Return-Path: Received: from rly-dc06.mx.aol.com (rly-dc06.mail.aol.com [172.19.136.35]) by air-dc07.mail.aol.com (v125.7) with ESMTP id MAILINDC073-b2c4aa504b032a; Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:03:51 -0400 Received: from post.thorcom.com (post.thorcom.com [193.82.116.20]) by rly-dc06.mx.aol.com (v125.7) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINDC068-b2c4aa504b032a; Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:03:46 -0400 Received: from majordom by post.thorcom.com with local (Exim 4.14) id 1Mkdrk-0004GN-1I for rs_out_1@blacksheep.org; Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:02:40 +0100 Received: from [193.82.116.32] (helo=relay1.thorcom.net) by post.thorcom.com with esmtp (Exim 4.14) id 1Mkdrj-0004GE-Jl for rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org; Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:02:39 +0100 Received: from smtp819.mail.ird.yahoo.com ([77.238.189.19]) by relay1.thorcom.net with smtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1Mkdql-0005up-K8 for rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org; Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:01:40 +0100 Received: (qmail 2550 invoked from network); 7 Sep 2009 13:02:26 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=btopenworld.com; h=Received:X-Yahoo-SMTP:X-YMail-OSG:X-Yahoo-Newman-Property:Message-ID:From:To:References:In-Reply-To:Subject:Date:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:X-Priority:X-MSMail-Priority:X-Mailer:X-MIMEOLE; b=Aq/RLGUGzFQ/1s5W0UoeX+IV/DJq3PDEqt72/9zsl/brAegJvczPOnzyRmpERfAklUZYEScYGUGR2sXjdgEgzG2RjYPknLK5rORoCQ3HAGjidqjHsQ/+wFqMas8ekbbC7JIHGp/jhghURE0uAKp5V942ifqR6yfsreshT89UH9o= ; Received: from unknown (HELO JimPC) (james.moritz@86.177.108.28 with login) by smtp819.mail.ird.yahoo.com with SMTP; 7 Sep 2009 13:02:26 -0000 X-Yahoo-SMTP: qKIhhNCswBB2TTHr2BORWcGGR2mpopxhCcunGIxpCKQYiG07Q7UOhNo- X-YMail-OSG: 2Fqt6LYVM1k3OgeJvfe7zwNz9_q2.wNIQ8vvxpgV2fMBjoT1MyeCg7u69VOk0E4QdSqV4wm1pZAUk6j.I0tgvItJtXQUWI6gkkJHsew9F40xTgB0ZnWhetOQu31oxh37x820T7IrSUsSfr6vTjNgqFnnZ.aTY9Mv2KL8aUyBGes0YSiLABcljuKPHHwqaeLJJEvty8C2vG_6qT8G8FN.FajGLoQf3QpYb7npDrDvaHtLzbYnm6w- X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-3 Message-ID: From: "James Moritz" To: References: <0DC70E96227C4EC9BC7BAE8F482B7099@JimPC> <3A7882A6EA6F48CA92F0A32B5BF96535@JimPC> <516228955.1252269306.158883836.47093@mcgi29.rambler.ru> <227866042.1252271522.162474480.47434@mcgi37.rambler.ru> <504021971.1252281332.46912984.60539@mcgi67.rambler.ru> In-Reply-To: Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 14:02:26 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Windows Mail 6.0.6001.18000 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.0.6001.18049 X-Karma: unknown: DomainKey-Status: good (testing) X-Spam-Score: 0.0 (/) X-Spam-Report: autolearn=disabled,none Subject: LF: Re: WSPR/Questions Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on post.thorcom.com X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.1 required=5.0 tests=MISSING_OUTLOOK_NAME autolearn=no version=2.63 X-SA-Exim-Scanned: Yes Sender: owner-rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org Precedence: bulk Reply-To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org X-Listname: rsgb_lf_group X-SA-Exim-Rcpt-To: rs_out_1@blacksheep.org X-SA-Exim-Scanned: No; SAEximRunCond expanded to false X-AOL-IP: 193.82.116.20 Dear Laurence, Roman, LF Group, I shut the beacon down at 0446utc this morning. The frequency was 503.975kHz as advertised. Thanks for the overnight reports, nice to see spots from W1TAG again and from Russia for the first time. I transmitted in about 75% of the 2 minute periods between about 1940 and 2050utc, but saw nothing like a signal in the BY3 grabber, although the frequency seemed mostly clear. Conditions were relatively noisy here with more QRN than the previous night. The antenna is a top-loaded vertical with 3 wires in a sort of Y shape in the horizontal plane. Where the wires meet, it is supported by a 10m fibreglass mast. To "jack up" the antenna, I have an old "cherry picker" (or aerial access platform or whatever you wish to call it) which is slowly sinking into my lawn. The bottom of the mast is bolted to the cherry picker where the operator's basket used to be, so the whole mast can be raised into the air. This allows a total maximum height of about 19m if I am feeling brave; last night the middle of the antenna span was raised to about 17m. Previous FS measurements have shown this gives about 3 - 4dB improvement in ERP due to the increased height and radiation resistance, along with a slight reduction in loss resistance. The total length of wire in the antenna stays the same, but gets further from the ground, so antenna capacitance actually reduces slightly. The things we do to try and get a better signal... Cross-band QSOs from M0BMU are unfortunately difficult at the moment due to the high QRM levels on the lower HF bands here - I am hoping some work on dedicated HF receiving antennas here will improve this soon. The 504kHz signal seems to be present in many widely-seperated QTHs - don't know about W/VE though? It seems to be different at each location. Here it is a rather weak carrier with no audible modulation, on the spectrogram it can be seen to have a couple of stronger spectral lines and several weaker ones spread over a range of a few Hz. These seem to vary over time, possibly due to QSB. They can't all be RTE/Atlantic 252 harmonics - 504kHz is an integer multiple of 9kHz, so many opportunities for internal or external intermods due to broadcast stations. 504kHz is also a multiple of 8kHz, as is 136kHz - it was suggested at one time that the weak carriers audible in many places on 136.0kHz could be harmonics of the 8kHz clock rate used in wired telecomms. I would be quite interested to try WOLF again - although it needs more careful coordination with frequencies than WSPR. Roman, there are some pdf files on the UK 500kHz group site about some of my LF/MF gear - you are welcome to use those if you like. Cheers, Jim Moritz 73 de M0BMU