- Subject: First MedFER of the season
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 12:05:23 -0600
From: jtreed (John Reed)
This morning I heard the first MedFER of the fall 97 season. MIN was heard
clearly on 1641.95 at 1127 UTC. Reception was on a Harris RF-590 with 150
Hz filter. I traded my Watkins-Johnson for a pair of Harris receivers, an
RF-590 and RF-550. The digital noise and filter tests as outlined in Part
II of my series on receivers convinced me that an analog filtered receiver
is superior. The 590 seems to be an excellent receiver. No spurious
responses and it is quiet and sensitive. I installed the 150 Hz filter.
Measurement of the weak signal performance on this combination comes out to
-86 dB. That's the best rating yet on all receivers I've tested.
- John
- Subj: ULF Transmitters
Date: 97-09-29
From: bdieser (Barry Dieser)
This again may not be a question for everyone. I noticed that there are 2
listings for experimental transmitters at 983HZ, and 7,812HZ. I have often
thought that I would like to experiment down in this range myself. The
question I have is, there does not seem to be any specific FCC rules about
operating in the unassigned range below 10khz. Is this area pretty much
open, or are there some specific rules? Thanks.
-Barry
- Subject: Digital Recorders, Inc.
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997
From: Mike and Caroline Hardester
Hi John,
Regarding your August column and mention of Digital Recorders,
Inc., I wasn't certain if you had a mailing address for them. If not, it's
Digital Recorders, Inc.
4900 Prospectus Drive, Suite 1000
P.O. Box 14068
Research Triangle Park, NC. 27709-4068
I'm here in NC (Jacksonville), and have hrd them testing while in the
Raleigh area. Sent them a report about 2 years ago, plus f-ups, but
nothing. Maybe someone else will be a bit luckier! Also, the "city" can be
abbreviated "RTP" - well-understood in this neck of the woods.
Hope this helps!
Very 73 and Best of DX de Mike
- Subject:
From: jack.sippel
Date: Tue, 09 Sep 97 09:29:45 -0800
Hi John!
The Lowdown is a great mag and you do a great job coordinating all of
the mail as well as the loggings.
Here in Kansas City, I have managed to persuade my neighbor to remove
her "touch controlled lamp" and return to a manual switch. This should
reduce the EMI that was about 15 feet from my shack!!!! I've sold my
NRD-535 in favor of a ham rig, a Kenwood TS-850, but it appears to have
ears down to 150 kHz or so. I'm awaiting some cold, thunderstorm free
nights to see how well it will work.
Good luck to all....Jack, KI0JJ+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| Jack Sippel, KI0JJ (frmr WB0TGZ) |
| near Kansas City, Kansas, USA (38.875N 94.650W) grid=EM28qv |
| AR-3000A, Yaesu FT-50R, Kenwood TS-850S |
| HAMCOMM decoder |
| 75' longwire, VHF/UHF discone, 40/20/15/10m invrtd V dipoles |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
- Subj: LW Beverages
Date: 97-09-26 01:46:19 EDT
From: (Gray Frierson Haertig)
Hey all,
A friend and I are planning a dx'pedition this winter to the Alvord
Playa (a dry lake bed 10 miles wide by 30 miles long with about 3 inches
of elevation change and zero vegetation) in SE Oregon to do LW and MW
dx'ing. We are planning on putting up (down?) two or three Beverage
antennas, probably on the order of a mile in length (approx 1 lambda at
200 kHz.)
I am looking for suggestions and practical tips from all you Beverage
heads out there on ways to actually implement these antennas. I
understand basic Bev theory. What I really want is make use of the
knowledge of some of the experienced Beverage hands. The folks who have
built several and some basis for making comparisons of different
techniques. Especially anyone who has done this for LW.
Wire? Reels? Supports? Terminations? Reversable two wire beverages?
Barbed wire fences? Matching XFRMR specs? Reflection XFRMRS for
reversable bevs? Grounding techniques?
