Aug. 1998 Longwave Messages

(E-mail addresses in these messages may eventually become outdated.)

• Subj: Good DX
  Date: 98-08-30 11:01:07 EDT
  From: n4zv roanoke.infi (n4zv)
  Best dx wishes to all as we approach the new season. It seems the noise has dropped a bit, (between hurricanes). Both VA beacons continue 24/7.
  The lf beacon now sports top inductive loading, per Bill Bowers...and tuned, elevated radials, per Todd Roberts. Following the concepts of these two gentlemen, VA just might actually be heard beyond the county line this year!!
  73,
  Bart VA/N4ZV

• Subj: SAQ transmission 29 Aug
  Date: 98-08-29 19:44:33 EDT
  From: krister.eriksson goteborg.mail.telia (Krister Eriksson)
  The SAQ transmitter in Varberg was on air at 29 Aug 0920 - 0958. We sent a message from the EDXC conference. Operators were SM6CVE Ulf, SM6KRI Krister and SM4GUJ Rolf.
  Reports have been received from Germany and England, but we hope more reports will come in.
  Some pictures from the SAQ site on http://www.lls.se/~jal/sdxf/edxc/
  Krister Eriksson (SM6KRI)
  http:\\radio.just.nu

• Subj: Record geomagnetic disturbance
  Date: 98-08-28 09:00:08 EDT
  From: mmommsen ulster (Pierre Thomson)
  Yesterday's geomagnetic storm brought the planetary A-index to 112, the highest I have seen it in the last few years. This will make LF skywave propagation virtually useless for the next few days, especially over the higher latitudes.
  (This might be a good time to do some antenna work - - and if you live on the east coast it might be repair work!!)
  73,
  Pierre Thomson KA2QPG / RI

• Subj: Parts

• 
  Date: 98-08-25 16:54:42 EDT
  From: aa1a radiocom
  Just received Ocean State Electronics catalog and there are at least a few good deals:
  Ferrite loops 2.25
  SA602 balanced mixer osc. 2.49
  Varicaps 450pf at 1 volt
        30pf at 9 volts 2.05
  and a three gang variable 1500pf 12.95
  They are at www.oselectronics.com
  73s from Dave

• Subj: SAQ transmission Aug 29
  Date: 98-08-23 15:27:54 EDT
  From: krister.eriksson goteborg.mail.telia (Krister Eriksson)
  The world's only working Alexanderson alternator will broadcast this month from Sweden on 17.2 kHz. The EDXC 1998 Conference is to be held Aug 27-30 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The conference participants will make a study visit to the SAQ, and a Morse code transmission at 0930 UTC on August 29 with a message from the EDXC Conference will take place.
  In a earlier message the date 28 August is incorrect, -It is Aug 29 at 0930 UTC.
  Reports on the transmission can be sent to: radiomuseet~swipnet.se
  The SAQ site, complete with six antenna towers and the 200 kW transmitter, are under the care and management of Telia Mobitel, a Swedish mobile telephone company, and the radio museum of the Radio Historical Society of West Sweden, which operates club station SK6RM.
  Krister Eriksson SM6KRI, Ulf Sjoden SM6CVE and Lars Wieden Volvo DX-club has helped to organize the event.
  Krister Eriksson (SM6KRI)
  http:\\radio.just.nu

• Subj: IC-706 for VLF
  Date: 98-08-22 22:59:29 EDT
  From: jeffb t-one (Jeff Budyznski)
  Hello,
  Has anyone used an Icom IC-706MKII on the VLF bands? I see that it will go down to 30 khz, but knowing Icom, it may not do too well that low. Any opinions?
  -Jeff Budzynski

• Subj: DJL update, multimedia beacon log
  Date: 98-08-17 14:37:47 EDT
  From: DJL4LOONS
  Just a short message here to update on DJL. It is operating as usual and has had no off-air time at all since last March. I am in the process of building a Curry Communications transciever, which will be used both for SSB QSOs with other lowfers out here, and also will become part of the beacon's regular operation. I am planning to set up DJL with a "rotating" format- SSB voice ID, CW ID, AM ID (SSB with carrier overlay), and +400 Hz sidetone on carrier like an NDB (+400 Hz CW with carrier overlay). I will probably start using the same frequency as now (188.920 kHz), but will probably change to a new one about 2kHz lower to avoid Russian broadcasters in winter and also strong man-made carriers around southern California.
  I'll keep everyone posted as to off-air times and any changes as I get closer to applying them.
  Be sure to check out my website, http://members.aol.com/djl4loons, as I have added actual audio recordings and photos of select NDB's in my Beacon Log.
  Let's get rid of this heat and hash already!- Just a month or two more to go!
  -Darwin Long

