[Lowfer] Lowfer beacon report from NE Illinois

[Garry and Linda Hess]

Static levels weren't too bad so over night various lowfer beacons were 
monitored. Things didn't start well to the E/NE as beacons VO1NA (QRSS75 
on  184.509 kHz), SJ (QRSS20 on 186.85 kHz), and PBO (QRSS20 on 167.120) 
were not heard (through 0400Z 3/12/09).

After a break, the antenna was rotated southwest for beacon WEB on 
189.95 kHz. The owner recently indicated that WEB was on 24/7 but had 
shifted back to a sequence altering between QRSS30 and CW. The switching 
time was to be on the even hours (that may not yet be in place) but it 
was not clear which mode would be on when. Nonetheless, ARGO displayed 
the characters "WE" nicely beginning at 0617Z, 3/12/09. But the "B" 
never appeared and since nothing was noted through 0640Z that wasn't 
simply a case of skipping the last letter once. Perhaps the beacon 
shifted to CW transmissions, but given how strong it was I would have 
expected to pick up something on ARGO, but didn't.

Propagation southwest was still good because beacons WMS (187.490.6 kHz 
QRSS60 through 0800Z) and CV (185.298.25 kHz QRSS30 through 0830Z) were 
easily copied next. The latter was by monitoring the watering hole at 
185.3 kHz so beacon MP (185.301 kHz, QRSS30) was also copied.  Beacon WM 
was not noticed, but in fairness the time spent looking was not long. 
The heading was now fairly east (75 degrees), but with a bidirectional 
loop antenna that still provided plenty of signal from CV.

Just before capturing beacon XR (184.322 kHz, QRSS60 through 0900Z),  
520 kHz NDB BHZ in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 5130 miles distant, was seen 
weakly so obviously propagation had to be pretty decent to the southeast.

Following success with XR, the northeast was tried again by running the 
Wolf GUI and listening for TAG (185.8 kHz). It only took 11 minutes to 
get a successful decode:

2009-03-12 09:11:14 >WOLF10  -r 10800.689 -f 400 -t 1.0 -w 0.0000 -ut
09:11:38 f: 0.001 a: 0.2 dp: 88.2 ci:10 cj:475 N8R2OMALA0YSAZE ?
09:12:02 f: 0.000 a: 0.2 dp: 87.3 ci:11 cj:332 S/GPTIOOPCSBF6T ?
09:12:50 f: 0.000 a: 0.2 dp: 87.2 ci: 1 cj:439 L/7* Z0GCUR6Q94 -
09:14:26 f: 0.039 pm:2.031 jm:752 q:-13.8 -8.3 EEN/BDBIDACE8F6 ?
09:16:02 f: 0.322 pm:2.789 jm:205 q:-12.1 -7.6 FR28MZBGY67/9OK ?
09:17:38 f: 0.322 pm:3.354 jm:205 q:-11.4 -8.5 H0Y/5OP1Q107IDV ?
09:19:14 f: 0.322 pm:3.875 jm:205 q:-10.2 -5.9 SG0.27LHS538DE7 -
09:20:50 f:-0.098 pm:4.543 jm:133 q: -6.3 -7.4 .XLV55PT*/0 Y2* ?
09:22:26 f:-0.098 pm:7.121 jm:133 q: -3.8 -4.7 TAG RAYMOND ME  -

Monitoring ended later in the morning with EAR (188.830.7 kHz QRSS30), a 
relatively close beacon like MP.

Nice to find so many beacons QRV. Thanks to their operators for keeping 
them going. It's not an easy task given the current weather.

73,
Garry
K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL