Re: LF: VLF this morning in TN

["Douglas D. Williams" <kb4oer@gmail.com>]

LOL! Yes, I suppose that is true Markus. Thanks for sharing those experiences. VLF is fun stuff. I have actually heard some whistlers in my backyard, not 10 meters from overhead powerlines, standing shivering in 0 C degree weather, snow on the ground, with a hand held receiver and tape recorder in my hand.

 

Doug KB4OER

On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 2:13 PM, Markus Vester <markusvester@aol.com> wrote:

Hi Doug,

 

you could probably have heard the Omega's without the amplifier. One of the fascinating radio experiences was when Geri DK8KW and I heard crisp 11.9 kHz dashes from Alpha Krasnodar on a headphone connected to the LF antenna,  using only a line-output transformer tuned to resonance, and nothing else inbetween. This was the same little backyard Marconi I still use today (measured (in-)efficiency about -70 dB at 9 kHz), and an average cheap "walkman" type headset.

 

Well that was a dozen years ago. Guess I'll have to repeat the experiment to see if I can still do it now, at age 53 ;-) Ah, this must be the reason why we men need higher antennas as we grow old ;-) 

 

Good luck for your VLF work!

 

Best wishes,

Markus (DF6NM)

 

From: Douglas D. Williams

Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2012 4:18 PM

To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org

Subject: Re: LF: VLF this morning in TN

Thank you Wolf. Those are nice captures for comparison. I see you have no trouble receiving NAA, but the other two continental U.S. stations are much weaker.

 

The alpha stations are difficult for me to copy with the sound card, but I can often hear them at night using my R75 and upconverter with the 250Hz CW filter.

 

The OMEGA system, when it was still active, put out some very strong signals here. All one really needed to hear those was an audio amp, short whip antenna, and headphones.....and sufficiently sensitive hearing.

 

I find that when I listen to some of the live streaming "natural radio" receivers in Europe, I can hear the Alphas in my right ear, but not my left ear. Guess my high frequency hearing is starting to go.

 

Doug - KB4OER

On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 9:31 AM, wolf_dl4yhf <dl4yhf@freenet.de> wrote:

Hi Douglas,

Nice reception there. For comparison, I have made these broadband VLF screenshots in the past:

http://www.qsl.net/dl4yhf/vlf_rdf/latest_vlf_spectra.htm

Will add a more recent spectrogram covering the 48 kHz range later, when time and local QRM permits.

73,
  Wolf .