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LF: Microwatts and microhertz

To: <[email protected]>
Subject: LF: Microwatts and microhertz
From: "Markus Vester" <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 25 May 2012 00:05:29 +0200
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Two nights ago (May 22/23, 21:30-2:50), I sent a long carrier on 137780 Hz with 250 µW from my indoor antenna. To my amazement, the signal was picked up in the 420 µHz spectrogram on Chris' excellent grabber in Bucharest, 1256 km from here:
 
Although I actually started transmitting during a local thunderstorm, QRN in Romania was relatively low at the time, with Chris' propagation plot indicating 50 dB SNR for DCF39 and 60 dB for HGA22. The signal from the loop is normally also visible on the 22 mHz TA windows at DK7FC, DM4TR and (sometimes) OE3GHB.
 
Tonight since 20:30, I'm having another go, sending my suffix in QRSS-1200 mode.
 
Best 73,
Markus (DF6NM)
 
 

Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2012 11:50 PM
Subject: LF: Indoor Transmit Loop

Today I have experimented with an indoor transmit loop for 136 kHz.
 
First I attempted to measure the efficiency of a small test loop, 6 turns and 66 cm diameter. It was made from a 12.1 meter piece of 729-strand Decca litz wire (same that Stefan used for his famous loading coil). Resonating with 23 nF styroflex gave a Q of 400, ie. 0.12 ohm series resistance. Theoretical radiation resistance (above ground) would be about 12 nanoohms, predicting an efficiency of about -70 dB. Then I tuned to 138.83 kHz and measured -61.0 dBm available receive power from DCF39. Assuming a fieldstrength of 3 mV/m here, an idealized lossless loop or Marconi should deliver +8.2 dBm. Thus efficiency of the test loop was -69.2 dB, in good agreement to theory. This shows that there is little attenuation of magnetic fields in the walls and the roof, despite the thin aluminium vapor barrier above me.
 
To improve efficiency and power capability, I then dismantled the little loop and reused the litz wire for a large single-turn loop. This is about 3.5 m wide wall-to wall, 2.5 m high floor to ceiling, oriented east-west for best signal towards Heidelberg. The loop was resonated with 83.3nF, made of 10 pieces 33nF / 2kV FKP-1 capacitors, in 2s-5p configuration. At 137 kHz, each capacitor is thermally limited to about 6 A rms (30 A total). As expected, both the inductance and the Q factor were lower (Q=72, 0.19 ohm loss). Presumably the extra 70 milliohms were contributed by absorption in steel reinforcement in the floor and walls. The radiation resistance of an 8.8 sqm loop should be about 0.23 microohms, thus predicting 1.2 ppm (-59 dB) efficiency.
 
Before the on air tests, I had calibrated the DK7FC grabber receiver (180 km) using my normal LF Marconi, which has a known -30 dB efficiency. A 136.17 kHz carrier from a signal generator (13 dBm, 20 µW radiated power) produced a level of about -89 dB in Stefan's Eu window. During the morning hours, noise was a low -105 dB in Heidelberg.
 
The big loop was then matched to 50 ohms using 16:1 turns on a ferrite ring (AL 4 uH). Fine tuning to 136.17 kHz was achieved by 0.44 uF in series to one of the cap branches, and by slightly deforming the loop geometry. Then I carefully applied power, expecting fireworks at any moment, or all sorts of unwanted EMC effects due to the magnetic nearfield. To my surprise, none of this happened. Going up to full 200 watts silently produced 32 A in the loop, with no adverse effects on electonics or radios in the vicinity. Only the small ferrite transformer became hot after a short while. Recalculating core magnetisation (6V rms, 0.5 cm^2) gave 0.2 tesla peak which is way too much. This was easily mitigated by going to 32 turns primary and 2 turns secondary.
 
For the on air-tests, I had inserted 100 kohm into the Marconi uplead to eliminate possible coupling and reradiation. Despite the higher afternoon QRN, signals from the loop were immediately received in Heidelberg, at -78 dB and 16 dB SNR. Thus radiated power was about 0.25 mW, and efficiency -59 dB, just as predicted. To double check, I temporarily reconnected the Marconi and transmitted a dash with full power. Due to slightly lower load impedance (40 ohms) the TX now produced 250 W (ie. 0.25 W EMRP). As expected, the signal in Heidelberg indeed went up by 30 dB.
 
During the following hour, SNR was actually good enough to marginally read a slow Hell transmission from the indoor antenna. More pics are at
 
Well, so what is this good for? Transmit during a thunderstorm? Maybe there's not much one can do with this kind of power, but the experiment was certainly instructive, and good fun.
 
Best 73,
Markus (DF6NM)
 

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