July 1998 Longwave Messages

(Remember that e-mail addresses in these posts are likely to become outdated over time.)

• Subj: MEP off air
  Date: 98-07-29 22:04:11 EDT
  From: larryc bscn (L Caldwell)
  LF beacon MEP (188.540) will be off the air for the rest of the summer, or at least until I can come up with a new antenna site. The location I have been using is no longer available.
  Larry Caldwell
  N5MEP

• Subj: Lightning Experience
  Date: 98-07-29 13:00:51 EDT
  From: William.Ashlock edwards.boc (Ashlock, William)
  Last Thursday we had a major rain storm in the Boston area that caused considerable lightning damage to homes and resulted in at least seven people being struck by lightning (luckily all survived). Storms like this are a very rare event for this part of the country.
  By chance, I went home for lunch that day, and because of storm warnings, I removed the beacon antenna lead-in wire from the transmitter located in the family room and connected it to a ground rod next to the house.
  Within 10 minutes I was startled by a POP that was about the magnitude of shorting out a 1000uf capacitor charged with 100 volts. I, then, discovered that the transmitter and computer/keyer were not working. The damaged parts count turned out to be two output stage transistors plus one 555 timer in the transmitter, and a number of ICs in the computer.
  The lightning must have gotten into the shack (family room) via the wire that connects the transmitter to the buried ground system in the yard. Because the DC resistance for this system is not that low (typical for the sandy and rocky soil in this area), the lowest resistance path to a good DC ground must have been through the transmitter and computer and on to the AC power grid and water pipe ground.
  WA should be back on the air within a couple of days.

• Subj: JPH off the air
  Date: 98-07-29 10:52:01 EDT
  From: jph astro.umd.edu
  Just a note to inform the members that my lowfer beacon JPH on 185.7 kHz is off the air indefinitely -- the roof-top antenna was taken out by a summer thunderstorm last week; the mast snapped at the base insulator. I've no immediate plans to put it back up, but who knows?
  The topend beacon PH still limps along on its solar panel when the sun shines ...
  Cheers,
  J. Patrick Harrington

• Subj: a long wave antenna question
  Date: 98-07-29 02:22:40 EDT
  From: (mikeann)
  I am trying to find a low cost fairly decent antenna to use with my Sangean ATS818/Realistic DX390 receiver. This receiver covers 150khz to 30 MHz continuously. But I am just interested in finding an antenna to cover the 150-500khz long wave segment. The antenna the radio has built in just does not seem to hear anything. I bearly can hear the local airport beacon HXN on 366kHz.
  I am handicapped and unemployed, and on a limited income. So I would prefer to build something, it is usually cheaper that way. While I am familiar with Loop antennas I was wondering if they are too big to construct and use from an apartment?
  Can you or a member of your organization possibly provide me with instructions on building an antenna that will afford me fair to good reception? Thank you for your time and assistance.
  Sincerest 73s
  Mike Edelson KA2SPH

• Subj: LOWFER/Natural Radio web page
  Date: 98-07-27 18:28:27 EDT
  From: n4ywk (Will Payne)
  Howdy, folks !
  Sorry I've been outa touch a long time. At work we put the first two new F-22 fighter in the air for their first flights, and also are in the throes of a rigorous flight test program for our new C-130J. Lockheed sent me FAR south to Patagonia on the flight test program. I managed to add some LOWFER and sferics activities to my trip, which was unfortunately cut short when I was injured. Details on web page.
  Anyway, in my copious free time, I have put up a web page at www.altair.org "Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum" dedicated to its responsible use and exploration. LowFER, and Natural Radio figure prominently in the web site, plus Tesla, ham and microwave experiments, as well as a bit of weird science. If you haven't seen it, you should. Those of you who already have, visit again, you will find much more than before.
  My new projects have indeed languished for the most part, but I did dredge up lots more project diagrams, files and source code from earlier designs, and more is being added each day. I am still recuperating at home from several broken bones, but have performed the Houdini Escape from my body cast and am able to mouse and key about the net pretty well now. I plan to spend the rest of my recovery working on the altair web site, so keep those suggestions and ideas rolling in. I have added files in response to ALMOST every request I have received so far.
  A big thanks to John Hoopes, the LWCA and all the folks who sent suggestions and comments on the page, and to all who contributed ideas and material for publication there.
  William E. Payne
  N4YWK, YWK

• Subject: TEXAS is Back On-the-Air
  Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1998 20:26:12 -0500
  From: "William Cantrell"
  Hello all,
  As John Reed noticed below, TEXAS is back on the air again. It is on a new frequency of 189.900 kHz. The Class-E transmitter redesign worked even better than I expected. It looks like I am now radiating in excess of 11 mW into the ether! Look for three technical articles to follow on the redesign effort (AUG, SEPT, OCT `98 LOWDOWN). I have found some surprising things about LowFER antenna losses that run contrary to some published articles.
  TEXAS(space) will remain MS200, ET1, on 189.900 kHz (atomic clock standard), with 5 minutes of bpsk and 5 minutes of CW at 6 wpm. (BPSK is sent during minutes ending in 0,1,2,3,4, and CW is sent during minutes ending in 5,6,7,8,9, synchronized with WWV.)
  With this 100F+ Texas heat, I have rolled out the chicken-wire ground plane again. No need to mow the grass this summer -- it's dead!
  --
  Regards,
  Bill Cantrell
  
  • Forwarded Message:
    To: Bill Cantrell
    From: jtreed poncacity (John Reed)
    Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1998 18:17:43 -0600
    Subject: TEXAS
    Hi Bill,
    About 1:00 PM today I was doing some testing with OK (189.95) and heard another signal in the background. I turned on the audio filter and heard the familiar TEXAS cw signal on 189.90. Were you doing some testing? Signal sounded good, very readable even with thunderstorm static. Heard with 33" ferrite rod loop with balanced amp and Harris RF-550 modified for LF.
    73, John

• Subj: Hamview 2.05 available
  Date: 98-07-24 17:52:07 EDT
  From: ik2czl amsat.org (Vittorio De Tomasi)
  Hi to everybody!
  This is to inform you that at the URL www.freeyellow.com/members/padan
  you can find the last release of Hamview, the software developed by me and I2PHD that transforms a Pentium PC with Sound Blaster 16 or better into a powerful spectrum analyzer and real time digital signal processor with LMS denoiser, mouse-tunable band pass filter, etc. More news to come with the next versions...
  best 73
  Vittorio

• Subj: WTB: Rycom 6040
  Date: 98-07-23 00:55:09 EDT
  From: avrial ix
  Hi, Im looking for a Rycom 6040 for LW DXing. If anyone has one for sale please let me know.
  Thanks in advance.
  Rob, KE6ONN

• Subject: longwave page
  Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 03:35:34 +0200
  From: Peter van Daalen
  I asked Yahoo on elf-lf resources. I was not sure if this search would satisfy me. Right now I know better. I have printed all your pages and links ( this costed me a long night ) and I've got a huge pile of paper now which i'm gonna enjoy this weekend and next week. I guess after that there will be few stuff I don't know about elf vlf radio.
  This is really great !
  Peter, PE1ECM
  Amsterdam
  Netherlands

• Subject: Web Address change
  Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 11:20:06 -0700
  From: Alex Wiecek
  Hello there, just to let you know, a correction for your site.
  In your LF utility page the link to my page is now incorrect.
  Instead of www.ionsys.com/~magnum... (etc) it should be:
  web.ionsys.com/~magnum/longwave/longwave.htm
  Thank you for keeping a link.
  Alex Wiecek

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    Alex Wiecek CEO of FUBAR Electronics

• Subj: Re: Beacon guide
  Date: 98-07-18 09:26:21 EDT
  From: (Robert Montgomery)
  I have completed the N, S, and Central America beacon guide but going through what I have to check for errors. I am getting a bit confused, (not hard to do these days) about a couple of beacons. One that I can hear and no where any where is it listed is RJD on 226 from Ridgely Park, MD. I have been hearing this one for over a year now so I know it exists. The FAA manual and the on line service link from the web page shows no info at all. I am not the only one that has reported the beacon. So what do you think the deal is here. Do you think the beacon is a private owned device and therefore does not rate listing? This is not the only one I have noted this way but picked this one cause I know it is on the air. Any ideas? I sent a note to Paul Santos and waiting for a reply.

• Subj: Re: WWVB receiver
  Date: 98-07-17 08:03:36 EDT
  From:
  Alex: http://www.lakeweb.com/dbLabs/wwvb.html
  I have an interest in WWVB clock also. The above URL has a sketchy document on a homebrew receiver. If you're interested, I have a file of a microcontroller program to decode the time signal that runs on a PIC84... It's written in "C" but provides a lot of basic decoding information. I'd be interested in any feedback you might get from your question in the logwave message area.
  Cheers
  Ted in Atlanta KD4EE

• Subj: WWVB Receiver
  Date: 98-07-16 19:18:39 EDT
  From:
  Hello,
  I want to build a WWVB (60kHz) receiver and (preferably indoor) antenna. I don't really want to get too complex, such as with an up-converter. I just need to demodulate the 1Hz pulse train (10db shifts) and I can deal with it at that point. I would prefer some kind of auto frequency control, so that I can compensate for drift, as this receiver is intended to run for long periods of time. Any ideas, recommendations, plans, etc. Thanks.
  --
  Alex Sokolek

