[Lowfer] BRO, LEK rx in N IL

[Peter Barick]

All,

Last week I was angry at only finding noise on the screen. The temps
then were above freezing and sap is rising in these parts. That changed
this weekend. Back to 25F lows and winter chills. So by Sunday morning I
found MP at 137.78 good copy (didn't know about his recent changes then)
and went looking for neighbor RB but nothing. Next old reliable one was
BRO at 182.2, BUT notice another instead. It was LEK in multi-mode,
who's usually found at 185.3 (didn't realize the change). Was using 30
sec dot rx. BRO was lower and weaker with incomplete copy. At 7:20A,
LEK's straight code was better and good copy. At last, I was happy at
the new found success.

Last night and this morning were not so good. Think I saw parts of BRO
only at 182.2. Did find MP at 137 at  about 6:30P.

Was watching 185.3 from time to time. Mostly some heavy noise lines
that tell me the ant is connected. However, looking at Mitch's recent
captures and what is ID'd as UWL (not apparent to me), I may have seen
that too. Then too the detail could be lost in the type of capture and
final display, as I've found with some of mine. The problem is that
unless looking at a very familiar signature, it doesn't take much
drop-out to obliterate an ID for me. Say a dah starts and is incomplete,
there's a dit. Losing the middle dit on a L may render it as a weak A
and E. But once I'm sure of a sig, as it fades out to gone I can better
follow it with assurance.

Peter, EN51