Re: VLF: Inspire VLF-3 receiver

[Warren Ziegler <wd2xgj@gmail.com>]

Hello Daniele,

   A couple of possibilities for a quick and easy whistler receiver:
1) The McGreevy W3 available already built in a case or as a circuit board:   http://www.auroralchorus.com/wr3gx2.htm

2) The North Country Earth Receiver:   http://www.northcountryradio.com/Kitpages/elfrcvr.htm

3) Ten-Tec used to make a high gain audio amplifier kit, I don't see it on their web page at the  moment but perhaps you can find one?


     Personally I have the North Country receiver, it works fine but I can't get to quiet locations all that often, my best results have been at the seaside away from power lines.
-- 
73 Warren K2ORS
                WD2XGJ 
                WD2XSH/23
                WE2XEB/2
                WE2XGR/1

On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 11:00 AM, Daniele Tincani <danieletincani@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hello Warren,

 

yes, I see. However, I did not intend to use the VLF-3 for sub-9KHz ham radio listening, rather I'm looking for a VLF reception solution that I could possibly move away from domestic noise and take with me for a walk in the countryside.

My reasoning is: I'm pretty sure :-) that I have hum at home affecting reception below 10KHz. I will try a small passive HPF just to see if it improves things a bit, but I'm not confident about this attempt, given that probably the noise is not generated by saturation in the pre-amp or the soundcard. Of course the pre-amp and the soundcard have their own noise floor, but it seems to me that external noise is well above it. Given this situation, I think that no home-based receiver could really remove the problem at my current location.

On the other hand, I live in a jointly-owned building, at 5th floor, so it would be not "politically" easy to install a long coax cable across the property and up to my balcony :-). More complex solutions like remotely-interfaced antennas, etc. are out of my budget for VLF at present (in terms of spare time for study, setup, etc. :-)).

In summary, while trying to improve my current loop and pre-amp, I think that building an E-probe could add a bit to my current experience with VLF "antennas" and could probably result in a more handy solution for "in-the-field" listening sessions.

I'm interested in a portable VLF receiver (more general-purpose than VLF-3, if possible). Ready-to-mount kits are preferable because of the short free-time I have for homebrewing. Please suggest any suitable solution that you could have information on.

 

Cheers

D.

---

From: Warren Ziegler <wd2xgj@gmail.com>
To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
Sent: Tue, October 5, 2010 4:09:01 PM
Subject: Re: VLF: Inspire VLF-3 receiver

Daniele,
   The Inspire kit is a broadband high gain audio amplifier with a very high input impedance - generically its a 'whistler receiver'.
Whistler receivers like Inspire are good for listening to whistlers, tweeks, dawn chorus etc but it would be completely useless for listening to amateur VLF experiments - its broadband, has no 'bfo' to detect a carrier and would be difficult to interface to a sound card.


--
73 Warren K2ORS
                WD2XGJ
                WD2XSH/23
                WE2XEB/2
                WE2XGR/1

 

On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 4:43 AM, Daniele Tincani <danieletincani@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hi VLF,

 

any opinions about the Inspire VLF-3 receiver kit?

http://theinspireproject.org/uploads/PDF/Theory_of_Operations.pdf

Thank you in advance for your feedbacks.

 

Regards

Daniele