Return-Path: Received: (qmail 27940 invoked from network); 10 Nov 2002 19:37:34 -0000 Received: from marstons.services.quay.plus.net (212.159.14.223) by mailstore with SMTP; 10 Nov 2002 19:37:34 -0000 Received: (qmail 11164 invoked by uid 10001); 10 Nov 2002 19:39:47 -0000 Received: from post.thorcom.com (193.82.116.70) by marstons.services.quay.plus.net with SMTP; 10 Nov 2002 19:39:47 -0000 Received: from majordom by post.thorcom.com with local (Exim 4.10) id 18Axv5-0003vw-00 for rsgb_lf_group-outgoing@blacksheep.org; Sun, 10 Nov 2002 19:38:55 +0000 Received: from [212.135.6.13] (helo=smarthost3.mail.uk.easynet.net) by post.thorcom.com with esmtp (Exim 4.10) id 18Axv5-0003vn-00 for rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org; Sun, 10 Nov 2002 19:38:55 +0000 Received: from tnt-2-8.easynet.co.uk ([195.40.196.8] helo=erica) by smarthost3.mail.uk.easynet.net with smtp (Exim 3.35 #1) id 18Axv3-000BLd-00 for rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org; Sun, 10 Nov 2002 19:38:54 +0000 Message-ID: <000a01c288f0$d0ccb380$08c428c3@erica> From: "g3ldo" To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org References: <008e01c288ad$bef2d420$ea00a8c0@f3a3a2> Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 19:38:05 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Subject: LF: 73 T/A Last night Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.5 required=5.0tests=REFERENCES,SPAM_PHRASE_00_01,USER_AGENT_OEversion=2.42 Sender: Precedence: bulk Reply-To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org X-Listname: rsgb_lf_group Although from the receiving end watching 120s QRSS on 72.4kHz is like watching grass grow at the transmitting end it turned out to be fairly exciting. I had not studied the propagation predictions and I just tagged along with Laurie. I was late because of a family emergency and I didn't get the transmitter fired up until 2335, by which time it would seem that main propagation event had faded. This was the first time the car battery power supply was used and it proved much more resilient than the UPS batteries. There was a bit of a panic when I found that the DDS driver batteries were down to 10v but a quick connection of a charger resolved this. My main concern was for the antenna. I managed to improve the antenna current to 4.5amps and with an antenna feed point of 64ohms this works out at around 1300watts. With a small suburban antenna the voltage across the insulators must be enormous. After anxiously inspecting the insulators in the dark for pyrotechnics all looked well in spite of the heavy rain that had started to fall. It would seem that the insulator treatment, described previously, seemed to have done the trick. But there was no chance of leaving the transmitter on and going to bed as I think Laurie does. By 0130 no T/A reports had been received and I was ready to pack up. Fortunately I did a last check of the e-mail and got a report from John, which encouraged me to leave the transmitter on for a while. It seems that the propagation followed the familiar pattern of two broad humps seen so often in Alan's CFH recordings and so a complete 'LDO' was received in MA. Many thanks to Jose EA1PX and Markus DF6NM for their reports on frequency and signal strength. Most of all, thanks to John Andrews, W1TAG, for his patience in receiving the signals from Laurie and myself and for making the ARGO recordings available on his website. Regards, Peter, G3LDO e-mail Web