File Attachment 1: wv-9dec.mp3
VLF BIG new signal 22.7 KHz 800 Hz wide MFSK
What on Earth? 800 Hz wide MFSK on 22.7 KHz, between the US Navy stations, same "print" but 4x wide. Seen and heard 08 XI 19 @ 04:00 UTC +. It was there, then went off, then came back. I haven't seen it since. Screen caps available. Any ideas? My e-mail: bart.lee.K6VK@gmail.com ##
Norway 153 kHz closed down
Posted by Mike Terry on December 02, 2019 at 10:07:15.
NRK Ingoy switched off 153 kHz AM at 2306 UTC on December 1st, 2019.
Romania 153kHz
Posted by Mike Terry on December 02, 2019 at 10:34:25.
Now that Norway no longer uses the frequency there are reports of reception of Romania.
Per Wiki:
Bod – 153 kHz, it covers Romania and Republic of Moldova. It partially covers some areas of Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary. It may not be excluded to be received farther, in countries like: Georgia, Turkey, Denmark (Aarhus), the eastern region of Slovakia or the south-east part of Russia. With the correct time of day and propagation the signal can reach as far as Western Europe, Northeastern parts of North America and South America, most of the Middle East and parts of the Far East (Southeast Asia, Japan and China). Transmitter power output (TPO) 200 kW.
Re: Romania 153kHz
Posted by Paul on December 04, 2019 at 04:17:00.
In reply to Romania 153kHz posted by Mike Terry on December 02, 2019
Copying right now in California. Not very strong, but by switching to USB, it is copyable.
Turkmenistan 279 kHz
Posted by Mike Terry on December 04, 2019 at 22:54:06.
Tudor Vedeanu reported on the WRTH - World Radio Tv Handbook group
December 3 2019
I've noticed they had almost no modulation at all (but good carrier lever at my QTH), so maybe they're working on repairing that transmitter.
Lowfer JH
Posted by John Hamer on December 06, 2019 at 00:01:50.
Lowfer JH is back on the AIR!!! Fired it up tonight for the first time since moving to Conway SC. Transmitting JH using QRSS30 on 181.818KHz. GRID: FM03mw. 36' Vertical T antenna with 20' top hat. Currently only running .73W to the final. Ground system is just a ground rod at the moment. My plan is to run 24/7 once I get the battery situation figured out. It's running for now though. I'll post if that changes.
I'm running the transmitter off a 12V 5AH battery. My plan is to swap it out every night for a charged one until I come up with a better solution. I'm using the same transmitter as before, and I can't get the full 1W from a 12V battery. I'll have a solution before too long, but for now, at least I'm back on the air!
If anyone is interested in the antenna, I posted a video on youtube. https://youtu.be/2NmJT-ITjyY
Christmas Eve transmission from SAQ Grimeton, December 24, 2019
Posted by Mike Terry on December 06, 2019 at 09:44:20.
News from
the Alexander Association
Grimeton SAQ Veteran Radio Friends
www.alexander.n.se
Scheduled transmission from Grimeton Radio / SAQ on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2019
In the morning of Christmas Eve, December 24, we will try to start the old Alexanderson 200 kW transmitter, from 1924 and send out a Christmas message on VLF 17.2 kHz CW. The transmitter will be tuned up from around 08:30 (07:30 UTC) and a message* will be transmitted at 09:00 (08:00 UTC).
Guests are welcome to attend the transmission at the radio station in Grimeton from 08:00 local time. The Alexander association will arrange Coffee and Christmas cookies, free of charge. No entrance fee.
For those of you who can not attend, we will broadcast the event live from Grimeton, Sweden on our YouTube Channel.
NEW !
ONLINE RECEPTION REPORT FORM - PLEASE NO E-MAIL REPORTS!
We are introducing a new online SAQ reception report form to be used by listeners to report reception of any SAQ transmissions. We are kindly asking listeners not to send SAQ reception reports via E-mail.
QSL-reports to SAQ are kindly received via:
- Reception report form at alexander.n.se/receptionreport
- or via: SM bureau
- or direct by postal mail to:
The Alexander Association
Radiostationen Grimeton 72
SE-432 98 GRIMETON
S W E D E N
The SK6SAQ amateur radio station will be QRV on the following frequencies:
– 7.035 kHz CW or
– 14.035 kHz CW or
– 3.755 kHz SSB
Two stations will be on the air most of the time.
WELCOME!
World Heritage Grimeton Radio station and The Alexander Association
For further details, se grimeton.org or alexander.n.se
*The world heritage site Grimeton is a living cultural heritage. All transmissions with the long-wave transmitter SAQ are therefore preliminary and may be set at short notice.
Please Help Avoid Duplicate Posts
Posted by Webmaster on December 06, 2019 at 22:54:32.
You post a message but don't see it listed. Should you send it again? No, please don't!
If you got the Confirmation Page after posting the first time, sending again only creates duplicates that are difficult and tedious to clean up. To quote and expand upon our FAQ:
If you received the Confirmation Page, don't worry--your post is on the Board, whether you see it immediately or not.
Trust me on this: The confirmation is a totally reliable failsafe mechanism!!! The board software physically cannot send you an acknowledgement until it has both written the new message file and updated the message list. If the software fails at either task, for any reason whatsoever, it shuts down immediately and cannot return the Confirmation Page.
It is theoretically possible for a message to actually get posted without ever being confirmed, but NOT the other way around. If you receive the Confirmation Page, the message absolutely, positively IS on the Board.
If the message doesn't seem to be listed the next time you look at the Message Board, it's because of your browser. It is displaying the page out of cache on your local drive because it hasn't loaded a fresh copy over the Internet. Unfortunately, the newer the browser, the more likely it is to cause problems with dynamically generated pages such as our message list! That seems a giant step backward in this era of dynamically refreshed content.
We used to advise you to click your browser's Reload or Refresh button, or check your Internet Options settings regarding cached pages or temporary Internet files. Having it check for new versions of a page every time the browser opened used to be enough to ensure that you would see the latest posts.
Alas, many browsers newer than IE 11 are worse than useless in this regard! It is sometimes necessary to close all open instances of the browser and restart it (even Firefox) before it will update the entire contents of the message page.
Please keep that in mind and help reduce the maintenance load that comes from removing duplicate posts. Thanks! Re: Lowfer JH
Posted by John Hamer on December 07, 2019 at 07:42:39.
In reply to Lowfer JH posted by John Hamer on December 06, 2019
(Mode is) QRSS30.
"JH" repeated
Re: Reminder: Lowfer net +/- 3927Khz Saturday morning
Posted by Clint Turner KA7OEI on December 07, 2019 at 19:17:50.
In reply to Reminder: Lowfer net +/- 3927Khz Saturday morning posted by Jerry Parker on December 06, 2019
Notes on 7 December, 2019 Lowfer net
Present were:
Jerry, WA6OWR; Dave, WD4PLI; Clint KA7OEI; John, AE0CQ via Web
73,
Clint KA7OEI
137.4kc Signal
Posted by Bill Stewart, K4JYS on December 08, 2019 at 00:39:50.
I am hearing a fairly strong sig on 137.4kc...0025Z to 0030Z. Transmitting a carrier with varying on/off-times and spacing. The sig is about an RST 56/79. Amateur or something else? Re: 137.4kc Signal
73 de Bill K4JYS - NC
Rcvr: Ten-Tec RX340
Antenna: PA0RDT Mini-Whip
Posted by John, W1TAG on December 08, 2019 at 02:41:39.
In reply to 137.4kc Signal posted by Bill Stewart, K4JYS on December 08, 2019
Bill,
Likely K3RWR on 137.480 kHz, using Opera32 mode.
John, W1TAG
Re: 137.4kc Signal
Posted by Bill Stewart, K4JYS on December 08, 2019 at 17:17:28.
In reply to Re: 137.4kc Signal posted by John, W1TAG on December 08, 2019
Tnx John. Also heard KB5NJD with a strong CW sig on 630m. Interesting bands. Sunday HiFERs
73 de Bill K4JYS
Posted by John Davis on December 08, 2019 at 20:06:27.
A quiet day on 22 m...only the eastern "pipeliners" (NC, EH, RY) at the watering hole and only K6FRC elsewhere. This was true both in the 9 AM hour this morning and at noon CST; main difference being that the morning session was afflicted with SWBC sideband splatter above 13564 kHz, while there were minor intermittent traces of codar at noon.
Must be cool in the Carolinas today, as NC has now drifted upward of 13555.580 kHz.
Re: Lowfer JH
Posted by John Hamer on December 09, 2019 at 14:22:38.
In reply to Lowfer JH posted by John Hamer on December 06, 2019
I added a grounding system this weekend, and swapping the batteries at night is working out, so I'm officially on 24/7.
Re: Lowfer JH
Posted by John Davis on December 09, 2019 at 14:48:10.
In reply to Re: Lowfer JH posted by John Hamer on December 09, 2019
Was the ground system in place Saturday night? I tried an all-night session that day, but only got repeated snippets of RF that seemed to be keyed at multiples of 30 seconds...never an entire character at a time. I may try again tonight, local weather permitting.
Re: 630 m WSPR
Posted by Edward Holland on December 09, 2019 at 19:36:39.
In reply to Re: 630 m WSPR posted by Ed Holland on November 29, 2019
Lots of activity recorded on 630 m, but I am experiencing a niggle with WSJT. It will keep running a WSPR monitor for hours, even days on end. However, it won't do the same when monitoring JT9. This is frustrating, as I would like to catch the activity to the West, given the possibility of Pacific long path reception in the early morning.
I see a few mentions on the WSJT website and forums, but nothing specific that seems to apply to what I need.
The same behaviour is seen when running a WSPR and JT9 instances in parallel - the JT9 stalls, typically ~ 0500z or within that hour.
I'll do a bit more research and update here.
Monday HiFERs
Posted by John Davis on December 09, 2019 at 19:55:47.
In reply to Sunday HiFERs posted by John Davis on December 08, 2019
Better today...NC, EH, RY, AZ, FRC and ODX in the 9 AM hour, with VAN dash-after-ID visible too up at 13563.200. During the noon hour CST, AZ and VAN were gone, but WV and WAS showed up. The watering hole pipeline signals were less strong by then, especially NC, but WV was remarkably clear at times. An MP3 clip of one such ID cycle is attached. (At other times it faded to the edge of audibility.)
---------------------------------------------------------------
File Attachment 1: wv-9dec.mp3
Re: 630 m WSPR
Ed, make sure you're starting the "original" wspr mode decoder first before starting the second instance of the jt9 wsjt-x decoder. I'm mentioning this because I discovered (mostly by luck) that the second instance will crash if it is started befor e the wspr mode original. Maybe that's not the problem on your end but I was experiencing crashing until I started the sessions in the proper order.
Re: 630 m WSPR
Posted by Ed Holland on December 09, 2019 at 23:55:20.
In reply to Re: 630 m WSPR posted by Tom on December 09, 2019
I'll look in to that.. Thanks Tom.
First thing will be to double check whether a JT9 instance will run by itself without stalling.
Re: 630 m WSPR
Posted by tom on December 10, 2019 at 01:21:38.
In reply to Re: 630 m WSPR posted by Ed Holland on December 09, 2019
If you want to run jt9 by itself and not wspr, just set the mode on the "original" to jt9 and you're done. No need to mess with starting up a second instance.
Re: Lowfer JH
Posted by John Hamer on December 10, 2019 at 04:45:16.
In reply to Re: Lowfer JH posted by John Davis on December 09, 2019
John,
Saturday would have been the first night with the ground system in place. I'm still not running a full watt to the final. It was .75W last time I checked
Also, I have an argo grabber run off of a SDRPlay up 24/7 monitoring my station at http://jwhamer.me/grabber/. Is there something I could do with spacing to make things easier to identify?
John Hamer
Re: 630 m WSPR
Posted by Ed Holland on December 10, 2019 at 16:45:30.
In reply to Re: 630 m WSPR posted by tom on December 10, 2019
I did just that last night. It ran until ~ 0900, and then the computer went to sleep - because I'd not plugged the power connector correctly... An unusual cause - we'll try again.
The reason for pulling the power connector is that running the PC on batteries drastically improved reception at 136 kHz, eliminating a lot of switching PSU noise.
The Lowe Receiver is a very good performer at LF, and is very quiet. Some of my more exotic receivers have beautiful vacuum fluorescent displays which produce interference internal to the radio!
Cheers
Ed
Tuesday HiFERs
Posted by John Davis on December 10, 2019 at 17:45:57.
In reply to Monday HiFERs posted by John Davis on December 09, 2019
Even better today! NC, ILX/XIL/LXI, EH, RY, MTI, WV, VAN, K6FRC, WAS and ODX all put in appearances during the 11 AM hour, CST.
PVC Off
Posted by Ed Holland on December 10, 2019 at 19:50:09.
Hi Folks.
I discovered problems with PVC yesterday. Probably related to the listing antenna support. A check of the feed-line showed a high DC resistance. As the dipole is transformer coupled, it indicates a connection fault. I hope to find time this weekend to venture on to the roof.
Re: Lowfer JH
Posted by John Davis on December 11, 2019 at 08:40:52.
In reply to Re: Lowfer JH posted by John Hamer on December 10, 2019
Hi John. A couple of quick questions about your grabber display:
1. How close do you estimate the frequency accuracy to be? What I saw on Saturday night, and again late on Monday night/Tuesday morning, was 1 Hz higher than it shows on your captures.
2. Is the spacing of gaps between elements of each character really identical to the dot length? It looks a bit shorter to me, but that might be an illusion caused by the "dog bone" effect of the strong signal seen by your SDRPlay.
What I saw here on those two nights was only visible in the QRSS60 window that I normally run alongside a QRSS30 window. The 60 second speed is 3 dB more sensitive, and whatever I was looking at was right at the threshold of visibility at 60; it was never visible at all at 30. Of course, the problem with 60 Slow is that the time resolution is poor, so dots and dashes sent at 30-second speed can run together...especially if spacing between elements is shorter than nominal.
What I was getting was a cluster of four indeterminate-length elements, followed sometimes by faint smudges of what could be another four short elements, with the whole thing repeating approximately every 20 minutes. If it was indeed your signal, there's just a chance that it might be identifiable if it were sent at a 60-second dot rate.
(The Sunday night session was part of my project to see when I can snag the rare daytime copy of EAR, tying in with work I did about this same time last year. There are some promising results that I'll report later.)
1750 M Watering Hole
Posted by John Davis on December 11, 2019 at 09:05:11.
Seeing WM and SIW in Glorious Living Skywave tonight, but the absence of SJ is rather disappointing (see attachment). This excellent reception was despite a couple of lines of thunderstorms out in the Gulf of Mexico, so I was really hoping to see all three signals with similar clarity.
---------------------------------------------------------------
File Attachment 1: 10dec_c.jpg
Re: Lowfer JH
John,
Thank you for the reply.
1. The frequency display is not accurate. When I have the transmitter on my bench connected to my frequency counter, it says 181818.3Hz. I was about 1Hz high in the past, but I adjusted the load capacitors to bring it down.
2. Yes, 30 second dots, and 30 second gaps. It is the dog bone effect. I will adjust the gain and try to make it better tonight.
I have been emailing with Andy - KU4XR a little. He has picked up my signal a few nights in TN, but it is not strong (appx 310 miles away). He suggested running a higher voltage to the final to reduce current in the transistors. I have not tested different loads from 50Ohms at all, so I'm going to play with that this weekend. I will write a program for QRSS60 and run that sometime soon. I'll post when I do.
Re: Lowfer JH
Posted by John Davis on December 11, 2019 at 21:50:17.
In reply to Re: Lowfer JH posted by John Hamer on December 11, 2019
...connected to my frequency counter, it says 181818.3 Hz.
Excellent. That's within a few millihertz of what I was observing here, so that gives me hope that I may eventually see the whole ID. Will look forward to the QRSS60 version.
Europe 1 on 183 kHz to close 31 December?
Posted by Mike Terry on December 11, 2019 at 22:41:15.
Re: 630 m WSPR
Radios du monde wrote on Facebook (translated from French):
End of the big vibes for Europe 1 to 31 December??
He said that europe1 would have scheduled the final stop of the big waves for December 31
The station seems to want to take advantage of the holiday weekend to reduce the reactions of listeners.
Following the 3-day cut, which had been organized in November, many reactions seem to have come from regions or countries that do not represent an important economic interest for Europe 1 but leads to a lot of delivery costs.
It is true that the economy achieved could be used to increase quality in FM: a change of operator is not excluded and contacts have already been taken. Let us not forget that the development of the dab+ will represent a huge load.
It remains to be seen that it will be the position of the other diffusers: RTL AND RMC.
Will rtl still pick up part of the European 1 audience? Or stop its transmitter?
https://www.facebook.com/Radiosdumonde
Posted by Edward Holland on December 11, 2019 at 22:47:06.
In reply to Re: 630 m WSPR posted by Ed Holland on December 10, 2019
I ran a JT9 session last night. It stalled again, this time aroung 0929 UTC - a little after 1 am local time. When I returned to the PC this morning, the spectrum display was still rolling.
I suppose it is possible that activity (at least whatever is observable here) diminishes in the wee hours, but that doesn't seem like the right explanation. More investigation.
Frequently, something wakens me around 3 to 3:30 am. It might be an opportunity to shuffle downstairs and check/restart.
Cheers
Ed
Re: 630 m WSPR
Posted by Tom on December 12, 2019 at 00:09:14.
In reply to Re: 630 m WSPR posted by Edward Holland on December 11, 2019
Activity definitely drops off in the wee hours, and sometimes that's the end of jt9 until the next evening session.
2020 I.R.C.A. Convention information
Posted by Mike Sanburn on December 12, 2019 at 00:44:51.
