by John, W1TAG on July 05, 2020 at 12:25:23.
Report from Maine: This was probably my worst experience with SAQ. The 1200Z signal was there, and the VVV de SAQ tuneup sequence was easy to identify due to endless repetition, but there was no chance of copying the message text. Impulse noise was greater than some earlier attempts, and it just punched holes through everything. An attempt to record the earlier 0900 transmission (while I was sleeping) did not work due to computer limitations.
Equipment was an SDRPlay RSP2 fed from my usual 500' wire on ground. I have to use a 20 dB pad ahead of the RSP2 to prevent overload from NAA in Cutler, ME. During the tuneup, I also tried going direct into the computer sound card and running Spectrum Lab in SAQ receiver mode, but the results were no better.
John, W1TAG
SAC - video as streamed earlier
Posted by Mike Terry on July 05, 2020 at 13:48:08.
Video from the World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station on July 5th, 2020.
Live stream starts at 13:30 (11:30 UTC) with the startup and tuning of the Alexanderson alternator and with a transmission of a message at 14:00 (12:00 UTC).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU91iLrkrDM&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3PLHjUsLWRWBhRTIkbS4KBg_wpD20sFVln7RBeE995jvEfy_sdtx2pEk8
Early Morning P - Sun. 5 July
Posted by John Davis on July 05, 2020 at 14:02:46.
No, not a reference to my advanced age...beacon P has returned at 13555.000. [EDITED 7/5/2020]
A second trace was faintly visible above WV yesterday evening, but wasn't audible. At first I thought it might be beacon F, returned from the Twilight Zone after drifting down in frequency. It and WV were visible every time I checked overnight (so were NC and MTI, for that matter), but it wasn't until about 4:30 AM CDT that I could hear the signal by ear--definitely P, also returned from the Twilight Zone or wherever it's been since last summer.
The only other signal on the band was a just-barely-discernible KAH. This means that all the signals on with P were from east of here...absolutely none of the known westerners were present. P's fading pattern was similar to WV in duration, too, although not in sync. A reasonable hypothesis, then, is that the long-term mystery station may also be located somewhere east of the Mississippi; maybe, but not necessarily, south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Re: Early Morning P - Sun. 5 July
Posted by John, W1TAG on July 05, 2020 at 17:39:56.
In reply to Early Morning P - Sun. 5 July posted by John Davis on July 05, 2020
JD,
“P” was easily copyable here in ME this morning. But I would put the frequency of it and WV as close to 13555.000, not 13555.500. P was louder than WV this morning. There was a big Es cloud in the eastern U.S., south of here.
John, W1TAG
Re: Early Morning P - Sun. 5 July
Posted by John Davis on July 05, 2020 at 18:57:22.
In reply to Re: Early Morning P - Sun. 5 July posted by John, W1TAG on July 05, 2020
You are correct, JA! 13555.0 is what it was here, too, but my typing finger apparently stutters after being awake for more than 24 hours.
(Another thunderstorm-ridden attempt to hear SAQ last night. Even if I'd finished my loop antenna before this weekend, it wouldn't have helped...storms on all four sides, as it turned out. Couldn't even hear the Russian ALPHA signals, but of course there's no guarantee they're on at any given time.)
Hifer PBJ Back on air
Posted by Chris Waldrup on July 05, 2020 at 22:55:06.
Hi Guys,
I finally got time to get the issues sorted out. As I mentioned a couple weeks back, I had put my MFJ259 analyzer on the antenna and the VSWR was through the roof.
Last night my son and I measured out more wire and I rebuilt the antenna. I also relocated it to another tall oak tree that I thought would allow me to have a more favorable shot across the country.
Well wouldn't you know it once I connected the feedline and hoisted it back up the VSWR was still over 25 to 1.
It turns out the issue was most likely the Amphenol BNC F-F bulkhead connector that I use to get the RF out of the ammo box. I took the BNC male off the outside of the box and it was disgusting looking with corrosion.
I seal very well- Scotch 88 tape, Scotch linerless fusing tape, Dow 3145 electronics grade RTV. The only thing I can think of is the RTV came loose at the point where I had made a gasket at the bulkhead/ammo can interface.
Interestingly, the braid of the RG-8X coax was bright and shiny about a foot up from the connector where I cut it for a test. However peeling the inner foam dielectric off it had black copper oxide tarnish.
Well it took about three hours but all's back up with a 1.1:1 VSWR and a new E-W firing inverted V up about 30 ft on top of a 1950 ft high mountain.
If you get a chance I'd love a reception report to know things are back to normal.
Thank you.
Chris
KD4PBJ
PBJ
Tennessee
Re: Hifer PBJ Back on air
Posted by John Davis on July 06, 2020 at 05:29:35.
In reply to Hifer PBJ Back on air posted by Chris Waldrup on July 05, 2020
Is it still on 13557.500, Chris? I looked this evening after reading your message, but the recent post-sunset enhancements did not occur tonight. NC and PVC were visible, WV was faintly audible, and some DAID dashes showed up from VAN...but apart from some codar, that was all tonight. I'll keep looking in coming days.
John
Re: Hifer PBJ Back on air
Posted by Chris Waldrup on July 06, 2020 at 09:54:54.
In reply to Re: Hifer PBJ Back on air posted by John Davis on July 06, 2020
Yes sir. It has the same epson oscillator.
Re: HiFERs Friday 3 July (KAH, BNC1, WAS, more)
Posted by John B in NC on July 06, 2020 at 12:34:48.
In reply to HiFERs Friday 3 July (KAH, BNC1, WAS, more) posted by John Davis on July 04, 2020
Hi John, and thanks very much for the report on BNC1.
It's been running for a couple weeks now and the power drain on the 5 AA cells seems to balance OK with the solar charge...at least with the random weather of the recent past.
I've spruced up the vertical and weatherproofed everything to the best of my ability so hopefully it'll stay on the air.
Did you happen to note any difference in the QSB of the signal? I did heat sink the Epson.
Re: Hifer PBJ Back on air
Posted by John Davis on July 06, 2020 at 17:32:11.
In reply to Re: Hifer PBJ Back on air posted by Chris Waldrup on July 06, 2020
Awright! PBJ is back this morning! Although 13557.460 may be a tad lower than when I last saw it, many months ago, it's a good steady signal.
If I can just remember what I did with my memory stick (there's some irony for you) I'll retrieve and post captures this afternoon. There's also a surprise visitor at 13557.510 whose ID I haven't been able to clearly discern yet.
