[Lowfer] Re WD2XES 30 watt Wolf

[Garry Hess]

John,

It's good you boosted your power for last night's listening. Conditions 
began degrading in the late afternoon (4/9/09) in NE IL and are still 
quite poor. Copied WD2XGJ using QRSS30 on 137.780 kHz but the SNR was 
down 20 dB from normal because of a high noise floor. XGJ displayed 
better on the F1AQFJ grabber than here 
(http://jpmere.online.fr/Grabber/Grabber.htm).

Moving to 137.577 kHz Wolf, nothing was decoded correctly until 0738Z 
and after that decoding was spotty through 0836Z.

2009-04-10 06:50:48 >WOLF10  -r 10800.678 -f 400 -t 1.0 -w 0.0000 -ut
...
07:35:36 f:-0.068 pm:30.19 jm:814 q: -1.5 -8.1 0Y5FM7JB2*1L..L ?
07:37:12 f:-0.068 pm:31.52 jm:815 q: -0.7 -7.7 WD2XES 30 WAUZL ?
07:38:48 f:-0.068 pm:34.14 jm:814 q: -0.8 -5.6 WD2XES 30 WATTS -
07:40:24 f:-0.068 pm:35.20 jm:815 q: -0.2 -7.2 WD2XES 30 WAUZL ?
07:42:00 f:-0.068 pm:37.44 jm:815 q: -0.0 -5.0 WD2XES 30 WATTS -
07:43:36 f:-0.068 pm:37.71 jm:815 q:  0.0 -5.2 WD2XES 30 WATTS -
2009-04-10 07:43:46 >WOLF10  -r 10800.678 -f 400 -t 1.0 -w 0.0000 -ut
...
08:22:10 f:-0.068 pm:26.83 jm:721 q: -1.0 -5.8 *U/NCKDSZCVRX73 -
08:23:46 f:-0.068 pm:27.71 jm:721 q: -1.0 -8.0 PZ *XD4F0 WATTS ?
08:25:22 f:-0.068 pm:28.58 jm:721 q: -0.8 -8.1 BF1.CY7RK WATTS ?
08:26:58 f:-0.068 pm:28.99 jm:721 q: -0.7 -7.3  5M*XD4F0 WATTS ?
08:28:34 f:-0.068 pm:29.65 jm:721 q: -0.6 -5.6 WD1F2C 30 WATTS -
08:30:10 f:-0.068 pm:35.55 jm:721 q: -0.2 -5.5 WD1F2C 30 WATTS -
08:31:46 f:-0.068 pm:37.28 jm:721 q: -0.0 -5.4 WD1F2C 30 WATTS -
08:33:22 f:-0.068 pm:38.09 jm:721 q:  0.1 -5.5 WD2XES 30 WATTS -
08:34:58 f:-0.068 pm:38.21 jm:721 q:  0.2 -5.5 WD1F2C 30 WATTS -
08:36:34 f:-0.068 pm:40.36 jm:721 q:  0.5 -5.1 WD2XES 30 WATTS -

As I write this, I'm using an SDR-IQ to drive two copies of Spectran via 
a virtual audio cable. One copy is centered on the Lowfer watering hole 
for MP, 185.300 kHz, and the other is centered on beacon EAR at 188.830 
kHz. My copy of ARGO can't span the 3.53 kHz separation between MP and 
EAR, hence the use of Spectran. Both beacons are at nearly the same 
heading so using a bidirectional loop antenna isn't a problem. Normally 
both are strong throughout daylight hours but so far today they're just 
barely noticeable, thanks to the high noise floor.

73,
Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL