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Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 11:11:21 +0100
To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
From: "Walter Blanchard" <blanch@pncl.co.uk>
Subject: LF: MB7LF
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Can't help feeling some of the reaction to MB7LF is premature.  It isn't a 
fixture; it's experimental only; you don't HAVE to use it even if you're 
within range; and if QSO's through it are thought to be "not playing the 
game" then so be it. We can easily say that no QSO's through it reckon for 
any award.
But it wasn't set up for DX'ing. A lot of amateurs, some known to me 
personally, don't have huge antenna farms and don't live in the nice quiet 
countryside but would like to have a go at LF anyway.  They can't hear much 
because of all the tellys and SMPSU's and haven't the space for more than a 
little inverted-L so anything they put out is only going to be in the 
milliwatt, probably microwatt, range.  There is still a lot of interest to 
be had putting even that out, as I've been finding myself lately, but 
nobody much will hear it.  A repeater can at least confirm you're putting 
out something, which is nice.
It also helps considerably fiddling about with coil tuning and aerial 
layouts.  You're very lucky if you know a co-operative ham who has nothing 
to do but listen to your weak transmissions for hours on end reporting 
slight changes in strength.  Meters in the shack don't tell all.  Yesterday 
I  put my microwatt squeaker on the air and although all the indications in 
the shack were normal I could see from the repeater I wasn't getting out. 
My aerial feeder had blown into a large and very wet bush and when I pulled 
it clear all was normal again. And the difference between low and high-Q 
coils can be seen in seconds.
I only wish there were a lot more repeaters around me so I could get the 
sort of signal-strength measurements Jim MBU has been doing lately without 
having to spend days driving around the countryside.

Walter G3JKV.