---------------------------------------------------------------
File Attachment 1: pbj-clip.gif
Re: SAQ Report
I am back home in the UK now and SAQ was the best I can remember for a long time ! I hastily set up my 38 year old VLF home brew converter with my K2 and connected my only antenna - a 50 foot long end fed. I loaded the wire with a small 10mH choke . For the first time I used a new home few cw resonant speaker on the receiver which was a huge improvement as it cut out a lot of noise. Reception here in North Wales was good. I watched the you tube video stream with audio turned down at the same time as hearing the broadcast live. The video was better than I have seen previously and I loved the walkabout footage experience happy when they showed the antenna towers.
To round things off, the switch off was wonderful.....switches thrown, levers moved, knobs turned, valves shut, bells ringing. What a fabulous piece of engineering this is.
73 Vic GW4JUN and Hifer beacon JUN
Re: Hifer PBJ Back on air
Posted by John, W1TAG on July 06, 2020 at 19:20:17.
In reply to Re: Hifer PBJ Back on air posted by John Davis on July 06, 2020
I saw one shaky ID this morning on 13557.460 in Maine. The P and B were pretty clear, but the J was wasted. Nothing wrong with bread and peanut butter alone, however. Nothing seen since, though I have been in and out during the day.
John, W1TAG
Re: HiFERs Friday 3 July (KAH, BNC1, WAS, more)
Posted by John Davis on July 06, 2020 at 20:28:44.
In reply to Re: HiFERs Friday 3 July (KAH, BNC1, WAS, more) posted by John B in NC on July 06, 2020
Did you happen to note any difference in the QS(Y) of the signal? I did heat sink the Epson.
Yes, I noticed the slope seems to be a little less. The dashes still show some tilt, though less than before, and the dots show very little; although there's not as much difference as I anticipated. This capture was the best signal level on Friday evening. I don't think it made any improvement to stability with ambient temperature changes, which were evident in later shots.
Most likely Epson wasn't concerned about thermal resistance between the semiconductor die and the case, given that there's not a lot of power to dissipate. That would make heat sinking less effective, but every little bit of stability helps with slow modes.
the power drain on the 5 AA cells seems to balance OK with the solar charge...at least with the random weather of the recent past.
That brings up another question. Are your solar cells somewhat shaded until mid-morning, or did you have clouds until about 9:20 AM EDT on Sunday morning? I'll show you the reason for that specific question later, but first I have to stitch together several observations into a scrollable image.
---------------------------------------------------------------
File Attachment 1: BNC1-3july.jpg
Re: Hifer PBJ Back on air
A capture of PBJ and the mystery CW signal that I hinted at earlier. No clue who it might be. Maybe the WAV file I also made can be filtered enough to piece it together; I've got an hour long recording of the almost four-IDs-per-minute signal to sift through.
Whoever it is, they weren't around any time in the past few weeks when I've been checking for the return of PBJ...just showed up today, after the announcement, so presumably they wanted to be noticed. But with lots of fading, and its close proximity to the strong PBJ signal 50 Hz below, plus a powerful steady carrier 90 Hz above (not pictured here), copy may be difficult. Not the ideal spot for a normal speed CW signal.
---------------------------------------------------------------
File Attachment 1: PBJ-unk-6jul.jpg
Re: HiFERs Friday 3 July (KAH, BNC1, WAS, more)
Hi John, and thanks for the details...they're very helpful.
I'm sure you're right about the Epson. At 4$ @ programmed to order in quantity of 1, they're certainly not high stability standards. They're a bargain for beaconeers however. I wonder if some of the other packages that are available (mine is a DIP 4) might have better thermal characteristics. Anyone know? My beacon is in a sealed cast box, which is wrapped in bubble wrap, then inserted into a short piece of white aluminum downspout to protect it from direct rainfall.
Right you are about the sun hitting the panel at ~9:20. Sometime around 9:15 EDT it begins to see sun again. It's illuminated for a couple hours, then gets shaded until mid afternoon.
I'm anxious to hear how you deduced this. :-)
Re: HiFERs Friday 3 July (KAH, BNC1, WAS, more)
Posted by John Davis on July 08, 2020 at 07:38:23.
In reply to Re: HiFERs Friday 3 July (KAH, BNC1, WAS, more) posted by John B on July 07, 2020
Right you are about the sun hitting the panel at ~9:20. .... I'm anxious to hear how you deduced this. :-)
Elementary, Watson. ;-)
After listening unsuccessfully for the 1200 UTC VLF transmission from SAQ Sunday morning, I did a band scan of 22 meters, then settled at the watering hole at 7:37 AM Central Daylight Time, and finally took a much-needed nap. When I returned and checked the captures, there was an anomaly visible right away.
Was it delayed fireworks shooting up into the Argo window? Some kind of electrified streaker dashing across the screen? Probably not, but there seemed to be a pattern of sorts. After about 8:12 AM CDT, the pattern settled down to a much more gently sloping curve. Then suddenly, just before 8:20 my time, there was a nice, clear "B" from BNC1.
Utilizing only two other clues (1-you use solar power, and 2-the frequency of an Epson oscillator varies inversely with voltage, just as with temperature), I was able to deduce that initially the supply voltage was dipping precipitously under the relatively tiny load of key-down condition, which suggested the batteries were nearly depleted. The less dramatic deviation of the 8:12 AM ID hinted that the panels were receiving a little more incidental illumination, and then almost certainly came into full sunlight before 8:20 CDT/9:20 EDT.
The "photographic evidence" can be viewed in the window below; 700 Hz is 13555.300 kHz. Meanwhile, I feel the urge to go play a violin.
[CLICK HERE WHEN READY TO VIEW SCROLLABLE IMAGE (667 KB)]
Scroll As Needed. Times Shown Are CDT.
Re: HiFERs Friday 3 July (KAH, BNC1, WAS, more)
AHAH! Elementary! :-)
Very good sleuthing, and I can see that I've got more work to do on the collector/consumption balance. I have just been looking at my local Kiwi to see the signal is still there, but I see this morning that it's down to S7 from its 30 over S9 that I noted when fully charged up.
First candidate would be to change to QRSS3 from 6. I'll also look at the options for putting the Tiny85 into sleep mode in between transmissions (and characters for that matter). IIRC , turning unused I/Os OFF helped too (at least on an Adruino)
That uController has several unused outputs, so I suppose I could do a voltage check periodically and branch the program to a SLEEP state depending on the battery pack voltage if the more simple steps don't return enough charge.
Thanks John! I'll keep progressing sideways as usual
Re: SAC - video as streamed earlier
Posted by John B on July 08, 2020 at 13:30:25.
