[600MRG] Results from the Smokies

[Bayard Coolidge, N1HO]

Greetings, everyone!
As I make incremental improvements in my station here in Hendersonville, NC, and as the seasonprogresses, I'm getting better results on my overnight WSPR runs. On Wednesday, I changed a coupleof connections out at the coil to provide a better ground resistance as well as a tighter connectionat the coil tap point. I was using a small alligator clip that had a weak spring and didn't bite too hard.
I cranked up the amplifier voltage, and thereby its output, but my calculations didn't include my coil losses,so I will re-rerun my numbers and adjust accordingly.
That said, I was heard by 39 uniques across 1387 spots, with the best DX being 1474km. I heard 14 uniquesacross 340 spots, with the best DX at 2012km (W5GNB in SE NM !). In looking at the resulting map onWSPRnet, I note that there were basically no stations (either way) south of me, and I think that may havebeen due to a cold front that swept the region overnight along an east-west line that drifted south - we hadsome rain around 0615-0730Z. The 195 foot horizontal leg of my inverted-L at 60 feet runs 340 degrees (~NNE).
I'm also planning on reworking my receive bandpass filter which, when initially tested early last week, exhibitedabout 20dB attenuation across the band as displayed by my P3 Panadaptor's noise floor. I found the necessarycoax adapters and a fairly precise 50 Ohm terminator and discovered that the filter has a single, sharp responseat 467 kHz, so I will be tweaking turns, etc. to set it up correctly. It will help reduce gain compression caused bya very strong NDB at a nearby airport.
Very 73,
Brandy, N1HO (EM85sg)


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