[Lowfer] 2002 LEK-BRO WOLF Experiments

[John Andrews]

In February, 2002, LEK and BRO, similarly equipped Lowfer stations in 
Minnesota, participated in a week-long comparison of QRSS60 and 
WOLF(10). Both stations ran typical Lowfer Part 15 setups, with 1 watt 
DC input. LEK used WOLF, and BRO ran in QRSS60. The distance from both 
stations to my QTH was about 1100 miles.

I'm still looking for screen shots, but here are excerpts from my email 
reports (Note that the original command-line version of WOLF was used, 
with .wav files recorded in half-hour chunks):

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As earlier reported, BRO is running QRSS60 on 182.200, and LEK is 
running WOLF on 182.250 kHz. Both stations are about 1100 miles from me, 
and along the same bearing. This report is for Sunday, Feb. 24 (EST times).

0330 - 0400: No sign of either signal. No WOLF hits at the correct
frequency.

0400 - 0430: BRO is barely readable, with fragments of an "RO". No 
correctWOLF copy, though the last 4 lines are on the correct frequency.

0430 - 0500: A clear "BR" from BRO, with the "R" better than the "B". 12
clear lines of copy from LEK.

0500 - 0530: A clear "O" and a pretty rough "B" from BRO. 14 clear lines of
copy from LEK.

0530 - 0600: A very good "RO" from BRO (the "O" is quite crisp). 7 
clear,and 2 partial lines from LEK.

0600 - 0630: "BR"  is very readable, with the start of a sad-looking 
"O".(My sunrise time is 6:30.)  8 clear lines of copy from LEK.

No big conclusions should be drawn from one night's observations. It is 
safe to say that both signals were copyable at the same time, and that I 
could get 15 characters from LEK to 2+ characters from BRO when both 
signals were present.
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Here are the results for the BRO (QRSS60) vs. LEK (WOLF) experiment on
Monday, Feb. 25 (EST times):

0230 - 0300: A weak "BR" from BRO, but copyable. 12 of the LEK lines 
show the correct frequency, but there was no copy. Some tweaking might 
bring that out.

0300 - 0330: A very strong "O B" from BRO. 13 lines of correct copy from
LEK.

0330 - 0400: A good "R", and then it died completely during the "O". 14
lines of correct copy from LEK. This may be an illustration of the 
summing of frames done in WOLF. The strongest signal was early in the 
file, but the program held on.

0400 - 0430: The dots in the "B", all of the "R" and the first dash in 
the "O" were very good. LEK copy was totally absent, with no hits on the 
correct frequency.

0430 - 0500: Very good copy of the "O B". 13 lines of clear copy with LEK.

0500 - 0530: Good copy of "RO". 3 hits on the correct frequency for LEK, 
but no copy.

0530 - 0600: Very good signal from BRO, with dogbones on the "R". 8 hits 
on frequency for LEK, but no copy.

0600 - 0630: A weaker "B", and the start of a good "R". 10 lines of 
clear copy from LEK.

Conclusions: Not as clear cut as yesterday's run. BRO was clearly
identifiable from 3:00 - 6:30, but LEK was missing in three half hours.
Interference is a possibility. Will keep running!
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LEK having moved to 182.150 kHz, here's the BRO (QRSS60) vs LEK (WOLF)
report for February 27 (EST times):

0230 - 0300: BRO starts to show on the screen, nothing readable. One hit 
at the correct frequency on LEK, but nothing decoded.

0300 - 0330: BRO looks choppy (t-storm static), but you can make out the 
end of the "B", a fairly clear "R", and the first dash of the "O". 6 
hits on the correct frequency for LEK, but nothing decodes.

0330 - 0400: BRO is there, but not readable. 6 hits on LEK's frequency, 
and 2 of them decode properly.

0400 - 0430: BRO is still there, somewhat stronger, but still very 
chopped up so the characters can't be read. Only 1 hit on LEK's 
frequency, with nothing decoded.

0430 - 0500: Getting clearer. Can make out the "RO".  11 hits on LEK's
frequency, but none of them decode.

0500 - 0530: A pretty clear "BR" is visible. 14 hits on LEK, and 11 of 
them decode cleanly.

0530 - 0600: Choppier on BRO. You can see the end of the "O" and the 
start of the "B", but they are hard to make out. No hits on LEK's 
frequency at all.

0600 - 0630: Gets better at the end. Can't make out the "R", but the "O" 
is very distinct, though cut off by sunrise at the finish. 15 hits on 
LEK's frequency, and 5 of them decode correctly (at the end).

Conclusions: A noisy night, with a cold front moving into the area. 
Weather is unusual -- temps were in the low '50s overnight (this is 
February?). With both WOLF and QRSS you can tell that signals are there, 
but the success rate is much less than earlier in the week.
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