• Subj: LF: SAQ QRV
  Date: 98-08-16 11:13:40 EDT
  From: sm6pxj swipnet.se (Christer Andersson)
  To: rsgb_lf_group~blacksheep.org (RSGB LF group)
  The Swedish long wave station SAQ on 17,2 kHz will be active on August 28 at 09.30 UTC.
  Above information according to SM6KRI.

• Subj: LF: Spectrogram - new version 4.2.3
  Date: 98-08-15 17:56:50 EDT
  From: BOBEK compuserve (Peter Bobek)
  Richard Horne notified me that there is a new version of SPECTROGRAM (version 4.3.3) available for downloading from
  http://www.monumental.com/rshorne/gram.html
  It has now a "quick record" button to switch the record mode on/off without leaving the "scan input" mode.
  Regards,
  Peter/DJ8WL

• Subj: woodpecker
  Date: 98-08-11 13:17:54 EDT
  From: eric.vogel eds (Vogel, Eric S)
  Does anyone know of a posted .wav file of the famous Russian "woodpecker" signal?
  If so, please reply to:
  Thanks!
  Eric Vogel
  • Reply 1: I believe some of our readers have previously mentioned having sound clips of these signals, Eric, but we can't blame it all on the Russians. :)
    America has long operated over-the-horizon radar on HF too. In addition to its aircraft and missile surveillance functions, OTH radar can also reveal quite a bit about the sea surface, including wave height, wind speed, and currents. This information is valuable to NOAA as well as to the military.
    The Air Force put its OTH-B radars in "warm storage" in 1995, but the Navy continues to operate its Relocatable OTH Radar (ROTHR) network to monitor our coastlines and the Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean region. For possible additional information on these installations, and the kinds of remote sensing of which they are capable, check the NOAA OTH Radar page. - JHD

• Subj: New beacon keyer
  Date: 98-08-07 22:37:19 EDT
  From: William.Ashlock edwards.boc (Ashlock, William)
  After the experience with the lightning damage to WA two weeks ago and the resulting damage to my keyer/computer I have made a major change to the type of computer in the shack.
  The old computer was a late 70s Apple II running a basic program that I had put together myself. Rather than repair the computer I installed a 386 vintage PC and downloaded Lyle Koehler's Beacon Message Generator from the Pages by our Members section.
  I was pleasantly surprised by both the ease in interfacing to the computer (just a pair of wires to the com port) and the ease in installing the software and running the program (which has more features than mine). I've added a switch to the hard drive power cable that allows the computer to operate continously with under 10 watts of power.
  Thanks Lyle!

• Subj: LF: First QSO G-HB9
  Date: 98-08-05 05:27:41 EDT
  From: baechlisbrunnen bluewin.ch (Baertschi)
  To: rsgb_lf_group~blacksheep.org
  from Toni, HB9ASB, JN36pt
  After almost one year of testing, station improvements and different attempts for a contact (first on 73 kHz Xband, then on 136 kHz), we finally made it: Today I had a QSO with Peter, G3LDO. The report from Peter was 329 and he got 449 from me, which he confirmed. We started calling at 05:30 but there was nothing to hear. But around 06:30 UT condx improved and we made the QSO!
  At the end (06:50) Peter's signal was getting weaker and weaker and I almost lost him in the noise.
  Condx this morning where medium, with a noise level of 40uV at the receiver input and some QRN spikes.
  Power here is 250mW ERP (TX: 300W RF) and I used the transmitting antenna for reception (18m high Helical with 60m top wire). The RX was a Harris RF590 (300 Hz RF BW) with an Audio Filter from Timewave (DSP 599zx). Audio BW was 100 Hz, there was no additional improvement with narrower settings.
  73 de Toni

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