In reply to SAC - video as streamed earlier posted by Mike Terry on July 05, 2020
It's hard to decide which is more impressive, the rig or the fine CW sent with the straight key.
Thanks for the link. It's great stuff!
Re: SAC - video as streamed earlier
Posted by Mike Terry on July 08, 2020 at 15:40:29.
In reply to Re: SAC - video as streamed earlier posted by John B on July 08, 2020
Glad you enjoyed it John.
There is an impressive listener interactive map at https://alexander.n.se/?lang=en
More P - and Other Sun. 5 July HF
Posted by John Davis on July 08, 2020 at 16:56:02.
In reply to Re: Early Morning P - Sun. 5 July posted by John Davis on July 05, 2020
I think I neglected to mention that KAH was visible and faintly audible during the morning session, too, and there was a keyed carrier that I couldn't quite make out at 13566.585. Reports elsewhere lead me to believe that may be a drop in frequency for ABBY.
Sunday evening saw NC and 7P start off the 9 PM hour CDT, but EH and PVC took over about 15 minutes later. WV was unaccompanied by P at that time. The VAN DAID curls showed up nicely around 9:22 PM. WM showed up for several minutes at a time, and SIW slant was intermittently visible (it had been doing pretty well until 3:40 in the afternoon, then sort of fizzled out).
Monday 6 July HF
Posted by John Davis on July 08, 2020 at 17:13:03.
In reply to More P - and Other Sun. 5 July HF posted by John Davis on July 08, 2020
Monday morning, P was back on 13555.0 and WV was strong some 35 Hz above P...the highest I've ever seen it.
In the early afternoon, it was mainly NC walking on SIW slant, K5LVB, and WM at the watering hole. WV and P were only fair, and closer in frequency. NDB2 was very strong at 13554.020. PBJ was fair to good, but somewhat broken up by short fades, no longer accompanied by the mystery signal I reported earlier.
Re: More P - and Other Sun. 5 July HF
Posted by Chris on July 08, 2020 at 17:15:50.
In reply to More P - and Other Sun. 5 July HF posted by John Davis on July 08, 2020
Hey John,
You are absolutely correct, I too noticed that Abby has dropped down to 13566.60~. On Sunday I could hear it on various KiwiDSDR receivers in VA,PA, MD, and NJ. Propogation was really good. I did shorten the coax a few feet and adjusted the SWR a few weeks back
Chris
Tuesday 7 July HF
Posted by John Davis on July 08, 2020 at 17:27:47.
In reply to Monday 6 July HF posted by John Davis on July 08, 2020
It was nearly 8:30 PM CDT before I got started listening. WV was faintly visible but no sign of P. K6FRC was solidly visible and somewhat audible. NC, SIW slant, and MTI were faintly visible.
During the 9 PM hour, 7P chimed in and lingered for a while, and WM made a brief appearance.
By 11:30, WV was visible and faintly audible, and P was visible again. Both last night and the night before, there was a close correlation in fading patterns between P and WV. PBJ was faintly visible, but nobody was seen or heard above mid-band.
NDB2 Wanderlust - Wednesday HiFERs
Posted by John Davis on July 08, 2020 at 19:04:44.
NC, 7P, WM and BNC1 were all fair signals at the watering hole at 10:39 AM CDT. WV didn't show at first, but faded in eventually. No sign of P.
NDB2 was strong with moderate QSB when I tuned farther down, but it wasn't in its normal spot! It was up at 13554.220, and wandering ±10 Hz from one ID to the next.
PBJ was weak to fair, and not accompanied by the unknown CW signal today.
MN was on 13562.680 with a fair signal and minimal fading.
At 10:57, NDB2 was down at 13554.035, closer to its normal spot, but still wandering just as badly as before.
Over the next couple hours, the ghosts of EH and SIW slant joined in at the watering hole from time to time, and there were a few appearances of MTI. K5LVB QRSS3 became partial copy and the WSPR was visible for several seconds at a time, but not long enough to produce a decode. WM faded away by 12:14, but hints of BNC1 remained. At 12:50 I did another quick band scan, with little WV, no NDB2, and only MN above band center again. This time MN was a few dB higher above the noise.
Won't be able to spend any more time monitoring today, alas, and we're supposed to have storms tomorrow.
Re: Tuesday 7 July HF
Posted by Ed Holland on July 08, 2020 at 20:28:43.
In reply to Tuesday 7 July HF posted by John Davis on July 08, 2020
I had a couple of issues with PVC which might explain its absence from the airwaves. Chiefly, a power cut yesterday, which resets the master oscillator sig-gen. I've yet to establish a means to include this on the battery backup supply...
I also have to make some antenna repairs this weekend. High winds (and presumably UV exposure) contributed to breakage of one of the mast guy lines. For now, it is listing slightly, but should be on-air.
Cheers
Ed
Luxembourg on 234 kHz closure rumours
Posted by Mike Terry on July 09, 2020 at 12:04:19.
There are various unconfirmed reports that RTL will close down probably in the last quarter of this year (mediumwave.info).
Turkmenistan
Posted by Mike Terry on July 09, 2020 at 12:34:05.
Probably the only remaining AM transmitter in the country on 279 kHz has been operating very irregularly and even then with hardly any modulation.
(WRTH Update June via BDXC)
234 kHZ closure rumours - follow up
Posted by Mike Terry on July 09, 2020 at 13:28:42.
An update from Rémy Friess on the longwave radio io group:
These rumours have been going on since Europe1 closed its longwave transmitter. But the station has never confirmed any of these.
However the station seems to go on reduced power every evening. This has been going on for months. At 1820 UTC (1920 UTC in the winter) ±2 minutes there is a break in transmission of about 5 seconds. Then the signal comes back with lower power.
Notes on 20 June LowFER Net
Posted by Clint Turner on July 15, 2020 at 18:44:57.
Belated notes on 20 June LowFER net:
Present were:
Jerry, WA6OWR; John, AEØCQ; Jim, WB6QZL; Clint, KA7OEI
73,
Clint, KA7OEI
P.S. I was not near an Internet connection, so there are no notes for 27 June, which was Field Day weekend.
BNC1 now JB
Posted by John B on July 10, 2020 at 19:36:39.
I've changed the ID of my QRSS beacon from BNC1 to JB. This is both as an efficiency move as well as to minimize any confusion with the existing beacon NC .
Same freq. I've changed the transmission speed and the duty cycle as well. We'll see if that keeps it on the air a bit longer this time :-)
Re: NDB2 Wanderlust - Wednesday HiFERs
Posted by John B on July 10, 2020 at 21:03:07.
