[Lowfer] Aurora tonight

[Garry Hess]

Paul,

Not sure if it was Aurora, the snow we got over night, or something else 
but despite griping about poor LF conditions by many NDB listeners 
conditions were good in NE IL over night. Signals from Central America 
and the Carribean were copied as were old reliables WEB, MP, and EAR, 
but more importantly LNT, 344 kHz in Maine was coming in nicely. That 
prompted a look for TAG on 185.8 kHz Wolf10 and it decoded for the first 
time since last Spring:

2009-12-04 05:05:03 >WOLF10  -r 10800.656 -f 400 -t 1.0 -w 0.0000 -ut
05:05:27 f:-0.002 a: 0.4 dp: 84.6 ci:10 cj:157 .RH3*CS5TIDR31B ?
05:05:51 f:-0.001 a: 0.3 dp: 82.6 ci:10 cj:157 D 8RI2TKK7 .MNX ?
05:06:39 f: 0.001 a: 0.1 dp: 84.5 ci: 6 cj: 40  6H5K QBGN X58K ?
05:08:15 f:-0.928 pm:10.40 jm:767 q:-15.4 -6.8 BQ9I8ZG0Q*E8IJ5 ?
.
.
.
05:24:15 f:-0.010 pm:37.97 jm:206 q: -4.4 -7.7 CNYF51A0MW*.VWE ?
.
.
.
05:40:15 f:-0.010 pm:87.91 jm:206 q: -1.5 -8.3 6YDE67???JNE6FY ?
05:41:51 f:-0.010 pm:90.39 jm:206 q: -1.4 -7.8 VXI???5XF6TTHG4 ?
05:43:27 f:-0.010 pm:94.92 jm:206 q: -1.3 -6.0 TAG RAYMOND ME  -
05:45:03 f:-0.010 pm:96.37 jm:206 q: -1.1 -5.9 TAG RAYMOND ME  -

A visit next to the watering hole found MP, XR, and CV coming in well 
(as did the W5JGV grabber). Unfortunately, brief looks for WMS and RM 
didn't succeed.

I'm testing a beacon on 185.185 kHz, QRSS30. The antenna capacitance is 
short of what was expected so it's currently off resonance and meager 
copy 20 miles away at my QTH. I've wound an additional coil to resonate 
it and as weather permits I'll try that and other things Jay, W1VD 
suggested. Will announce it here when it's ready for prime time.

73, Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL