European overnight signals were mixed with fast and deep QSB - DCF39 peaked
at 0400Z for about 30 minutes (!) at S6 then dived into the noise by 0520Z,
not recovering by European dawn. Southern LF Bcast stations were very
poor, and even the Northern Norwegian on 152/180Khz were down with fast QSB
(say 1 second period S9 to S3 type)
The data sig beacon DCF39 this morning 1500-1600Z is "seeable on Argo "
but not "audible by ear".
The feedback on Argo from Fabian et al is more than true. QOS of the signal
is probably not defined in phase/jitter or freq and probably nothing like
needed to fully utilize ARGO on the higher QRSS settings, but, being one
to try anything Ive connected the output of the 870 to Echolink and am in
conference with myself as KL1X -
You should be able to join by clicking onto KL1X via the Echolink server -
up to 9 people theoretically!
So.the audio coming out of the speaker ...137.0 =0hz 138.0 = 1Khz and
DCF38 will be heard as a 1.83 Khz tone (thats if Echolink/board passes
1.83Khz) - if nothing else if you can hear the data sig you know the path
is somewhat open. This is truly a walk in the shack and out of the door
test this morning - I dont know whether the remote echolink server will
time me out eventually, and I havent had time to plug in a sig genny and
see what really comes back freq/phase wise - I used Echoaudio test site
and confirmed the audio was coming back (as has Martin G4FKK - thanks)
The antennae is connected and Ill keep echolink up till either Im working
on the system (people up the tower today sometime), but will try to leave
Echolink link up with a message of whats happening at the "connect screen".
I added another loading wire to the antennae yesterday afternoon and
evening/night in a snow storm. The Antennae is now a 2 wire (6 ft
separation using spreaders) Inverted U with 90 ft verticals at each end and
about a 50 meter "top" - the second wire reduced the inductance required
further and probably a bit of loss (maybe). If all was correct Ive added
about 0.5-0.8 dB on s/n on DCF39. - every little helps.
Laurence KL1X BP41
|