The 2020 I.R.C.A./Decalcomania Convention will be held at The Four Points by Sheraton 1221 S. Harbor blvd. Anaheim CA 92805 (Just North of Disneyland) Sept. 10,11,12. Phone number for reservations is 714-758-0900 mention convention. Room rate is $155 per night plus tax which includes all you can eat breakfast. Parking is $10 per day. Registration fee (not including banquet) is $25 payable to Mike Sanburn po box 1256 Bellflower CA 90707. Events will include local tower visits, annual I.R.C.A. auction, and nightly fireworks show. Hotel ammenities include free wifi, pool, and business center. Local eateries include Starbucks Coffee, Taco Bell, Shakeys Pizza. More details will appear soon. For information contact mikesanburn@hotmail.com Special link for online reservations follows: https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1576099122178&key=GRP&app=resvlink Tourism information website: www.visitanaheim.org
Visit Anaheim, CA | Visitor Information Noise from within receivers
The official visitor's guide for all things Anaheim. Find information on where to go, things to do, and explore trip ideas in Orange County.
www.visitanaheim.org
Posted by Ed Holland on December 12, 2019 at 18:59:49.
Hi Folks,
As I start to dip into listening at MF and LF, I have the luxury of a number of receivers to evaluate for the purpose, all of which are specified for operation to 100 kHz, and several down to 30 kHz.
One thing I have noticed on two receivers of very good pedigree (JRC), is noise originating from within the receivers themselves. Rather than spurious responses, the source appears to be related to their vacuum fluorescent displays - it becomes obvious when the display is dimmed. Likely due to the inverter DC-DC supply for the VFD.
Has anyone else encountered this? Potential solutions? I recall also an article in the LowDown on improving the LF performance of some receivers, particularly with reference to antenna input coupling transformers. Does anyone else remember this?
Thanks
Ed
Thursday HiFERs
Posted by John Davis on December 12, 2019 at 19:40:29.
In reply to Tuesday HiFERs posted by John Davis on December 10, 2019
Nice variety again today. (No HF listening Wednesday.) At the watering hole, NC, XIL/ILX/LXI (frequently the strongest of the group), EH, RY and MTI were present during the noon hour CST. WV was fair at times, but lots of QSB; no AZ today.
In the upper half of the band, MN may have been present, a few Hz lower than usual. It was visible with a little more chirp than usual, but experienced such rapid QSB that only a few individual dashes and one apparent "N" were actually audible. K6FRC was faintly visible, but AMA was booming in at times, and only fair other times. WAS was steadier than usual in level, and ODX varied from nil to good copy.
Re: Lowfer JH
Posted by John Hamer on December 13, 2019 at 15:04:27.
In reply to Re: Lowfer JH posted by John Davis on December 11, 2019
I have been working on a receiver setup to monitor my station from 15 miles away where I work. I have today received a clean signal for the first time in argo. I can see that the gaps are very small between dots and dashes as John described above. I was blaming my grabber at me house on it being so close to the transmitter, bit I'm far enough away where that should not be an issue. Do people typically set the gaps between dots and dashes larger than the dot time? I am thinking about setting my gaps to 45 seconds or so. My current program sends 30 second dots, 30 second gaps between dots/dashes, 1:30 dashes. 2:30 between letters, 5:00 between JH.
Re: Noise from within receivers
Posted by Tom on December 13, 2019 at 15:19:13.
In reply to Noise from within receivers posted by Ed Holland on December 12, 2019
Ed... sounds like filtering and possible shielding of the DC ps module and dc lines may be what's needed. Question is, do you want to spend money/time/energy to modify those "classics" or just use a modern receiver on the low freqs and bypass the problem.
Re: Noise from within receivers
Posted by Ed Holland on December 13, 2019 at 16:24:40.
In reply to Re: Noise from within receivers posted by Tom on December 13, 2019
Agreed Tom - Most likely some improved bypassing would help. I actually found some guidelines on the HF underground website for the NRD 525.
I don't need to do anything about this at all - I have other radios that are quiet as a mouse. However it would be interesting to see what improvements could be brought.
I am reluctant to modify a classic radio, although one of them does have some mods from a previous owner, and needed repair to one of the IF filters when I received it. Then, there is always the risk of doing more harm than good...
Just out of interest, when you mention a modern receiver - what recommendations would you make?
Cheers
Ed
Re: Noise from within receivers
Posted by Tom on December 13, 2019 at 19:13:55.
In reply to Re: Noise from within receivers posted by Ed Holland on December 13, 2019
Yep, you have to weigh the possibility of doing more harm than good. Also, will it affect possible resale values? Well, Ed... I'm totally on-board with sdr's. I have an Elad that is the best receiver I've ever had. However, time marches on and it looks like the less expensive Airspy HF+ Discovery may give my Elad a run for its money. Look it up. It seems like a really good "bang for the buck". No personal experience with it... just relating what I've read.
Re: Lowfer net +/- 3927Khz Saturday morning
Posted by Clint Turner KA7OEI on December 14, 2019 at 18:32:48.
In reply to Reminder: Lowfer net +/- 3927Khz Saturday morning 0800 California time posted by Jerry Parker on December 13, 2019
Notes on 14 December, 2019 Lowfer net
Present were:
Jerry, WA6OWR; John, AE0CQ; Ed, KI6R; Clint, KA7OEI; Dave, WD4PLI
73,
Clint KA7OEI
Re: Noise from within receivers
Posted by Ed Holland on December 14, 2019 at 19:13:46.
In reply to Re: Noise from within receivers posted by Tom on December 13, 2019
Cheers Tom,
Appreciate the reccomendation. I'll check out the Airspy.
Resale values of my radios are not a consideration, as I will confess to the simple joy of collecting the receivers I coveted as a kid/teenager when they were completely out of reach. I do like originality, and generally will not modify. It is at least a working collection, and I have had to dive quite deeply into one or two of my ebay gambles to trace faults, find obsolete parts and bring them back to spec.
So, with a goodly number of radios (perhaps more than are absolutely necessary) I have at least four which are LF capable and quiet. Perhaps enough for now, but the SDR revolution has peaked my interest. I'll check it out.
By the way, it does look like there was no real problem with WSJT and JT9 on my system. Sessions this week have shown uninterrupted operation across a couple of evenings.
Re: Noise from within receivers
Ed
Posted by Tom on December 15, 2019 at 14:56:31.
In reply to Re: Noise from within receivers posted by Ed Holland on December 14, 2019
I understand collecting receivers that were just a dream when one was younger. Some people purchase automobiles that were only a dream to own as a teenager.
