> I learnt a bit more about my ft817 on LF, >
 Laurence,

   I've learned that my FT-817 is deaf as a post on LF. I hooked up a whip antenna to it and took a walk with it a couple of weeks ago. My Part 5 beacon was s-8 about 3 feet directly under the transmitting antenna. (My Part 5 beacon was running about 250 watts out.) By the time I had walked maybe 1000 feet away, I could not hear a trace of my beacon! I believe that you used a pre-amp, I hope it had a LOT of gain!

  I've visited Alaska three times in the past four years, each time I took a radio or two. I've always been dissappointed with the HF propagation there (too much in the auroral absorption zone). I know that you lived there for some time, so you are in a better position to compare your recent results with typical conditions.

   I did get a tour of the HAARP ionospheric heating transmitter site in Gakona, Alaska in 2000. I drove back toward Anchorage in the evening after getting a tour of HAARP from the cheif engineer. About halfway between Gakona and Anchorage, I pulled over to the side of the road and tuned my SONY 2010 to the frequency that HAARP was transmitting on that night (which was 3.300 MHz). The signal was watery and not all that strong for a transmitter running 750 kW into a 21 dB gain array!

  Just my 2cents!