In reply to NDB2 Wanderlust - Wednesday HiFERs posted by John Davis on July 08, 2020
Thanks for the report John!
It's interesting to know that noon local is workable to your area. Saturday 11th Jul Evening Hifers
Posted by Ed Holland on July 12, 2020 at 05:40:24.
Hi Folks,
A very quiet band today, judging by the "watering hole". Monitoring was set up from around 18:30 PDT until 22:30 (PDT). There was some activity after Sunset,with a few minutes minutes during which WM (75% confident), USC and NC were showing as weak traces in Spectrum lab (fed from the IC-R72 and random dipole).
Earlier today, PVC's antenna was re-rigged with new guy lines. Although operation was not suspended for the works (RF safety not being observed HI HI), there was probably a dip in signal as the mast was dropped for 1/2 hour during activities on the roof. The system is back to normal at the time of writing.
Cheers
Ed
Sunday 12 July Mid-day
Posted by John Davis on July 12, 2020 at 19:37:42.
During the 1 PM hour CDT, the watering hole had a hint of EH, fair NC (down where SIW slant should be), MTI some minutes, K5LVB QRSS and WSPR (which finally reached the point of being decodable later in the hour), and WM.
WV was fair. NDB2 ranged from weak to very good, but drifted downward 20 Hz over the course of 13 minutes.
Nobody was audible or visible in the top half of the band, where there were moderate levels of a raspy buzz at times.
Re: Sunday 12 July Mid-day
Posted by Ed Holland on July 12, 2020 at 20:40:31.
In reply to Sunday 12 July Mid-day posted by John Davis on July 12, 2020
PVC should be on, but running 5 WPM. I have to reprogram it for QRSS, and the keyer only lets me do this in Morse code, in which I am not at all proficient!
Cheers
Ed
Re: Sunday 12 July Mid-day
Posted by John B on July 12, 2020 at 22:20:13.
In reply to Sunday 12 July Mid-day posted by John Davis on July 12, 2020
BNC1 (Now "JB") got back on the air about 4 EDT, with QRSS 3 and a 5 min interval . Same frequency. I'm sorry I missed the air check !
I did some measurements and noted that the Epson draws about 20mA when transmitting, and the ATtiny85 about 2mA (I switched it to run at 1Mhz which helped).
Re: Sunday 12 July Mid-day
Posted by John Davis on July 13, 2020 at 06:00:37.
In reply to Re: Sunday 12 July Mid-day posted by John B on July 12, 2020
No problem missing the "air check" since I often leave Argo running; except today I made a booboo and had it capturing only once every 30 minutes, instead of every nine minutes as is necessary to make a continuous record of QRSS3 transmissions. So, there might have been better reception just before or immediately after this capture...no way to know now. But it does show that JB indeed works!
The only other signals making it through at the watering hole at this same time were EH and MTI. WM quit in mid-afternoon and NC faded out before dark. K5LVB WSPR continued decoding up until sunset, then vanished.
A few minutes after this capture, I returned to the radio in person and caught WV with fair copy and K6FRC with fair to good signal level. Nobody else around after dark tonight.
---------------------------------------------------------------
File Attachment 1: 17julb.jpg
Eureka!
Thank you John, that's most helpful.
I will double the wait interval. I messed around with the clock speed on the processor and that affected my predicted wait time.
I'll leave it as is until I figure out how to program a "sleep" rather than a "wait" , but hopefully I'll get that done later today or early tomorrow. All mA's matter!
Again, thanks for the Argo grab.
HF Monday 13 July
Posted by John Davis on July 13, 2020 at 18:21:52.
Got a chance to listen briefly at mid-morning. The watering hole at 9:50 AM CDT featured NC (with its lower frequency right on top of 7P), faint SIW slant, fair MTI, and a good signal from WM. A little lower down, WV seemed to have an audible amount of chirp today.
NDB2 ranged from poor to very loud around 9:56, but I almost missed it because it had wandered up to 13554.300.
No sign of PBJ this morning, but there was an odd signal up at 13558.350; inaudible, but visible on Argo. An even fainter keyed signal seemed to be on 558.400, but it never improved in strength. Capture attached.
In the top half of the band, there was nobody today except visible traces from KAH, but not enough for aural copy.
At 10:17 AM, WM was even stronger, SIW slant was up to fair quality, some SIW WSPR was becoming visible, and K5LVB started appearing too. Also got a "J" from JB, apparently without much tilt! On my way to check further now that it's solar noon here.
---------------------------------------------------------------
File Attachment 1: jul13mystery.jpg
Late Monday HiFERs
Hi Folks,
I set up the monitoring system for the evening for a couple of hours between 2000 and 2200 PDT. The result was some great catches. Good trace IDs on EH, WM, NC, and strong audible signals from AZ and particularly 7P, which was booming in during a late flourish at the end of the session.
Cheers
Ed
---------------------------------------------------------------
File Attachment 1: 13-Jul-20x13.jpg
File Attachment 2: 13-Jul-20x02.jpg
File Attachment 3: 13-Jul-20x08.jpg
Re: HF Monday 13 July
The interesting morning conditions did not persist into the afternoon. SIW slant disappeared around 1 PM CDT, which is probably just as well, because NC wandered down there and walked all over the QRSS30 screen the rest of the afternoon. K3SIW WSPR decoded once, but then the rest of the afternoon belonged to K5LVB for WSPPR. The last faint appearances of WM and JB were at 10 minutes til 2 o'clock.
Mainly EH and NC remained from then until sunset, with fragments of 7P and occasional glimpses of MTI. Afterward, things got interesting again, but I'll have to report on that later. Meanwhile, this preview: the new mystery beacon F was back after dark, obliterating WV and maybe P--even after midnight when everyone else was gone but 7P and K6FRC--with its output apparently cranked up to Ludicrous Power.
Re: Late Monday HiFERs
Posted by Kelli K2TGR on July 14, 2020 at 13:10:53.
In reply to Late Monday HiFERs posted by Ed Holland on July 14, 2020
I'm disappointed that TGR doesn't seem to be heard more than that one report. We'll be leaving Buffalo within the next few weeks. Not sure as of yet where we're going but I will update as soon as I know. In the meantime, TGR is still happily transmitting away from the CB stick mounted to the bus.
Re: Late Monday HiFERs
Posted by Mike N8OOU on July 14, 2020 at 15:01:00.
In reply to Late Monday HiFERs posted by Ed Holland on July 14, 2020
Ed;
Thanks for the 13-Jul-20x02 grab of the WM signal. I'm happy to see propagation allowing DX to the left side of N.A.
Have you by chance saved the spectrum labs parameters to a .user file. If so, would you send that .user file on to my email address. I would like to simulate the signal conditions here to replicate what you saw. I have been playing with a method to simulate weak signal to noise conditions on the pc.
Thanks for listening.
Mike N8OOU 73
Re: Late Monday HiFERs
Posted by Ed Holland on July 14, 2020 at 17:09:16.
In reply to Re: Late Monday HiFERs posted by Mike N8OOU on July 14, 2020
Hi Mike,
Yes, I do have a user file for this setup. It is a small tweak on the basic QRSS3 settings, but expanded to show about 500 Hz bandwidth. I also have contrast and brightness variants of the file for different radios, as they have slightly differing line-out levels.
Will try and get that to you later today,
Cheers
Ed
Tuesday 14 July HF
Posted by John Davis on July 14, 2020 at 18:48:25.
Got a late start this morning. F is still cranked up to Ludicrous Power on 13555.035 during the 11 AM hour CDT, swamping what little of WV is available 20 Hz lower. Up in the top end of the band, only MN 13562.673 and KAH 13566.058 are audible or visible. At the watering hole, it was EH, NC, SIW slant, MTI, and a hint of K5LVB WSPR.
All were only at fair signal levels except F. It too underwent some brief deep fades, but starting out approximately 30 dB higher in level, the impact was less that on the normal signals.
Re: Sunday 12 July Mid-day
Posted by John Davis on July 15, 2020 at 05:38:50.
In reply to Re: Sunday 12 July Mid-day posted by Ed Holland on July 12, 2020
I take it PVC is back in QRSS3, as I saw a nice ID at 9:05 PM CDT tonight, Tuesday the 14th, about 13555.490 kHz.
Re: Sunday 12 July Mid-day
Posted by Ed Holland on July 15, 2020 at 16:07:56.
In reply to Re: Sunday 12 July Mid-day posted by John Davis on July 15, 2020
John,
Yes, thank you for the report. I forgot to post an update. My skills with the K1EL and "bare bones" dual paddle are improving :-)
The paddle is a piece of rough wood, to which are screwed three pieces of coat-hanger wire. One wire makes a return contact bar, the others are shaped to make the dot and dash keys. It is ugly, but extremely effective and cost nothing. Matches my Morse proficiency rather well!
Ed
HiFER shortage.
Posted by Ed Holland on July 15, 2020 at 19:00:17.
Hi Folks,
I allowed a luttle time for HiFER listening and detection over yhe weekend. Alas, there was very little to be heard or seen. Brief fade-ins of NC and 7P on Friday, with what looked to be EH. Looking at the 13560+ side of the noise, there was nothing to be found. Even the noise was weak!
73s
Ed
LowFER Net, 27 June
Posted by John Davis on July 15, 2020 at 20:30:41.
Here is a recording of the June 27 net. Present were Jerry WA6OWR, Dave WD4PLI, Ed KI6R, and John AEØCQ (via email and KFS WebSDR). As usual, this MP3 should not be considered a permanently available file, so along with making playback more reliable, you should probably right-click and download it to your local drive first.
websdr_2020-06-27_3929kHz.mp3
Notes on 4 July, 2020 LowFER Net
Posted by Clint Turner on July 15, 2020 at 20:58:31.
Notes on 4 July, 2020 LowFER Net
(±3929Khz Saturday morning 0800 California time)
Present were:
Jerry, WA6OWR; Ed, KI6R; Dave, WD4PLI; John, AEØCQ; Clint, KA7OEI
73,
Clint Notes on 11 July, 2020 LowFER Net
KA7OEI
Posted by Clint Turner on July 15, 2020 at 21:32:47.
Notes on 11 July, 2020 LowFER Net
(±3929Khz Saturday morning 0800 California time)
Present were: Jerry, WA6OWR; John, AEØCQ; Clint, KA7OEI; Ed, KI6R
73,
Clint, KA7OEI
Re: NDB2 Wanderlust - Wednesday HiFERs
Posted by Jeff K8NDB on July 16, 2020 at 10:47:40.
In reply to NDB2 Wanderlust - Wednesday HiFERs posted by John Davis on July 08, 2020
Thanks for the NDB2 report John. John KF7RPF will check out the beacon the next time he is in St. Libory. Keep up the good reporting, we all appreciate it. 73's Jeff
"T" 13563.3 khz and sporadic E
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 16, 2020 at 15:37:26.
I checked the CB band at 1530 UTc and it was open so I checked the Sedona, AZ SDR Re: "T" 13563.3 khz and sporadic E
and sure enough good copy on "T".
Posted by John Davis on July 16, 2020 at 18:55:22.
In reply to "T" 13563.3 khz and sporadic E posted by Bill Hensel on July 16, 2020
That's good news, Bill. I wonder if Es favors east-to-west paths for some reason? I still have the most difficult time trying to get your signal, even though a lot of the background carriers that used to occupy the 13563.3+ range are no longer there.
Every time I do a band scan, there are some specific frequencies I always check because they can sometimes yield multiple signals: 13554.1 puts AZ and NDB2 in my passband; 13555.0 gives WV along with whatever intermittent signals like P and F; 13558.4 puts a couple of presently unidentified signals in the passband along with TON; 13565.0 encompasses FRC, TGR, and JUN whenever the ionosphere deigns to grant its favors; and 13563.2 gives me VAN on the low side of the nominal BFO frequency, and maybe someday T on the higher side.
Re: "T" 13563.3 khz and sporadic E
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 16, 2020 at 20:58:25.
In reply to Re: "T" 13563.3 khz and sporadic E posted by John Davis on July 16, 2020
John, Reminder: Lowfer net +/- 3929Khz Saturday morning 0800 California time
The freq. on the N.Utah SDR is 13563.45 khz it is coming in well there...time is 2058 utc.
Posted by Jerry Parker on July 17, 2020 at 13:26:18.
Reminder: Lowfer net +/- 3929Khz Saturday morning 0800 California time
Or listen online at kfs: LBC
http://69.27.184.62:8901/?tune=3929lsb
or
KPH Point Reyes:
http://198.40.45.23:8073/
or
Utah Web sdr:
http://www.sdrutah.org/websdr1.html If you cannot get into the net on 80 meters you can listen on KFS and participate by sending net control your thoughts to wa6owr@gmail.com
73,
Jerry WA6OWR
Posted by Ed Holland on July 19, 2020 at 18:27:57.
Hi Folks,
I was listening this morning (~11:15 PDT) and during setup, made the usual scan across the middle of the band, which is often a useful barometer for conditions. As I did this a very clear Morse ident of LBC was heard at about 5 WPM. It was clear enough that I was able to capture a sample, which should be attached.
Any previous experience with this one?
Cheers
Ed
---------------------------------------------------------------
File Attachment 1: LBC(19-Jul-2020).mp3
HIFER LBC
Heard Hifer LBC 18 July on 13.560.04~ My QTH Oro Valley, AZ
TGR back on air new location
Posted by K2TGR on July 20, 2020 at 18:57:14.
TGR is back on the air as of just now. We are about 15 miles from our previous location at the moment, near the shore of Lake Erie just south of Buffalo. Will be here TFN. Antenna/xmtr are the same: Fiberglas CB whip on front of bus tuned with homebrew "Altoids Tuner Tin" matching network. ID is 5WPM CW ~13564.92.
Bus is now facing north instead of south, so temperature and hence, frequency where transmitter is located should be a lot more stable.
Harris Strategy: Miracle of the EARs
Posted by John Davis on July 23, 2020 at 19:19:49.
I was about to call this 'The Van Gogh Report-Missing EAR' because overnight static had grown so much worse since my pre-shutdown capture of EAR on the morning of June 1. Overnight captures, limited to nights when the storm forecast was most promising, were yielding nothing.
A week ago Tuesday (morning of the 14th), however, I finally caught a glimpse of keyed RF within millihertz of the expected frequency, but it was too incomplete to identify with certainty. I knew J.B. had set his repetition rate to be 12 minutes, but I didn't know the starting time of the cycle. Fortunately, Garry K3SIW and Mike WA3TTS were able to provide daytime captures, one of which showed an ID commencing a few seconds prior to H + :42, which matched up with the 4:41+ AM CDT time of my capture, and the timing of the characters lined up perfectly with the snippets I managed to see. That restored my hope of getting a recognizable ID to claim in July; but since the previous strategy of calculating the QRN odds wasn't panning out that well (in Mother Nature's casino, the game is always rigged against predictions), I decided I needed to improve the odds by simply listening every night that there was no possibility of local storms, regardless of the prospects elsewhere on the continent or the lightning strike count on Blitzortung at 10 PM, which had been part of my decision criteria. This approach is labor intensive and unscientific to the Nth degree, but then a miracle occurred. Hence the name, Harris Strategy.
(If by some odd chance you don't know the reference, it involves my favorite Sidney Harris cartoon. If you go to Google and type in "harris cartoon," the first choice you will be offered automatically is "harris cartoon then a miracle occurs" ...which apparently means it must be a lot of other folks' favorite Harris cartoon as well.)
At any rate, the result of the miracle is shown below. This is almost the entire night's reception of EAR. The signal started appearing during momentary breaks in the crashes shortly after 1:00 AM CDT (0600 UTC), and was gone for the morning by 4:00 AM. This is a single Argo screen at QRSS60, stretched horizontally ×2 to emulate a higher sensitivity version of a QRSS30 window. It seems to confirm that the cycles currently repeat within a few seconds of H+06, 18, 30, 42, and 54 minutes
Scroll As Needed. Times Shown Are CDT.
---------------------------------------------------------------
File Attachment 1: 23jul-EAR.jpg
Re: Harris Strategy: Miracle of the EARs
Your new strategy and persistence paid off, John! Now your July goal has been met. On another note, overnight Navtex monitoring produced my first DX of the season with the new computer and antenna. Simiutaq, Greenland appeared in my log this morning.
73, J.B., VE3EAR Reminder: Lowfer net +/- 3929Khz Saturday morning 0800 California time
Posted by Jerry Parker on July 24, 2020 at 12:48:21.
Reminder: Lowfer net +/- 3929Khz Saturday morning 0800 California time
Or listen online at kfs:
http://69.27.184.62:8901/?tune=3929lsb
or
KPH Point Reyes:
http://198.40.45.23:8073/
or
Utah Web sdr:
http://www.sdrutah.org/websdr1.html
If you cannot get into the net on 80 meters you can listen on KFS and participate by sending net control your thoughts to wa6owr@gmail.com
73,
Jerry WA6OWR
Re: "T" 13563.45 khz and sporadic E
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 24, 2020 at 14:44:38.
In reply to Re: "T" 13563.3 khz and sporadic E posted by Bill Hensel on July 16, 2020
T is blasting into Northern Utah SDR time 1443 utc freq. 13563.45 khz Re: "T" 13563.45 khz and sporadic E
http://kiwisdr2.sdrutah.org:8074/
Posted by Ed Holland on July 24, 2020 at 19:59:07.
In reply to Re: "T" 13563.45 khz and sporadic E posted by Bill Hensel on July 24, 2020
I'll have a listen this weekend Bill. It would be good to catch one of your beacons again.
Re: Harris Strategy: Miracle of the EARs
Posted by John Davis on July 24, 2020 at 21:13:40.
In reply to Re: Harris Strategy: Miracle of the EARs posted by John Bruce McCreath on July 24, 2020
Congratulations, J.B. That is appreciable DX for this season.
Now that my July goal has been attained, I now have to hope for similar miracles in August and September to have a reasonable chance of at least one reception per calendar month for the entire year. Perhaps I can stack the deck a bit by finally completing the 10×20 foot loop for which I laid out the foundations three summers ago, pre-surgery. I nicknamed it Euroloop, although its plane of 45°/225° could more accurately argue for the names Mediterloop or NewZealoop. The important thing in this case is that southern Ontario is right in the center of the 45° alignment, while the Gulf of Mexico and the Big Sky country and the Badlands (the regions generally receiving the most severe storms in late summer) are at right angles.
Re: "T" 13563.45 khz and sporadic E
Posted by John Davis on July 24, 2020 at 21:23:03.
In reply to Re: "T" 13563.45 khz and sporadic E posted by Ed Holland on July 24, 2020
>> It would be good to catch one of your beacons again.
It certainly would, here to the east as well. Now that I know it's a little higher in frequency than my CW filter covers when I'm tuned for VAN, I've added the higher frequency to my schedule when doing band scans, still without luck so far. Given the patterns of reception so far, I'm guessing somewhere during the 1300 UTC hour would give the best chances here. Are you usually on that early, Bill?
Re: "T" 13563.45 khz and sporadic E
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 24, 2020 at 22:34:36.