Sounds like you doing well with the wsjt-x modes now. One caution is to be mindful to make your rx freq match the band setting in the wsjtx program. It's easy to forget when changing bands. On wsprnet, you see wrong spots being uploaded quite often.
Sdr's are a whole new world for rx'ing Ed. One caveat... the interaction between the pc and the sdr can be another "learning experience". What I am getting at is that pc electronic noise can easily introduce rx noise hash that can be maddening to cure. You may possibly have to apply various techniques to interconnecting wiring such as chokes, shields, filters to get the most out of the receivers capabilities. Even pc monitors, (like mine) had to be addressed because of noise emissions.
PVC restored
Posted by Ed Holland on December 15, 2019 at 19:01:34.
Hi Folks, just as it says, PVC is operational again.
A connecting wire had broken at the top of the mast head. All repaired and the signal verified.
Cheers
Ed
Re: Lowfer JH
Posted by John hamer on December 15, 2019 at 20:52:19.
In reply to Re: Lowfer JH posted by John Hamer on December 13, 2019
Lowfer JH is off for the day for testing. I'll post when it's back on.
Re: Lowfer JH
Posted by John Hamer on December 16, 2019 at 01:56:53.
In reply to Re: Lowfer JH posted by John hamer on December 15, 2019
Lowfer JH is back up now running qrss60.
Re: Lowfer JH
Posted by John Davis on December 16, 2019 at 06:17:59.
In reply to Re: Lowfer JH posted by John Hamer on December 16, 2019
Excellent news, John. It'll be a few nights before I get a chance to listen again, I expect. Got to let some of the winter weather pass us by, then wait for the strong thunderstorms that are currently midway between us to die out also.
Re: Europe 1 on 183 kHz to close 31 December?
Posted by Mike Terry on December 16, 2019 at 19:31:19.
In reply to Europe 1 on 183 kHz to close 31 December? posted by Mike Terry on December 11, 2019
The RadioMondes Facebook thread carried this statement from Lagardere Active, the French media company who own Europe Number One last Friday (Google edited translation of French)
" I confirm that the broadcast of Europe 1 is not intended to become permanent on longwave
This broadcast consumes a lot of energy, which is not very green.
In addition, the population listening to our programs through this means decrease from year to year. Today, there are much more powerful ways to listen to our programs with much more comfort and quality regardless of the area in France or abroad (FM, smartphone app, website, connected speakers). To date, I confirm that no date is set for this stop, but the more we move forward in time, the closer the date.
Have a nice weekend."
(Mike Barraclough BDXC-UK newsgroup)
Hifier abby
Posted by chris on December 18, 2019 at 17:19:38.
The beacon abby is currently running at 13.567.16~+~- beacon is outside. Any signal reports would be appreciated. Frequency may change soon as i have been having trouble with this beacon and already have a replacement one that needs built.
Thanks
Chris
KAH QTH change
Posted by Ian D Baines on December 18, 2019 at 23:47:04.
A short update on KAH 13.560. Due to the inaccessibility of our island location, the beacon is operating this winter from Kingston, ON, Home QTH of ve3dji.
Improving RF Gain on Ten-Tec's RX340 Receivers
Posted by Dave Childs on December 19, 2019 at 09:12:15.
The "DUMP" button switch (located just to the left of the AGC decay rate select button) was intended to manually drain off the charge stored on the AGC capacitor as a result of strong signals or lightning pickup when using slow AGC decay/release rates. I haven't found any need to manually restore normal receiver operation in less than the normal 1-second (approximate) recovery time selected but I have discovered that while holding the "DUMP" button in weak stations become noticeably stronger with respect to background noise. I also observed that while depressing the DUMP button in there's no change in the S-meter reading or audio level & that the tuning, notch & other receive controls aren't able to be varied until it's released. Personally, I think a better, more descriptive title for this button would be "AGC DUMP" or "AGC DISCHARGE". Good DXing...
JH !
Posted by John Davis on December 20, 2019 at 07:11:51.
In reply to Re: Lowfer JH posted by John Davis on December 16, 2019
In the wee hours of Wednesday night, JH finally made it to Kansas! Below is a link to a scrollable capture that begins just over an hour after sunset on Dec. 18 and ends one hour before sunrise on the 19th.
Only two IDs were completely recognizable, and the one at 2:05 AM was the best. Still, QRSS60 seems to have made a considerable difference over my attempt last week. Congratulations!
JH 18 December
Re: JH !
Posted by Garry, K3SIW on December 20, 2019 at 13:46:33.
In reply to JH ! posted by John Davis on December 20, 2019
John, I saw your note just before local sunrise here and tuned to 181.818 kHz to look for JH too. Found it just in the nick of time. One good callsign, bits of a second, then daylight lost the signal. I think the path length is 1145 km to me so the QRSS60 certainly helps.
73, Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL Re: JH !
Posted by John Hamer on December 20, 2019 at 14:42:04.
In reply to JH ! posted by John Davis on December 20, 2019
John,
Nice capture! Great to hear!
Regards, Re: JH !
John Hamer
Posted by John Hamer on December 20, 2019 at 14:43:14.
In reply to Re: JH ! posted by Garry, K3SIW on December 20, 2019
Awesome Garry! Thank you!
John Hamer
SJ, WM, SIW Near Solstice
Posted by John Davis on December 20, 2019 at 20:35:23.
Fades affected the three stations individually at different times, for anywhere from 5 to over 15 minutes. But as the saying goes, when they were good, they were very, very good. Saw SJ come on last night about 6:55 PM CST and wander around a bit in frequency for a couple of hours before settling down. Overall, better levels than in my capture posted in late November. It stayed fairly distinct up to 5:30 AM, about two hours before my sunrise, then remained faintly visible until nearly 6:30 AM.
Tonight's project is likely to target EAR; specifically, to find out whether I'm still able to see it before sunset and after sunrise this late n the month.
John
---------------------------------------------------------------
File Attachment 1: 19dec34.jpg
Reminder: Lowfer net +/- 3927Khz Saturday morning 0800 California time
Reminder: Lowfer net +/- 3927Khz Saturday morning 0800 California time
Or listen online at kfs:
http://69.27.184.62:8901/?tune=3927lsb
orKPH 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 t wa6owr@gmail.com Re: Lowfer net +/- 3927Khz Saturday morning
73,
Jerry WA6OWR
Posted by John Davis on December 21, 2019 at 19:19:14.