Am looking for proven technology rather than speculation based on theory
and/or book larnin'. We won't be able to do a trial run before we leave
home, and I don't want to spend the ENTIRE time farting around freezing
my butt off in zero degree weather trying to make the antennas work.
All suggestions welcome.
Those providing truly good stuff will be entitled to one free Karmic
upgrade when the next version of you is released.
Thanx,
Gray
--
Telecommunications Engineering
Gray Frierson Haertig & Assoc.
820 North River Street, Suite 100
Portland, Oregon 97227
503-282-2989
503-282-3181 FAX
gfh@haertig.com
- Subj: LF Loggings
From: John L. Sielke n4jsamsat.org
Date: 25-Sep-97
Well, I finally got my new (to me) R8 hooked up. Tied the feeders of my 180'
Zepp together, so effectively have a 55' vertical wire with a 180' "tophat."
Couldn't wait, so tuned from 100 khz up just 1 time to see what I could quickly
hear at 1800Z (1PM local!), on this September 25.
194 khz TUK (also sending Aviation Weather) location Unknown
198 DIW Dixon NC
216 CLB Wilmington, NC
248 IL location unknown
274 ING location unknown
328 BZJ location unknown
335 PV location unknown
363 RNB Millville, NJ
388 NXX Willow Grove, PA
I guess I need to get a listing of locations. Then ones I had I found in the
Lowdown.
If it's this good in midday, should be a ball at night!
- Subj: Website to visit/hear DJL beacon
Date: 97-09-25 04:12:42 EDT
From: DJL4LOONS
Just wanted to leave a note for anyone interested. I finally got my website up and running, on which I have included a section about my beacon DJL. Anyone logging on will be able to see pictures of the transmitter and antenna system, listen to .wav files of the beacon's signal, and leave reception reports for QSL. It works best to use a browser like Netscape Navigator, to prevent the pictures from blurring. The address is:
http://members.aol.com/DJL4loons/DJLhome.html
Have fun!
-Darwin Long IV
- Subj: Re: 189 KHz Broadcast Station
Date: 97-09-24 13:34:06 EDT
From: pthomson (Pierre Thomson)
-It appears to me that the new Icelandic Broadcast station at 189
-KHz will all but wipe out the only usable portion of the
-band for the East coast LowFer use. The Europeon broadcast stations
-at 162, 171, 183, etc typically register in at this location at over
-100 uv/meter on a typical winter night, with +/- 4 KHz of bandwidth,
-so that about fills it in for us. Sure won't be able to pick up
-Carl on 189.3 anymore.
Bill,
I'm not quite so pessimistic. We have a few defenses:
- loop antennas - good ones can provide 30 dB nulls.
- filtering - with a good tight filter tuned to TH, you'll only
hear the 360 Hz portion of the Icelandic program; sometimes there
will be very little energy right there.
- propagation variations - Iceland is often within the aurora zone
so it will not always be booming in. Also the sun rises (and the
D-layer absorption kicks in) hours earlier in Iceland than here.
Also, aren't the channels 9 KHz apart, like 162-171-180-189? That
might leave a little gap around 184-185 free. That's right where
my RI beacon is (184.320), so listen for it!
73, Pierre Thomson
- Subj: Lo-buck VLF Receiver
Date: 97-09-22 22:44:20 EDT
From: (Barry Dieser)
I have been playing around with the following circuit, and have had some
success. I would be very interested if others would try it, and state what
results they are getting. This circuit was inspired by a DC receiver for SW
that I saw on Harry's Home Brew web site. After thinking about it, I felt
the same thing could be done with a center-tapped audio transformer. It
seems to operate within the range of 15khz to about 60khz. (See notes at
end of message). The transformer is Radio Shack part number 273-1380.
Basically, the audio transformer is being used as a LF mixing circuit,
making a direct-conversion receiver. (There may be better transformers to
use). Tune by varying the AF generator.
Below 15khz, you start to hear the AF generator (see notes below). The
60khz upper limitation seems to be the transformer itself.
V
| 1N34
|-------( || )--------------->|----------|
( || ) |
( || )--------| |
( || ) | 1N34 |
--------( || )--------)------|<----------o------------O
| | | Audio amp.
| | > O
_|_ O >1k |
/ / / AF Generator > _|_
O | / / /
_|_ _|_
/ / / / / /Notes:
1) PLEASE, forgive the crummy ascii art.
2) The amplitude of the AF generator is critical, you need to play with
this.
3) Adding a VLF active antenna to the front end of this makes a big
difference. I have a quick and dirty FET one I have used. If anyone is interested, I
can try and present it in the same, exciting ascii art.
4) You can extend the range of this circuit much lower by using a low-pass
filter of some kind on the output. In my case, using a DSP 59Y proved quite
effective at allowing me to tune down much further.
Again, I would be interested to see if anyone else gets results with this.
-Barry
- Subj: Nice Web Site
Date: 97-09-17 18:55:10 EDT
From: pvtaytac (Pete Taylor)
Hello John,
I'm not exactly the club's most active DXer but did want to say that the
website is great. I used to be Foreign Editor for both IRCA and NRC
(all BCB) so I have some idea what's involved in keeping something up on
a regular basis.
Nothing else to say except keep up the great work!
73, Pete Taylor
- Thanks for the kind words! Much appreciated. - JHD
- Subj: MedFER Season Starting
From: Lyle Koehler
Date: Sept. 17, 1997
After several unsuccessful attempts to "hear" STLMO during the past
week, the QRN finally let up enough this evening for good copy on BPSK.
While monitoring the signal between 0235 and 0250 UTC, COHERENT always
printed at least three solid "STLMO" identifiers on the screen during
the BPSK part of the ID cycle. (Henry, KA0TUP sends alternate MS100 ET1
BPSK and 12 WPM CCW identifiers; about 1 minute of each.) I had the
frame grabber set for a run length of 6 with 3 historical samples (6:3).
There were a few times when the signal became audible but I could never
recognize more than an occasional letter of the CW part of the
identifier between the static crashes.
73 from Lyle, K0LR
- Subj: TSN Medfer Beacon
Date: 97-09-14 16:53:31 EDT
From: Fcathell
Assuming a typical end to the summer Monsoon T-storms here, Medfer TSN (Catalina, AZ, 25 miles N. of Tucson) will be back on the air October 1, 1997.
Frank Cathell, K3YAZ
- Subj: 189 KHz Broadcast Station
Date: 97-09-13 07:46:53 EDT
From: ashlocks (Bill Ashlock)
It appears to me that the new Icelandic Broadcast station at 189 KHz will
all but wipe out the only usable portion of the band for the East coast
LowFer use. The Europeon broadcast stations at 162, 171, 183, etc typically
register in at this location at over 100 uv/meter on a typical winter
night, with +/- 4 KHz of bandwidth, so that about fills it in for us. Sure
won't be able to pick up Carl on 189.3 anymore.
Anyone else have comments on this?
Bill Ashlock (Beacon WA)
- Subj: UK 73kHz news
Date: 97-09-11 16:30:05 EDT
From: RobJGill
The UK 73kHz band is now taking off with some serious distances being
covered.
For those interested in activity on this band there is a list server
with regular postings. (To subscribe send an email to 'majordomo@blacksheep.org'
with the phrase 'subscribe rsbg_lf_group' in the body of the message -
no punctuation. )
It looks likely that UK amateurs will be getting another allocation at 136kHz sometime
soon. Whether we will retain 73kHz is not known at present (but given that amateur
operation at 73 doesn't seem to be annoying anyone there doesn't seem to be any
compelling reason to take the allocation away.)
Operation on 73kHz remains limited to those holding a full Class A (with code) licence
together with a Notice of Variation (special permit).
Rob Gill
(A list of current records is regularly updated by John Gould, G3WKL, and available at
http://www.pagnell.demon.co.uk/73records.html.
