Re: LF: T/A DK7FC

[Bill de Carle <ve2iq@magma.ca>]

At 06:30 AM 10/21/2011, Jay W1VD wrote:
> Stefan
>  
> Capture of your signal fading into
> the sunrise at about 0640Z at
>
> http://www.w1vd.com/grabber.html .
>  
> Signal was already very strong when
> I switched the receiver on about 2230Z but went into a very slow fade
> that lasted until about 0230Z. Signal popped back up and was strong the
> rest of the night until fadeout as shown above. It was interesting that
> VE2IQ had copy throughout the fade noted here. There was no QRM or
> unusual static conditions to limit receiving 'sensitivity' so propagation
> is likely to blame. I'm curious what Bill is using for his receiving
> antenna ... maybe he will chime in. The antenna here is the large format
> K9AY.

Hi Jay, Stefan, group:

Stefan was received here reasonably well all night.  I uploaded one
of the captures this morning:

http://www.nrtco.net/~ve2iq/grabs/
I was using a couple of orthogonal loops for receiving: loops are
rectangular and each has approx 100 feet of finely-stranded wire (not
Litz), about 0.25 inch diameter with heavy insulation.  The
rectangles are roughly 30' horiz by 20' high with bottoms about shoulder
height above the ground.  I support them from maple trees with those
black rubber tie-down straps truckers use.  The "NS" loop
orientation is actually 27 degrees; the "EW" orientation is 117
degrees.  The NS loop is slightly larger in area than the EW. 
To receive from Heidelberg I connect the loops in series to favor
NE/SW.  The system is tuned (Q only 35 otherwise too much freq
change with temperature).  I have noticed that you and I often see
similar QRN when trying to receive Stefan's signal.  One difference
might be that I have essentially no response from the E-field, another
might be that I am sensitive to signals arriving from two
directions and you can null out one direction.

I read with some interest about your success with the K9AY and gave it a
try but it doesn't work well here because the loops are in some heavy
bush, not in the clear.  While it is easy to obtain a good ground in
the woods there is very little E-field available because the trees are
much taller than the whole antenna.  I suppose at LF it might sorta
work with an E-field probe closer to the house instead of using the
E-field pickup of the loops themselves, but there are issues with that
approach so I never bothered to try it.

73,
Bill VE2IQ