In reply to Reminder: Lowfer net +/- 3927Khz Saturday morning 0800 California time posted by Jerry Parker on December 20, 2019
A recording, since we don't have the Clint's Notes version of today's net. As usual, the MP3 file will only remain available temporarily. This one is 12 MB, so it will probably play most reliably if you right-click and download it to your device first.
73 and best wishes for the holidays.
John
VK4YB to KU4XR 2200 meter WSPR2
Posted by Andy Bell KU4XR on December 22, 2019 at 17:30:02.
Greetings LFers:
Was a nice surprise to see the decodes of VK4YB here in Friendsville, TN. Didn't post about it right away as I wanted to see if it would happen again, or be a "one time event". No luck last night, but the season is just gettin good.
73, and good DX to all:
Andy - KU4XR
Timestamp Call MHz SNR Drift Grid Pwr Reporter RGrid km az 2019-12-21 11:34 VK4YB 0.137554 -30 0 QG62ku 1 KU4XR EM75xr 14606 65 2019-12-21 11:22 VK4YB 0.137554 -29 0 QG62ku 1 KU4XR EM75xr 14606 65 2019-12-21 11:20 VK4YB 0.137555 -26 0 QG62ku 1 KU4XR EM75xr 14606 65 2019-12-21 11:18 VK4YB 0.137555 -26 0 QG62ku 1 KU4XR EM75xr 14606 65
Sunday 22 Dec HiFERs
Ho-hum propagation, but it's nice to see 7P & maybe TON back. ODX was difficult, either with its oscillator behaving a little oddly, or else QRM trying to blot it out.
In the first attachment (22deca.jpg), NC, 7P, EH and RY are present at the watering hole with adequate to good copy. No sign of MTI, WV, or AZ this noon.
The other attachment shows the smudge that is likely TON, although it was never quite evident to the ear. K6FRC never quite reached audibility, either. WAS was fine... nicely audible most of the time. It sounded as if I could hear keying from ODX, but it was chirpy and hard to be sure whether it was real or some unusual QRM source in the time available. More monitoring planned for late afternoon.
John
---------------------------------------------------------------
File Attachment 1: 22deca.jpg
File Attachment 2: 22decb.jpg
Re: VK4YB to KU4XR 2200 meter WSPR2
Andy, I've been watching the propagation from vk4yb for a few weeks now. 2200m is an interesting band for propagation study. VK4YB seems to "spotlight" here in the conus. NO3M copies, and I don't. I copy, and he doesn't, or you, as it was this morning. I'm pretty sure that Roger is watching the rx results here in the interior of the US with great interest.
good luck es gud dx
K1RGO/B Hrd in NC
Posted by Bill Stewart, K4JYS on December 23, 2019 at 00:43:27.
Heard K1RGO/B from 0016 to 0022Z, 12/22/19, the signal was RST 229 to peaks Re: VK4YB to KU4XR 2200 meter WSPR2
of 469. QSB max and min sig. strengths would last a minute or so.
The receiving setup is a Ten Tec RX340 and a PA0RDT Mini-Whip.
73 de Bill K4JYS
Posted by John Davis on December 23, 2019 at 07:53:55.
In reply to Re: VK4YB to KU4XR 2200 meter WSPR2 posted by swlem3 on December 22, 2019
Nobody as exotic as that tonight in Kansas...yet. The night is still young for signals from VK-land, though, so hope springs eternal. A sample so far this evening at AE0CQ (EM27kc):
Timestamp Call MHz SNR Drift Grid Pwr km az # Spots 2019-12-23 03:52 WB5MMB 0.137551 -28 0 EM22nm 0.001 510 358 2 2019-12-23 04:18 VE7VV 0.137405 -30 0 CN88il 0.2 2602 109 1 2019-12-23 04:28 WA9CGZ 0.137422 -22 0 EN61ch 0.1 786 236 38 2019-12-23 04:42 N3FL 0.137551 -24 0 FM19ua 0.05 1660 269 20 2019-12-23 04:54 K3MF 0.137406 -11 0 FM19sr 1 1649 266 37 2019-12-23 04:56 W7IUV 0.137418 -16 0 DN07dg 0.5 2305 110 18 2019-12-23 04:56 WH2XND 0.137578 +1 0 DM33xt 20 1573 72 9 2019-12-23 04:56 KA9OKH 0.137523 -23 0 EM67fx 1 675 264 33 2019-12-23 04:58 N1DAY 0.137459 -22 0 EM85sg 0.5 1154 284 38 2019-12-23 04:58 K0KE 0.137435 -9 0 DM79pm 0.1 878 105 28 2019-12-23 04:58 NO3M 0.137532 -5 0 EN91wr 1 1385 253 5
Re: VK4YB to KU4XR 2200 meter WSPR2
All;
It looks like I saw a slightly different mix of stations overnight, from EM68es.
12 spots:
Timestamp Call MHz SNR Drift Grid Pwr Reporter RGrid km az # Spots
2019-12-23 12:42 K9KFR 0.137536 +2 0 EN71gg 0.5 N8OOU EM68es 334 214 17
2019-12-23 12:26 VK4YB 0.137567 -27 0 QG62ku 1 N8OOU EM68es 14328 61 8
2019-12-23 04:32 NO3M 0.137532 -5 0 EN91wr 1 N8OOU EM68es 716 245 14
2019-12-23 04:24 WH2XND 0.137577 -12 0 DM33xt 20 N8OOU EM68es 2249 69 133
2019-12-23 03:14 W7IUV 0.137421 -25 0 DN07dg 0.5 N8OOU EM68es 2751 98 14
2019-12-23 02:56 K0KE 0.137427 -19 0 DM79pm 0.1 N8OOU EM68es 1473 88 27
2019-12-23 01:34 KA9OKH 0.137524 -11 -2 EM67fx 1 N8OOU EM68es 88 355 111
2019-12-23 01:28 N3FL 0.137551 -27 0 FM19ua 0.05 N8OOU EM68es 981 272 67
2019-12-23 00:30 N1DAY 0.137459 -23 0 EM85sg 0.5 N8OOU EM68es 601 312 102
2019-12-23 00:08 K3MF 0.137405 -11 0 FM19sr 1 N8OOU EM68es 967 267 77
2019-12-22 15:48 WA9CGZ 0.137422 -15 0 EN61ch 0.1 N8OOU EM68es 283 177 147
2019-12-22 13:32 K4LY 0.137448 -27 0 EM85wb 0.5 N8OOU EM68es 639 312 5
Query time: 0.420 sec
Re: VK4YB to KU4XR 2200 meter WSPR2
Posted by swlem3 on December 23, 2019 at 15:21:19.