• Subj: antennas for 130kHz
  Date: 98-07-14 07:45:11 EDT
  From: gert.de.gooijer comtestnl
  Hello!
  I am very happy with the new 130kHz band here in the Netherlands. We are allowed to use 400 watt of output power. This most be easy, I've got some VMOS power mosfets capable of 100 watt each....
  One problem though: The antenna! I did not find any drawing of a practical design. Also the antennatuner seems difficult to me: the voltages, henrys and farads in such a tuner most be a problem. Has anybody info on this? I would be happy if anyone could send me some details on these matters
  My Email
  best 73's
  Gert
  PA3CRC

• Subj: RE: Re: Racal RA6790
  Date: 98-07-08 20:54:00 EDT
  From: DAVEINBHAM aol
  CC: ab4ms
  Hi John,
  Thank you for responding to my post on the net. I tried your suggestion and it worked !! I punched in " enter 15222000 enter 15 " and there was my local airport beacon on 222 kHz. There was ,according to the manual, a low frequency ( down to 10 kHz ) option available on these receivers. It now appears the option was simply a different program in the onboard computer.
  I have had this radio only about 2 months. The dealer from whom I purchased it now has one of the low frequency units for sale. I wanted to know how well the radio would work at low frequencies and you answered my question. Again, thanks.
  Dave Holder
  Birmingham, Alabama

• Subj: RE: Racal RA6790
  Date: 98-07-07 12:46:56 EDT
  From: ab4ms peachnet.campus.mci (John Hoopes)
  Hi Dave,
  I own two of the RA6790 Racal receivers. They are excellent radios but will not tune below 500 khz using the VFO. However, you can fool the CPU by manually punching the keypad with frequency of interest. If for instance, you want to listen to 185.000 khz, you would enter 11185000 and then 00. The second set of zeros wipes out the first two digits which would be MHz. I wrote a computer program in Visual Basic where I can control the receiver directly and can tune to 0 hertz if I so desire. You will need the A6 option for this though. I believe must Racal receivers on the surplus market came with this. If you have any further questions, feel free to E-mail me.
  Regards,
  John

• Subj: Member's pages
  Date: 98-07-06 22:45:50 EDT
  From: joe provcomm (Joseph Cooper)
  Could you please add my web page to the "member's pages" section of the LWCA web page: http://www.provcomm.net/pages/joe
  My page covers Canadian Lowfer topics (RSS-210) and construction projects
  Thanks and 73's
  Joe Cooper VE3FMQ

• Subject: R390A Page is up
  Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 09:26:30 -0400
  From: Chuck Rippel
  I placed a link here from my Listening/R390A site. Go have a look.
  The URL is: http://users.exis.net/~crippel/
  Thanks!
  Chuck Rippel

• Subj: LF: 1st G-LX
  Date: 98-07-05 05:24:34 EDT
  From: johan_smet csi (Johan Smet)
  Witnessed the 1st g-lx this morning at 09:05 UT: LX1PD with the loudest sig ever heard here (569) and G3YXM (539).
  Congrats to both stations!
  ON5EX John

• Subj: Racal RA6790GM
  Date: 98-07-03 22:46:48 EDT
  From:
  Has anyone out there had any experience with the low frequency ( 10kHz-29.999999 MHz ) version of the Racal RA6790GM radio ? I have been saving to get a Watkins-Johnson HF-1000 , but I now have a chance to buy the Racal for less than half the price of the WJ. Any user comments on either radio - good or bad -would be kindly appreciated.
  Thanks
  Dave Holder
  Birmingham, Alabama

• Subject: More Consol
  Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1998 09:12:40 -0700
  From: Jon Iza
  Organization: School of Engineering. University of the Basque Country
  I've recently got a book published by the Dutch VERON society (Dutch RRL), in Dutch, written by the friends of Dick Rollema, PA0SE who for almost 40 years has published a column in the Journal Electron. The first article, signed by Arthur Bauer, PA0AOB, deals with Consol, with interesting descriptions on the mode and the setup in Europe. It's funny that not knowing anything about Consol, now we are experts...
  :-)
  Be well
  jon, ea2sn

• Subj: E-Mail Address Change
  Date: 98-07-02 20:02:01 EDT
  From: keith mmwt (Keith Ballinger)
  Re my earlier e-mail on the RSGB LF Notebook and the enquiry about ground-rods as an antenna - could anyone who has responded by E-mail please resend to my new account as keith#mmwt.com. Thanks!
  Regards,
  Keith VA3QF

• Subj: On the Road again - revisited
  Date: 98-07-02 20:46:26 EDT
  From: n4zv roanoke.infi (n4zv)
  A reminder that medfer VA has shifted to 1636.8, to avoid "The Sports Animal" on 1670 - per my e-mail of 6/7. Sorry to get confirmation of the passing of Hank.
  73, Bart

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