[Lowfer] 600-Meters Stations Heard In "W7"-Land

[Clint Turner]

Hi Mike,

I don't listen very often - but that's a more a matter of not getting 
around to it rather than not being able to.  Listening rather 
infrequently, it's a bit hard to tell (other than by obvious 
lightning-related crashes) what the shape of the band might be.

I was pleased to note that my now-ancient LF-400B (which I bought in 
1986 and has been outside almost continuously since then) is still 
working as it should, and I'm able to hear atmospheric noise with it 
over most of the LF/VLF range.  Fortunately, its BCB rejection is quite 
good, so my old FT-757GX2 is quite usable throughout most of this range 
as well - although I'll used my (older, modified) Drake TR-7 for more 
serious listening in the LF/VLF range (e.g. below 400 kHz.)  
Fortunately, my house has a metal roof, which makes an excellent ground 
plane (for both RX and TX) and provides a degree of shielding from man 
made noise sources in the neighborhood.  (It works well enough that I 
was able to copy the VA3ALK beacon at 2200 meters several years ago.)

I haven't had the "CT" LoweFER beacon on the air since 1988, IIRC, but I 
still have my MedFER beacon (on 1704.96something) operational on either 
QRSS3 or PSK31 - although it's usually the former.  The beacon is often 
turned off, as it tends to get into test equipment sometimes, or I 
forget to plug its "wall wart" back in after a listening session, but I 
can put it in operation at about any time.

(Much of the info about the beacon may be found at ka7oei.com - even 
though it may be dated, it is still generally correct, as I haven't 
changed anything...)

73,

Clint
KA7OEI/CT


Mike WE0H wrote:
> Hey Clint,
>
> Do you listen every night or? I had the rig on then seen the noise 
> floor was higher so turned it off and worked on some other projects. 
> Do you still run the CT beacon? I believe that was on 1750 meters.
>
> Mike
> WE0H
> WD2XSH/16
>