In reply to Re: VK4YB to KU4XR 2200 meter WSPR2 posted by John Davis on December 23, 2019
John, I assume you had the rx on through sunrise (did you)? I didn't see any vk4yb decodes from you on wsprnet. If you had no copy, it would probably be the result of the "spotlighting" effect I mentioned previously.
Re: VK4YB to KU4XR 2200 meter WSPR2
Posted by John Davis on December 23, 2019 at 17:41:13.
In reply to Re: VK4YB to KU4XR 2200 meter WSPR2 posted by swlem3 on December 23, 2019
Had 20 spots of VK4YB, the last one about 15 minutes after local sunrise. Unfortunately, with no Internet access on the farm, I'm not able to upload to WSPRnet in real time, so my results are always delayed. (Sigh.) They were at these times and SNR values:
Timestamp Call MHz SNR Drift Grid Pwr Reporter RGrid km az ---------------- ----- -------- --- ----- ------ --- -------- ------ ----- -- 2019-12-23 11:42 VK4YB 0.137568 -28 0 QG62ku 1 AE0CQ EM27kc 13650 62 2019-12-23 11:46 VK4YB 0.137568 -24 0 ~ 2019-12-23 11:50 VK4YB 0.137568 -25 0 ~ 2019-12-23 11:54 VK4YB 0.137567 -27 0 ~ 2019-12-23 12:14 VK4YB 0.137568 -26 0 ~ 2019-12-23 12:18 VK4YB 0.137567 -27 0 ~ 2019-12-23 12:22 VK4YB 0.137567 -23 0 ~ 2019-12-23 12:26 VK4YB 0.137567 -19 0 ~ 2019-12-23 12:30 VK4YB 0.137568 -20 0 ~ 2019-12-23 12:34 VK4YB 0.137567 -24 0 ~ 2019-12-23 12:54 VK4YB 0.137567 -29 0 ~ 2019-12-23 12:58 VK4YB 0.137567 -28 0 ~ 2019-12-23 13:02 VK4YB 0.137567 -25 0 ~ 2019-12-23 13:06 VK4YB 0.137567 -25 0 ~ 2019-12-23 13:10 VK4YB 0.137567 -21 0 ~ 2019-12-23 13:14 VK4YB 0.137567 -26 0 ~ 2019-12-23 13:18 VK4YB 0.137567 -25 0 ~ 2019-12-23 13:22 VK4YB 0.137567 -25 0 ~ 2019-12-23 13:26 VK4YB 0.137567 -25 0 ~ 2019-12-23 13:34 VK4YB 0.137567 -26 0 QG62ku 1 AE0CQ EM27kc 13650 62In addition to these spots and the stations listed last night, I had two decodes of what WSPRnet identifies as a possible balloon telemetry special call, and one lone spot of KL7L. Samples:
2019-12-23 04:32 QK6TRO 0.137450 -26 0 DI45 20 AE0CQ EM27kc 4914 18 2019-12-23 05:22 KL7L 0.137450 -28 0 BP51ip 1 AE0CQ EM27kc 4579 101
John
Re: Sunday 22 Dec HiFERs
Posted by Bill Stewart, K4JYS on December 23, 2019 at 17:43:14.
In reply to Sunday 22 Dec HiFERs posted by John Davis on December 22, 2019
Tnx John for the WAS report. Glad to see it is still kicking up a dust particle or two from time to time. Also tnx for all your past HIFER reports and very interesting commentaries. A Merry Christmas and HNY to you and all on the list. Monday 23 Dec HiFERs
73 de Bill K4JYS
Posted by John Davis on December 23, 2019 at 21:14:41.
In reply to Re: Sunday 22 Dec HiFERs posted by Bill Stewart, K4JYS on December 23, 2019
FRC, WAS, and ODX were fair to good copy, while AMA was very strong in the noon hour CST. The wavy, chirpy signal that obscured ODX on Argo yesterday turns out to be QRM from a separate source. It was still present today several Hz removed, and still (fortunately) was not blocking aural copy.
XIL rejoined the gang at the watering hole this noon, present for two to several minutes at a time, then in fades for 5-20 minutes at a time. Also present were NC, 7P, EH and RY. No WV or AZ noted today, but TON was visible and sometimes audible.
Re: VK4YB to KU4XR 2200 meter WSPR2
Posted by swlem3 on December 23, 2019 at 22:59:23.
In reply to Re: VK4YB to KU4XR 2200 meter WSPR2 posted by John Davis on December 23, 2019
Alright! Good to hear John. You also picked up KL7L which I didn't get here. Know what you mean about the internet. I have no real internet either, I "hotspot" my Verizon phone to get on the 'net. Has a download speed comparable to a mid-speed dsl connection... not very fast.
Re: Christmas Eve transmission from SAQ Grimeton, December 24, 2019
Posted by John Davis on December 24, 2019 at 15:41:09.
In reply to Christmas Eve transmission from SAQ Grimeton, December 24, 2019 posted by Mike Terry on December 06, 2019
Sadly, QRN from storms off the Southeast coast and QRM from some source producing raspy, wandering harmonics of 60 Hz kept me from hearing anyone below 20 kHz last night. Above that point, though, reception was quite good.
Re: Christmas Eve transmission from SAQ Grimeton, December 24, 2019
Posted by John, W1TAG on December 24, 2019 at 16:31:39.
