During a very pleasant meeting with Chris 4X1RF and his family, we discussed possibilities of improving the noise situation for LF here in the Kibbutz. Chris suggested to replace the low active antenna by a passive long wire and a separate earth. Walking through the village with "open eyes", today I managed to find some 30 m of old unused telephone wire which was thrown over some branches, using fallen grapefruits as casting leads. I could also salvage a ferrite choke from a discarded TV power supply, which now serves as a common mode choke to separate the earth connection from the notebook supply. Comparing HGA / DCF before and after, it looks like the SNR has dramatically improved by some 10 to 15 dB.

 

So the TA / Eu grabber is up again on the dropbox (link below), and I'm watching wspr-15 and Op-32 again tonight.

 

Thanks Chris!

 

Best 73,

Markus (DF6NM)

 

 

From: Markus Vester

Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2013 8:00 PM

To: [email protected]

Subject: LF: 4X/DF6NM

I've set up a temporary LF receiver near Kiryat Shmona

http://no.nonsense.ee/qthmap/?qth=KM73TD18KG ,

uploading TA and Eu slots to the dropbox file normally used for MF

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26404526/df6nm_MF.jpg .

 

This is only a low active antenna outside the window, so the local noise baseline is far from optimal. The internet connection is "borrowed" from a friendly neighbour so probably not too reliable either.

 

Looking out for WSPR-15 and (perhaps) Opera-32 as well.

 

Best 73,

Markus (DF6NM)