- Subj: From Maryland
Date: 99-07-24 23:54:40 EDT
From: jmsch tqci (Jon M Schumacher)
I'm glad to see LF operating is alive and well. It appears we are on the verge of an actual amateur allocation in the near furure here in the USA. I had a lot of fun listening for West Coast Lowfer's during the 1980's and operated beacons NV. NVA and NVB on 177 Khz. from southern Nevada for a few years.
I am now in southern Maryland and may break out the gear again for another "go" at it if the noise isn't too bad. I wonder if Dave, AB5S, is out there listening. We sure had a ball fooling with our beacons. He actually heard an East Coast lowfer one night from Nevada. Due to a quiet receiving location, we routinely listened to legitimate 1-watters at midday.
73,
Jon M. Schumacher, K1NV (ex-K7NV)
- Subj: Medfer transmitters
Date: 99-07-24 02:37:09 EDT
From: royal mailpowernet (Bob Royal)
I'm interested in trying to put up a medfer beacon in my area. I was
wondering if anyone has had any success with converting any of the QRP
kits such as the Pixie2 for this type of operation?? Or is that even a
workable idea? If so are there any articles to that effect?
73
- Subj: LW Boat Anchor
Date: 99-07-22 22:51:24 EDT
From: salmaniw home (Walter (Volodya) Salmaniw, MD)
Met a wonderful elderly man today who showed me an old BA rig, covering 15
KHz to 1500 KHz. Any information would be appreciated. He's not on the
internet, and I promised him that I would do a search. The plate has the
following on it:
Receiver APW 2698
Type B29
P.S. No 11412C
Inst No 229339
Please contact me directly. Thanks again, and 73's.
Walter R. Salmaniw, MD email: salmaniw home.com
Victoria, British Columbia DXING FROM CANADA'S WEST COAST, using
CANADA premier radio receivers: Collins HF2050,
(250) 592-1033 Collins R390A, JRC NRD535D, and the
Kenwood R5000.
- Subj: BK off for now
Date: 99-07-22 19:47:08 EDT
From: bkoehler spacestar (Bruce Koehler)
BK has been off the air for a few weeks now because I have been using the 2 meter vertical at the top of the tower for 2 meters. Previously I had the 2 meter vertical and the tri-band beam all connected together to form the top hat for BK. My current plan is to erect a new LF antenna but will try both systems and have Lyle Koehler give me signal strength comparisons of them. If the new antenna doesn't perform as well as the one I was using, I will probably revert to the old one and find a way to switch between LF and HF/VHFoperation. Sorry to hear that OK was zapped. Those were probably nice litz loading coils too. I expect Bill will have it fixed and running better than ever soon. I expect to erect the new BK antenna in early August.
73, Bruce BK/W0BK
- Subject: Successful BPSK Mobile Reception in the Summertime
From: Cantrell Bill-QA0057
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 1999 2:17 PM
Hello All,
What can you do with 2 milliwatts ERP in the summertime? How does 570
miles sound on 189.900 kHz?
I thought I would mention that I went on another trip with the van. I was
able to receive the (1 watt input) "TEXAS" LowFER Beacon from 570 miles
away, as the crow flies, in Collinsville, Illinois (just east of St.
Louis, MO). Copy was solid (despite some rainfall) all the way to Joplin,
Missouri (327 miles) when I lost battery power. I will schedule a
write-up of my findings for a future issue of The LOWDOWN, (BPSK
Adventures #3). This stuff is a blast!
--
Regards,
Bill Cantrell
"TEXAS" & WD5CVG
near Ft Worth, TX
- Subj: RE: solar eclipse 11 august
Date: 99-07-20 12:41:55 EDT
From: rikstrobbe fyskuleuvenacbe (Rik Strobbe)
I received following information from Jean-Jacques Delcourt, ON5PG:
I am working professionaly on the D layer and prepare a doctorate on this
subject at the Belgian Royal Meteorological Institute.
I monitor only time keeping carriers in amplitude,phase and polarization
below 100 KHz. The best results are from GBR on formelly 16 KHz, but in
fact around 15,750 KHz which is unfortunately frequency modulated. During
dusk and dawn, you can see beautiful effects linked with the sun rise,
the rising of XRays flux and modification of the chemistry of the mesosphere.
Correlations are made with the XR flux monitoring by GOES satellites. The XR
are generated in the sun corona and one of the interests of the aug.11
eclipse
is that during approximatively 2 min, the most part of the corona will be
obliterated.
Phase monitoring is very difficult and requires very stable reference
oscillators in the range of 10exp-10 on a day. At the lab, I am using a GPS
reference with phase locked loop.
I think that the best way during the eclipse day is testing a circuit
where the
totality path is the middle of the circuit.
An other way is monitoring 24h on 24h during 3 days [the eclipse day is the
second] a carrier with a constant amplitude , the greatest possible.....
The 5 receivers I use are [all home made] of direct amplification type with
crystal filters and bandwidth of 1 Hz ; but I have the greatest interest
for VLF commercial RX . Data sheets and dealers addresses with prices are
welcome.
The antennas are of the loop type [20 spires with the appropriate tuning
capacitor] mounted inside a water pipe loop to make it inflexible and easy
to direct.
The frequency range of interest is below 200kHz, preferable even below
100kHz as effects seems to be more explicit on lower frequencies.
A software team from the Belgien amateur radio society UBA has developed a
programme that can be used to register the fieldstrength measurements. All
you need is a PC with Win95/98 and a soundcard. The audio output of the
receiver is fed to the input of the soundcard.
More information of about this programme and about the eclipse-experiment
in general can be found at the UBA website http://www.uba.be/
The software can be requested by sending an e-mail to
jacques.debouche euronet.be with as subject: ECLIPSE PROGRAM REQUEST.
The required information and calibration-procedure is included.
All data can be sent to :
John Devoldere, ON4UN
Poelstraat 215
B-9820 Merelbeke
Belgium
or via e-mail to john.devoldere village.uunet.be
A special award will be issued to everybody who cooperates with the
experiment and sends in his/her set of data.
73, Rik ON7YD
- Subj: Beacon D
Date: 7/17/99 12:58:37 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: donnatom netins (Doc Gruis)
Hello from Iowa, EN31dx!
"D" is still going on 175 KHz and I am newly retired and I plan to put
up a new antenna this fall!
I also have collected most of the items for a MedFER beacon, more to
follow.
Thanks for all your work for LWCA!
73,
Doc Gruis, K0HTF and "D"
- Subj: Seek audio-range receiver
Date: 7/14/99 9:58:58 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: rolf (Rolf Sinclair)
I am looking for a WR-3E receiver (made until recently by Steve McGreevy)
or a similar receiver to listen to naturally-occurring EM radiation in the
audio range. Does anyone have one for sale? Please send specs.
I would also appreciate information on any person or company making such
receivers.
Rolf Sinclair
- Subj: RE: OK V2.0
Date: 7/8/99 11:45:52 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Cantrell-QA0057 emailmot (Cantrell Bill)
Gosh, Bill, "OK" is having a streak of bad luck there! The aluminum box is
helpful, but the real reason that the exciter box survived is because I used
a 28V power zener to clamp the DC input supply line, and a power MOSORB to
clamp the output modulating waveform.
Regards,
Bill Cantrell
"TEXAS" & WD5CVG
- Subj: OK V2.0
Date: 7/7/99 8:28:58 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: okbill brightok (William Bowers)
The all aluminum tower from Universal Manufacturing arrived June5 and in
very quick order I added an insulated top hat and a 1.5mh top loading coil. The
transmitter was housed in a plastic dog house at the base of the tower and "OK" V2.0 was on the air again on June15.
I sure wish this could have been the end of my note, but Mother
Nature had different ideas. On June 28 a sudden summer thunder storm blew in. I turned off the power to
transmitter and just clipped a jumper from the tower to ground. Shortly
after this "OK" took a direct lightning hit! It melted the top loading
coil and its 4" PVC housing. It fried the transmitter, power supply, antenna
current sensor, and base loading coil. There was no damage to the tower but
the only other part that survived was Bill Cantrell's exciter. It is enclosed in a separate aluminum box, which may have saved its life.
"OK" V2.1 transmitter and loading coil is now under construction.
Bill Bowers
- Subj: solar eclipse 11 august
Date: 7/7/99 9:01:33 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: rikstrobbe fyskuleuvenacbe (Rik Strobbe)
On 11 august there will be a solar eclips visible over big parts of Europe.
The '100% eclipse zone' will move over south UK, France, Belgium, Germany,
Austria, Hungary and Rumania.
The Belgian amateur radio society UBA in cooperation with the Belgian
meteorological institute KMI will do a scientific experiment do try to
determine the influence of this eclipse on the D-layer. This will help the
researchers at the KMI with their scientific work.
UBA will run beacons on 1.8MHz, 3.5MHz and 7MHz (more information can be
found at http://www.uba.be/), but apart from that the KMI is very interested
in the effects on LF/VLF.
73, Rik ON7YD
(Rik indicates he will try to obtain a short article for us from one of the scientists involved with the project. Meanwhile, the links at the UBA page can take you to some excellent eclipse-related sites. - JHD)
- Subj: MEDFers??
Date: 99-07-02 01:51:22 EDT
From: livvi digital
I am interested in putting a medium frequency beacon on the air from Central
Florida. I have checked the MW listing from W. Funkenhauser and am open to
any ideas or suggestions. I am also looking into an L-F beacon/system but
that is a bit further down the pike. Any assists would be much appreciated.
Keep listening.
73 de Carl