In reply to Re: Christmas Eve transmission from SAQ Grimeton, December 24, 2019 posted by John Davis on December 24, 2019
SAQ copy was pretty good this morning in central Massachusetts through the wishes for a happy new year. Then something "growly" kicked on, and made copy difficult. I used the big loop from the WD2XES days, untuned, a home-brew converter up to 10 MHZ, and an Icom R75 receiver. Set up Cool Edit to record from 0730 thru 0830 UTC. The resulting file was processed with a sharp 700 Hz filter.
John, W1TAG
Merry Christmas
Posted by John Bruce McCreath on December 24, 2019 at 17:04:59.
I haven't posted much here of late, but I still check the board every day and read the interesting postings. I would like to wish my LWCA friends a very Merry Christmas and great DXing in the coming new year!
Re: Merry Christmas
73, J.B., VE3EAR
Posted by chris on December 24, 2019 at 19:12:09.
In reply to Merry Christmas posted by John Bruce McCreath on December 24, 2019
Merry Christmas to all!
Europe 1 - closure confirmation
Posted by Mike Terry on December 25, 2019 at 12:04:29.
English translation
Dear Sir.
As listening habits are changing and the use of digital media is increasing, Europe 1 will no longer broadcast on the long wave from midnight on December 31, 2019.
A choice assumed by the station which has always shown innovation in its way of thinking and conceiving the listening of its programs.
the environmental approach also motivated this decision. Leaving the big waves is also protecting the environment. Happy holidays to you.
Constance BENQUÉ Managing Director Lagardère News
(Europe 1 / Paris Match / JDD) CEO ELLE Internationals
SAQ reception 24.12.2019 strong signal today
Posted by Mike Terry on December 25, 2019 at 12:11:39.
https://alexander.n.se/SAQ-Forum/topic/saq-reception-24-12-2019-strong-signal-today/?lang=en
Re: Monday 23 Dec HiFERs
Posted by Paul on December 28, 2019 at 20:19:27.
In reply to Monday 23 Dec HiFERs posted by John Davis on December 23, 2019
Thank you for the report, John. Nice to know FRC is still pounding away. I literally haven't touched the box in over 6 years. It's at a broadcast transmitter site that belongs to a station I haven't worked for in 6 years. When it dies, it's dead. Lucky for me, the engineer who they hired to try and replace me has almost zero attention to details and clearly hasn't ever looked at the FRC beacon box on the wall, or he would have seen the label with my name and info on it and removed it by now.
I have built a new beacon box to replace the original FRC unit, and I have a place to deploy it not far from the current FRC site. However, it is still on, so I haven't had to deploy the new one yet.
Where's MFJ?
Posted by John Davis on December 29, 2019 at 07:02:07.
Forget Waldo. Does anyone know what's become of MFJ Enterprises?
Not only has MFJ's own Web site been unavailable since (apparently) Friday night, but so have all their subsidiary companies like Ameritron, Mirage, Hy-Gain and Cushcraft. Clicking links to those sites redirects you to JustHost.com's "suspended.page" directory and gives a 404 - Not Found error.
John
Re: Monday 23 Dec HiFERs
Posted by John Davis on December 29, 2019 at 07:07:41.
In reply to Re: Monday 23 Dec HiFERs posted by Paul on December 28, 2019
The K6FRC HiFER has been my most reliable signal from the West for many years, so I'm exceedingly glad to hear there is a plan of succession ready to cope with the possibility of future failure or removal.
Re: Where's MFJ?
Posted by John Bruce McCreath on December 29, 2019 at 14:22:17.
In reply to Where's MFJ? posted by John Davis on December 29, 2019
Hi John, at 09:20 Sunday morning I got the same response as you when trying any of the MFJ group of companies sites!
73, J.B., VE3EAR Re: Where's MFJ?
Posted by John, W1TAG on December 29, 2019 at 16:31:14.
In reply to Where's MFJ? posted by John Davis on December 29, 2019
JD,
Not the first time it's happened to them. Probably a renewal issue. They'll probably wake up on Monday.
JA
good EU propagation
Posted by swlem3 on December 29, 2019 at 20:55:02.
Just a tip... < 500khz has been displaying some great EU propagation the past couple nights. More than one EU station has been decoded into the East US... some into the West. I managed to receive 10 decodes of G0MRF on 630m into N central Texas overnight. Others to the East of me fared better, recieving Germany, Ireland, others. The point is that it would pay to be on the lookout for good propagation on the freqs lower than the 630m band. Hard telling what you may log with better than normal prop.
I've also noted some pretty good prop on the 2200m band. Australia can be decoded into the conus with just a little patience. I wonder if such good openings will continue when the sunspot cycle starts ramping up? Perhaps now is the time to 'get em while they're there.
Re: Where's MFJ?
Posted by John Davis on December 29, 2019 at 23:37:53.
In reply to Re: Where's MFJ? posted by John, W1TAG on December 29, 2019
That's probably the explanation, JA...at least, I sure hope so. As one of the last makers of amateur radio gear in the US, they're kind of important to my plans, now that I'm finally in a position to set up a serious ham station.
Re: Where's MFJ?
Posted by John Davis on December 30, 2019 at 19:57:13.
In reply to Re: Where's MFJ? posted by John Davis on December 29, 2019
Huzzah! They are indeed back today.
Re: Where's MFJ?
Posted by John, W1TAG on December 30, 2019 at 21:20:31.
In reply to Re: Where's MFJ? posted by John Davis on December 30, 2019
...and probably a slightly depleted credit card!
Lowfer SIW now sending EbNaut
Posted by Garry, K3SIW on December 31, 2019 at 14:16:29.
The transmission mode for M,W,F of lowfer SIW on 185.185 kHz is now set to EbNaut. The message is 3 characters sent with 4 second symbols, 8K19A coding, and 16 bit CRC. Refer to http://www.n1bug.com/lfmf/ebnaut/index.shtml for information on decoding EbNaut transmissions. Tu,Th,Sa,Su operation will be unchanged: a QRSS30, QRSS60 sequence on 185.2993 kHz. Switchover is around 1900Z.
73 and HNY,
Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL
Europe 1 has closed
Posted by Mike Terry on December 31, 2019 at 23:32:54.
Europe 1 on 183 kHz closed 32 minutes before midnight CET (23:00 UTC) tonight after 64 years on air.
The longwave band in Europe is increasingly quiet.
potrzebie