Dear all - A disappointing nights reception here in Alaska but congrats to
those who made something of it.
Conditions from midnight till 0800Z were the worst Ive seen for a number of
weeks - DCF39 rarely made audible thru the period and peaked above noise
around 0400z for about ten mins again. Not a glimmer... I was chatting with
Brian CT1DRP (on Echolink on the keys from around 0630) but taking a turn
round the dial indicated poor Eu reception and even North Scandinavia to be
way down, DCF39 appeared above noise at 0700-0740. For the first time I had
strong static crashes earlier from 0000z - this may indicate a strong path
to somewhere but not Eu. As of this morning 1500Z I can see the data sig
but not "hear it", only Russian stations are audible on bcast (180Khz).
Looking at http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.fcgi for this area doesnt
give me many clues except higher FoF2 figures over the past days.
I checked for Mitches beacon thru the night using Argo but reviewing the
shots this morning shows no trace....this path will work soon Im sure but
is still around 4800Kms or so away
The Argo "retransmission" of 137/139Khz via Echolink is proving remote
received data is more accurate than I thought possible. Using a remote PC
Inet connections loaded with ARGO things don't look a whole lot different
remotely on the QRSS30/60 settings than from home. Setting ARGO on 1830Hz
(for 138.83Khz) I could see DCF39 within 0.1/2Hz at v weak signal
levels.....now this be a one off, the Internet not being a particularly
time/freq stable environment but from 1st day testing it looks promising. I
continue to relay "noiz" via Echolink, If Im in the shack I can type a
message back.... - The servers are being kind to me and haven't times me
out either. What is an eye opener for some people is the amount of lines
and Switch mode power supply squiggles visible on full bandwidths. Its not
as bad as it looks, honest, and the use of the NB, ATT, AGC and ARGO can
take me right down between the interference lines. Ill have some calibrated
levels on received signals later this evening. Thanks to Bob K3DJC for the
tests.
Laurence KL1X
-4C overcast
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