[Lowfer] WEOH signal plots

Sun, 18 Jan 2004 23:17:33 -0600

Following Lyle's plots http://www.cpinternet.com/~lyle/weoh-plot.jpg and
specifically looking at the present one, I can see what Bill sees with his
two different radiation headings causing not so predictable results at a
fixed receive point. I see the E/W loop at Lyle's showing a stronger signal
at times than the vertical or N/S loop. Seeing the loop pointing away from
the signal source reminds me of probing around in the aurora zone with a
beam antenna looking for signals on 144mc. Is Lyle seeing back scatter on
LF? I would think it would be possible but never have studied the
propagation at these frequencies in this kind of depth.

It is just amazing what our group comes up with every so often. The
technical depth of Lowfering blows away the usual 'Ham Radio' operating.
Things like this keep me away from HF and above even though I am equipped to
operate there.

Now I am really interested in getting the Part-5 grant so I can radiate a
higher powered signal to see what other propagation mysteries are waiting in
the woods.

Mike>WE0H

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Lyle Koehler
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 8:49 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Lowfer] WEOH signal plots

Semi-live plots of WEOH are now available at
http://www.cpinternet.com/~lyle/weoh-plot.jpg

The plot is updated about 2 minutes after the hour and half-hour, and shows
what the signal was doing during the previous 40-minute period.

WEOH is about 70 miles south of me and is transmitting on an east-west loop.
My plots are generated by DL4YHF's Spectrum Lab software, with inputs from
three different receivers, each connected to a different antenna. The
north-south receiving loop is my multiturn, tuned 8-foot loop with an
IC-756PRO receiver; the east-west loop is a single turn 10-foot loop going
through a simple downconverter ("software IF" receiver), and the LEK LowFER
vertical is connected to an HP3586B selective level meter. If there were no
skywave propagation, I would expect the N-S loop and vertical to have good,
constant signal levels, and the E-W loop signals to stay fairly close to the
night-time noise level.

The plot colors look great in SpecLab but obviously lose something in the
capture process. I can understand the fuzziness but don't know why the black
background turns to purple...

Lyle