In reply to Re: "T" 13563.45 khz and sporadic E posted by Ed Holland on July 24, 2020
Ed it is coming in to AZ right now it is 2231 utc...was into Utah all day long..
baring a thunderstorm it will still be on most of the night up to 0400 utc.
Tomorrow Sat. the 25th I'll turn it on at 1300 utc. as John requested.
Re: "T" 13563.45 khz and sporadic E
Posted by Bill Hensel on July 24, 2020 at 22:36:44.
In reply to Re: "T" 13563.45 khz and sporadic E posted by John Davis on July 24, 2020
Read Dave Hollands E mail for more info. on T The 630m exciter has had a failure.
I will turn it on at 1300 utc. Sat. the 25th...good dx 73
Posted by Mike N8OOU on July 25, 2020 at 01:58:42.
All;
My QRSS transmissions on 475.300 Khz have ended. The EEprom memory of the U3S was erased after a heavy summer thunderstorm passed directly overhead. We had several flash/booms that cause you to jump then panic. A master reset and quick test this evening, confirmed no permanent damage, just a memory wipeout.
I am working to reconfigure the antenna setup to allow transmissions on both 1750 and 630. There are several changes to install, so it will take a few days to complete. The WM Hifer continues to operate normally.
Thanks to all listeners.
Mike N8OOU 73
HiFERs Sat 25 July
Posted by John Davis on July 25, 2020 at 16:32:19.
After early morning receiver diagnostics*, I listened between 8 and 9 AM CDT (1300-14000 UTC). At first, only weak signals were present from EH and NC, and fair signals from WV. As the hour wore on, things picked up a little. By 9:00, I had copied K6FRC faintly, ODX and KAH at fair to good copy, improved signals from EH and NC, a brief appearance by JB, and good signals from 7P. There was also an unidentified QRSS-looking signal 5 to 7 Hz below 7P, but it was sufficiently broken up by fading that I couldn't tell if it was real or a random carrier.
In between, I mainly tuned around 13563.45, listening for T. At times, Argo showed a hint of what might have been a keyed carrier at .400, but I could never hear anything definite.
(*The blessed R75 performed a spontaneous CPU reset sometime between Thursday morning and sunset last night, wiping all memories and reverting to factory defaults. That disrupted yesterday's plans, and required digging out the manual so I could remind it this morning that it had optional narrow filters installed.)
Hifer ABBY
Posted by Chris on July 25, 2020 at 19:22:56.
We have had a few storms this past week, the beacon appears to have moved frequency 13566.75-80. Not really sure why the storms/ an 8foot wire fence has been installed about 5 feet away on property line and transmitter. The coax and antenna well above fence. I was listening to some KiwiSDR receivers in Colorado , Texas and Utah. Beacon making it into Texas really good between 9-10 pm EST. Heard it most recently in Utah and was peaking S3. I think that is the record distance heard using an Adrian radio via web.
Re: Hifer ABBY
Posted by Chris on July 25, 2020 at 19:26:14.
In reply to Hifer ABBY posted by Chris on July 25, 2020
The use of KiwiSDR radios, not Adrian. Stupidity spell checker!
Re: Hifer ABBY
Posted by Chris on July 25, 2020 at 19:43:49.
In reply to Re: Hifer ABBY posted by Chris on July 25, 2020
I forgot to mention that KAH and ODX were heard at those locations I mentioned previously. I note them as a reference to hear Abby. Abby beacon is usually always late to the party and sometimes does not show. Few weeks I noticed only propogation of about 200 miles during daytime until recently . Propogation tending to favor grey line /night reception on 22m band.
Re: HiFERs Sat 25 July
Posted by John B on July 26, 2020 at 12:24:01.
In reply to HiFERs Sat 25 July posted by John Davis on July 25, 2020
Hi John,
Thanks for the logging... it's good to know the mighty 2mW is still getting out!
Re: HiFERs Sat 25 July - Midday
Posted by John Davis on July 26, 2020 at 20:23:18.
In reply to HiFERs Sat 25 July posted by John Davis on July 25, 2020
By mid-morning, EH, NC and 7P were clear, and there was a particularly good ID from JB around 9:20 AM CDT. K5LVB started showing up too, later in the hour. By 11 AM, EH was harder to see but NC was stronger and had drifted down onto 7P. WM started showing up minutes later. SIW slant began appearing shortly before noon.
During the noon hour, MTI became fair to good copy but WM went away for a while, JB became intermittent copy, and KLVB disappeared until around 1 o'clock.
By 2:00, 7P was barely visible at all and NC had drifted all the way down to SIW slant. By 3:00, SIW slant gave up for a while, and MTI went away.
Around 4:30, JB started showing up more clearly and K5LVB was in fine form. Apart from a reappearance of WM for just a couple minutes before 5 PM, and the sudden disappearance of NC at 5:50 PM, the cast of characters remained largely unchanged, but with signal levels overall gradually declining.
At 6:25 PM, NC suddenly returned, but didn't remain strong too long. About that time, I returned to the radio myself and did a band scan. K6FRC showed up before 6:42 PM, just long enough to become visible on Argo and fair aural copy for about three IDs, then faded back to nothing again. Nobody else turned up in that scan, so I returned to the watering hole again.
Apart from rare brief snippets of NC, there was no copy there either, all the way through sunset and up to 9:25 PM when I paid attention to the radio again. But that's the subject of the next post in this thread.
Re: HiFERs Sat 25 July - LBC
Posted by John Davis on July 26, 2020 at 21:28:08.
In reply to Re: HiFERs Sat 25 July - Midday posted by John Davis on July 26, 2020
Who would've thought it? The new mystery beacon made it to Kansas, all the way from--wherever it is!
Conditions that former favored post-sunset HiFER activity have clearly changed now that we're a month past the solstice, a nuisance that I've noticed a couple of times over the past week. There had been nobody visible at the watering hole for hours, other than the high power pulsers and some mild Codar. When I started an aural band check around 9:20 PM, there was no sign of WV, nor AZ, nor TON.
I wondered if the mid-band racket was suppressed, too, and the first cluster centered around 13560.1 kHz was indeed unusually faint. I just happened to be parked right at 13560.040 when I heard keyed Morse code! It was obviously lower in frequency than previously reported, but it was clearly signing LBC. I immediately set up to record, in case it was going to be as brief a reception as some earlier in the evening had been, and after I had a couple minutes on the hard drive, I began retuning to find the actual frequency. Turns out (at least, last night) it was 13599.930 kHz ±2.5 Hz.