- Subject: Beacon RL and Seismographs
Date: Sept. 10, 1997
From: Robert Laney I haven't evaporated this summer. Actually, it's not been too bad a summer.
Kinda dry, but we have some of the best tomatoes from the garden compared to
the past years.
Actually have had RL on for several days at a time--between the usual threats
of T-storms. I haven't gotten around to making some of the improvements that
were thought about during last season partly because I have picked up an
additional hobby --amateur seismographs-- something that I have wanted to do for years. Have
built 2 this past summer from Scientific American articles and have one up
and operating for about 10 days now and hope to get the second operating
within a couple of weeks. So far it's all experimental trying to find the
quietest place, dealing with people walking by, cars going in and out of the
garage, wind blowing against the house, etc. So far I have recorded a lot of
noise from these sources, but no earthquakes (Gee, this is just like
listening for LOWFERS!!).
I have gotten considerable information from the Public Seismic Network web page and Larry Cochrane who runs the page. If
anyone is interested it is at http://psn.quake.net. Earthquakes and LF activity
apparently have a connection, so maybe I'm not too far afield. I am retiring
for the second time at the end of the year, so I hope to have more time to
devote to both earthquakes and LF work.
I got an email last week from a ham who is a member of the AMRAD radio club
here in the northern Virginia area. He got my name from the beacon list on
the internet and noted that I was the closest LOWFER beacon to his home. He
said that their club has been active in a number of VHF projects recently,
but they are getting interested in the LF part of the spectrum. They are
following the 73kHz working in the UK and are starting the paper work for a
temporary authorization for use here. He invited me to come to their
meetings, and later said that the October meeting would focus on LW and the
73kHz activities in the UK. Thought maybe I would attend and see what they
are up to. I haven't been following the move for a ham band in the LW area
too closely. Maybe I'd better "smart up" before going to their meeting.
73, Bob
- Subject: Point Atkinson
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 1997 09:24:08 -0700
From: jwoodsorednet.org (Jack S. Woods)
I hear the beacon AE 320 once in a while. First logged it in August
1995. HTN Miles City is heard frequently on 320.
I haven't logged any other beacons on 320.
Am located on the Oregon coast near Waldport - about halfway between
Washington and California.
-Jack Woods
- Subj: vlf rcvr for sale
Date: 97-09-09 15:15:58 EDT
From: bob walsh
National RBL 5 receiver for sale. WW2 vintage....good working
condition.
Price $50 - Pickup only. Allentown, Pa. area.
Bob Walsh - W3YU
- Subj: Iceland on 189 khz
Date: 97-09-08 11:40:34 EDT
From: daveaa1a
Maybe old news but just saw this on packet..
73s de dave - aa1a
======================================================
ICELAND Letter from RUV:
"Thank you for your report. The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service
(RUV) is now testing a new LW tx 189 khz. It will be officially opened
next month and will carry a mixture of our two radio progrs we tx on our
FM network. The tx is located at Gufuskalar on the tip of Snaefellsnes
peninsula, West Iceland. We are using a former US Navy Loran mast, 412
meters high. The two txs are new, manufactured by Harris, each one of
150 kW. The new LW facility is replacing an older one near Reykjavik
that has existed since the beginning of RUV in 1930. The purpose is to
reach our listeners at sea and inland, where we do not have FM txs. It
is also a back up to our FM system as part of our civil defence
arrangements.
We have a smaller LW stn at Eidar, East Iceland, near Seydisfjordur. It
will bc on 207 kHz. with a 150 kW tx, starting soon. Perhaps you will
monitor that one as well. Please let us know."
(Markus Oern Antonsson, Director Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.
Organization: Icelandic National Broadcasting, Efstaleiti 1,
150 Reykjavik, Iceland
Markus Orn Antonsson via Klaus Spielvogel-D, Aug 22)
--------
Thanks to DF5SX for the above information.
- Subj: medfer +
Date: 97-09-07 10:02:15 EDT
From: Charles Bernth (no workable e-mail return)
First medfer this season:
1700 RGQ PA Berwick 9/7 0045 - on top for a few minutes over next logging & a pirate b/c station. Not in 9/97 "Lowdown" but this station was logged here last season.
Also heard was unid beacon IRREE. Nothing known of this station but very strong signal in slow code.
Best regards
Charles Bernth, Eastport, NY
- Subject: Re: Longwave BBS
Date: Fri, 05 Sep 1997 23:01:14 -0700
From: Frank Carson
Hi!
My name is Frank Carson, and I'm a member of the LWCA. I noted that
the Longwave BBS has gone down. I just wanted you to know that my BBS
"The Open Channel" is still up and available to members who still may
want to call a BBS. It has files, a "Below 500" conference, as well as
other radio related conferences. The number is (301) 203-8478. It's
totally free access. Thanks!
- Subj: Antenna Question
Date: 97-09-05 16:02:49 EDT
From: (Frank Carson)
I'm sure there's somebody who has experiance with "buried" antennas for
monitoring NDB's. I'm thinking about trying one for this season,
and would welcome any suggestions/comments/hints anyone would have.
Right now I have a 70 foot random length antenna about 25 feet in the
air. Thanks for any advice!
- Subject: BPSK activity report
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 1997
From: Clifford Buttschardt - cbuttschslonet.org
BPSK activity has now included a number of European stations operating
primarily on 14081 Khz at 2000 UTC.
G3IRM-Peter, PA0IHD-Izak, and PA0OCD-Paul have joined us using VE2IQ's
COHERENT program set for ms25 and et1-on. The usual crew is still there,
K0LR, K7RR, and AA1A.
In the evenings on 7081, WB6RIJ, KC7WW and a few of
the North American guys also attend. Bill (WB6RIJ) and Johan (KC7WW) have
been communicating with the new Motorola Evaluation board using some
specialized code provided by Johan. Originally done in Europe, this board
allows copy in RTTY, AMTOR as well the present COHERENT system. Speaking
of European hams, G3PLX-Peter, the originator of AMTOR as a modification
of SITOR is gearing up to join the network on 14081. With ten worldwide
hams on each day, BPSK is showing merit rather nicely!
We should also mention that bpsk@qth.net is another good source
of information. We often post schedule information there.
73
CLiff K7RR
- Subject: New LF broadcaster
Date: 97-09-04
From: Jacques d'Avignon - monitorrac.ca
The September 1997 issue of DX Ontario, page 30, has a story on a
new LF broadcasting transmitter operating in Iceland.
In summary the new broadcast station is on 189 kHz with a power of
100 kW.
According to the same article, there is also an older transmitter on
207 which possibly runs parallel with the new 189 xmitter.
Good DX this winter.
Jacques d'Avignon
Radio Propagation Forecasting & HF Monitoring Services
- Subj: Updated NDB List
Date: 97-09-03
From: RMonty3 at aol dot
HI:
Just a quick message to note that I have produced an updated updater of
sorts. It is available for $4.00 postpaid US at the Longwave Club address (45 Wildflower Rd, Levittown, PA 19057).
It contains about 500 beacons to update from the 93 version of Mr. Stryker's.
A note has been posted in the Lowdown for this month.
Thank you
Bob Montgomery, LOWDOWN Loggings Columnist
- Subj: NDB Listing
Date: 97-09-03 01:54:42 EDT
From: (Stephen P McGreev)
John,
How are you? I'm doing quite well here and hearing at least a bit of
interesting VLF activity here in Lone Pine, CA, tho it's mostly endless
summertime static.
Please check out this URL and tell me if this might be useful to North
American NDB DXers:
http://www.triax.com/vlfradio/namndb.htm
If you have a more recent list available, that might be even nicer...!
RR medfer beacon still in a suitcase in storage up in Lakeview, Oregon
and probably not going to be on the air for months, if at all--just listening to VLF and Shortwave radio plus some mightime MW
DXing using a few hand-held radios, and also hiking in the local Sierra
Mountains or bike rides to the Owens River-- simpler life.
