[Lowfer] rx setup

[Eric Smith]

As you know I'm working on my rx setup concurrent with the tx build.  WHY 
is this all taking me so long?  No $$.

But I'm making progress.  Last night I got Spectran working with wine, 
the windows emulator (http://www.winehq.com).  The only computer I have 
running windows is the laptop I bring home from work, and I only use that 
one when there is no other option.  SO it was GREAT to see Spectran run 
under wine!  Argo has some problems but I'll work on that...

I tested it last night with my am transistor radio -- built a cord from a 
couple of defunct headphones with 1/8" jacks and plugged the radio into 
the line-in of the sound card.  Works great!  I was able to copy my beacon 
at a distance of 80 feet!  OK, I was just in my house.  But I was able to 
see how Spectran works.  I've only run it a bit -- I haven't read the docs 
yet, and don't know what the scale on the side really is.  Looking at YOUR 
screen captures, it looks like it is the amount in HZ over 185k you guys 
are tuned to...?  I haven't figured out what to do with that yet...

To move down to LF...now don't laugh, but this is what I'm going to have 
to do to get started:

I'm building Lyle's LF converter.  I'm waiting on the NE602 and a 7 MHz 
crystal, both of which have shipped (yea!).  But here's the part you might 
laugh at:  for a receiver all I have until late March is a borrowed Galaxy 
GT-550.  That's a late 60's model tube driven hf transceiver.  So, 
advisable or not, I'm going to try it.

So today I'll be perusing your sites for lf rx antenna ideas.  Any 
suggestions are welcome!

Thanks,
Eric