My recording is not as clean as Ed's excellent clip was, but you can tell the QSB effects that were present here. In the first repetition, you can hear most of the keying, but it's only really distinctive on the C. In the second one, it's B and C that are clear. The third one grows loud in the middle of the L, but the fourth cycle is distinct all the way through.
The capture shows the signal to have nice short-term stability and clean, compact sideband structure.
Since the only other signal visible (and partly audible) on the band at that time was VAN, there would be some temptation to suppose LBC might be from roughly the same direction, but I would be reluctant to guess since none of the other signals that frequently accompany VAN were detectable at all.
I've listened there a couple of times since the first reports, but never really expected anything. The timing yesterday night and choice of frequency were remarkably fortuitous. As can be seen in the capture, not all of the "first cluster" noise signals were entirely gone, even at that time, but they were diminished just enough to make reception possible. (The "second cluster" in this region is centered around 13561.5, and it was still going strong. It required my narrow CW filter to do the job.)
Now if we only knew whom to thank and/or where to send reception reports.
---------------------------------------------------------------
File Attachment 1: LBC-25jul.mp3
File Attachment 2: LBC-25jul.jpg
ODX Into NC
I haven't done any listening in a while, so this afternoon I shut down WAS for a short while and made a few passes across the band. Nothing heard but ODX. He was at about a RST 439 on peaks between 2132Z & 2138Z, 7/26/20. Agn about the same from 2151Z 'till around 2155Z. A good amount of QSB was noted during those times.
WAS is now plugged back in, but with its extremely slow restart (if at all) when powered back up, may be tomorrow before I get time to take it down from the wall, open it up and give it a massage.
73 de Bill K4JYS in NC
SZX Beacon QRT
Posted by Mark Garrett on July 27, 2020 at 18:55:13.
It appears that the SXX beacon has suffered a failure due to lightning. Transmitter was a self contained Epson programmable oscillator is non-repairable and no longer being made.
I will review what is going wrong with this setup and see if and what others do to keep lightning out of their beacons. Feel free to comment and what you have found successful in keeping your beacons operational during thunderstorms.
Those that venture into the 10 meter band can listen for the KA9SZX beacon on 28.215 and it is in its 28th year of operation.
Mark Garrett Old UNID
KA9SZX
Posted by Shawn Axelrod on July 28, 2020 at 11:19:12.
I found an old UNID in my logbook and was wondering if anyone would have info on it. I heard a beacon IH repeated over and over on 1680 kHz plus or minus. Does anyone have any idea what it might have been back in the mid 1990's. I know it is a long shot but any help would be appreciated. Please reply to my email address. Thanks for your time. Re: ODX Into NC
Shawn
Posted by Steve on July 28, 2020 at 11:45:02.
In reply to ODX Into NC posted by Bill Stewart, K4JYS on July 26, 2020
Thanks for the report. Glad its getting out okay...73
Re: HiFERs Sat 25 July - LBC
Posted by John B on July 28, 2020 at 18:25:16.
In reply to Re: HiFERs Sat 25 July - LBC posted by John Davis on July 26, 2020
John ,
That's a particularly good audio recording and the copy is clear. Good DX there!
John B
Re: HiFERs Sat 25 July - LBC
Posted by Ed Holland on July 29, 2020 at 16:20:56.
In reply to Re: HiFERs Sat 25 July - LBC posted by John B on July 28, 2020
Agreed - Good catch John!
Ed
Re: SZX Beacon QRT
Posted by WA1EDJ Bob on July 29, 2020 at 17:01:36.
In reply to SZX Beacon QRT posted by Mark Garrett on July 27, 2020
Mark, WSPR into EM83du
If your Epson was a SG-8002, DigiKey still sells them. I see other programable osc options I'd like to try too just in case the SG-8002 is gone someday.
Posted by WA1EDJ Bob on July 29, 2020 at 17:12:00.
Decoding SIW and LVB on a daily basis here in N. GA. Anywhere from 2130 to 0830 local EDT.
I've found using WJST-X in conjunction with ARGO works great. WJST-X gives me a wide view of the band so I can spot activity. Then just slide ARGO's window to the signal.
Maybe I'm just late to the party on this one but one day it hit me.
A new ARGO like app is out there to try too. FSKView. Scott ?? wrote it and the QRSSKnights are using it more and more. I have not tried it.
I've got a new WSPR TX I'll be trying soon. It is on W3PM's WSPR webpage. 5351A (of course), Nano or UNO, DS3231 RTC and .96" OLED. I've built 2 and works FB, easy!
Bob Re: HiFERs Sat 25 July - LBC
WA1EDJ
EDJ
Posted by John Davis on July 29, 2020 at 18:53:21.
In reply to Re: HiFERs Sat 25 July - LBC posted by John B on July 28, 2020
Thanks John & Ed. I heard LBC again Sunday night about the same time, but this time the only other signal on the band was NC. Since that's basically the opposite direction from VAN, the presence of those signals pretty much cancel each other out as being potential clues to the direction of origin. Kind of hard to appreciate it as "good DX" without knowing where it comes from.
Maybe it's somebody following the questionable "advice" of our infamous Dr. Answer Guy: Re: ODX Into NC
AGexcerpt-MarApr2020.pdf
Posted by chris on July 30, 2020 at 01:24:32.
In reply to Re: ODX Into NC posted by Steve on July 28, 2020
Hearing ODX on the Norther Utah Kiwi SDR via "beam antenna pointed east" KAH and ABBY being heard there too. All beacons fading in and out 9:20 PM EST.
Chris KC3GFZ
Re: WSPR into EM83du
Posted by Garry, K3SIW on July 30, 2020 at 12:54:17.
In reply to WSPR into EM83du posted by WA1EDJ Bob on July 29, 2020
Bob, thanks for the report and mention of FSKView. I updated to .NET 4.8 and it runs fine on my Windows 7 SP1 64bit HP3500 PC. Currently there are no frequency choices for either 630 mtrs or 2200 mtrs and if you set the frequency to "0" decodes don't show on the waterfall. I've asked Scott if he would add those bands so perhaps there will be a new version of code shortly.
73, Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL
Re: WSPR into EM83du
Posted by WA1EDJ Bob on July 31, 2020 at 13:55:07.
In reply to Re: WSPR into EM83du posted by Garry, K3SIW on July 30, 2020
Scott seems to make most changes requested. The QRSSKnights feed him suggestions frequently. I'll be back WSPRing soon here. Almost got the bugs worked out of my
W3PM WSPR machine. In the meantime, keep sending some WSPR my way for testing!
Bob
EDJ
EM83du
potrzebie