73,
Steve
- Subj: FFT programs for VLF
Date: 97-09-03 20:53:23 EDT
From: jonj (JJ)
I downloaded a copy of Spectrogram32 the other day. It's a fine FFT
program. I hooked up the audio input of my soundcard to an outside wire
antenna to see what kind of "natural" sigs I could hear. Much to my
dismay, a local A.M. radio station is overloading the "front end". I was
just wondering if anyone else has had any luck using your computer sys as a
VLF rec system.
Thanks and 73,
Jon, WS1K
- Subj: 136 kHz in Switzerland
Date: 97-09-02 04:26:47 EDT
From: ABPhonComswissonline.ch
HB9ASB, Toni nr Fribourg, Switzerland, Locator JN36PT
We expect to get a general permission for the 136 kHz band in HB9 still
this year (somewhere between now and november). So I am looking already
for future skeds.
My station is ready: 100Wrf into a helical wound 15m-vertical with my
160m-antenna (55m wire) as a top load.
73 de Toni
- LOWFER-info from Germany
From: dj8wljpl-gw.w6vio.ampr.org (Peter)
There are two new licensed LF-stations in DL currently active in
the EU-LF-window 135.7 ...137.8 kHz: DA0LF (DJ8WL, me) and
DA0VLF (DL1VDL, Hardy).
We are planning to set up skeds in the near future between the
two of us (distance approx. 250 miles) since initial propagation
tests from DA0LF have been very promising (heard abt. 250 miles
away, rf-power 25 watts but poor antenna).
Greetings, Peter/DJ8WL/DA0LF (137.7 kHz)
- Subj: RadioShack's new WWVB "Radio-Controlled Clock"
Date: 97-09-01 04:39:30 EDT
From: DJL4LOONS
As a RadioShack store manager, I knew about this product being on the way for the past year, but it's here- the "Super-Accurate Auto-Set Digital Clock", part #63-970. It's a big-display LCD desk clock with alarm, light, date and time-zone control, stands about 4" high and has a loop antenna attached to a 2-ft cord that can stick on a window. Despite the package, instructions and catalog indicating that the clock receives WWV, it actually picks up the 60 kHz WWVB signal. I bought the clock, took the cover off, located the receiver circuit (which happens to reside entirely in the "loop antenna" housing), and attached an audio amplifier and a volt meter to a few different points on the PC. Signal detection with the clock is possible day and night via groundwave (here in Thousand Oaks, CA, 800 mi. away), and sharp nulls are evident when the ferrite bar is rotated perpendicular to the direction of Ft. Collins, CO. When I turned on a 60 kHz oscillator nearby, the clock was affected, and did not lock on the BCD time code signal until the oscillator was shut off. The loop antenna consists of a 5" ferrite bar with about 50 turns around one end and a .01uF capacitor tanking it. The receiver is quartz-crystal tuned. The clock performs well, even inside the house with computers and TV's operating- it seems to have a very narrow bandwidth and notch filter. It automatically re-checks WWVB twice during the day- 9AM and 3PM, and also four times at night- 9PM, 2AM, 3AM and 4AM - the local time of the clock.
"DJL" has been operating around the clock without a hitch for the past six weeks at its location on the roof of the Newbury Park, CA. RadioShack, since I've upgraded the final current keying relay and 2N3772 final. I've installed a few inverted plastic funnels at various points on the antenna system to prevent arcover if it rains- they will certainly be needed here this winter if El Nino continues to strengthen the way it is! I've also installed tie-downs on the ends of the top-hat to keep it from swaying in high winds, such as our Santa Ana winds- common in fall and winter, or southeasterlies- common at the beginning of winter Pacific storms (both can go as high as 60-80 mph here).
Hang in there-Fall is close at hand...Mother Nature shall soon flip the noise blanker switch!
-Darwin Long IV, "DJL"