[Lowfer] New beacon "IO" in MD on 185.3001 KHz

[craig wasson]

Yeah - my antenna is more wide than tall.  We have lots of trees here so
I'll eventually be trying a 50' transmit loop.

I can adjust the frequency of the LF-90 fairly easily up to +- 5Hz with the
crystal cap - so with the 10Hz steps I can go pretty much anywhere.  I spent
a while contemplating where to plop down and there seemed to be a hole
around 185.3 but I see it's occupied.  I'll spend a while reviewing other
captures I can find to decide where to land.  I guess there is not a
"frequency coordinator" around here?

I'm pretty sure about my frequency.  One of my esoteric hobbies is
monitoring LW broadcasters in QRSS120 mode (I've spotted nearly every known
broadcaster and many more not in any lists) and the station at 183.000 is
generally quite accurate.  I calibrated my SDR-IQ / SpecLab setup using that
station before measuring my frequency.

Unfortunately so far I cannot hear any others on the watering hole here nor
have I spotted myself on any argo caps I can find, so it's possible I'm
wavering a bit, but I'm pretty confident I'm within .1 Hz.   Eventually I
plan to move the beacon about 20 miles from home so I can listen while
transmitting.

I'll send an update when I figure out where to QSY.  Blizzard is going well
- we're up to 28 inches with up to another 10 expected.  So the bottom 10 or
15% of the vertical part of  the antenna is buried in snow which can't help.

Craig



On Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 7:22 AM, <jrusgrove at comcast.net> wrote:

> Craig
>
> Welcome aboard! How's that blizzard doing?
>
> Okay on the LF-90 and 20' vertical. I see that the transmitter can be
> adjusted in 10 Hz steps which
> is why you probably selected 185.3001. Unfortunately Bill is scribbling WMs
> in that frequency range
> which will make reception difficult. If possible I'd suggest sliding up or
> down from that frequency
> (perhaps you can tweak the synthesizer crystal?) to a clear spot. I've
> attached an Argo of what the
> band looks like here in New England.
>
> Are you reasonably confident your frequency is as listed? With new beacons
> in the past we've
> occasionally had to send out 'search parties' to find the beacon -  some
> were significantly
> different than the advertised frequency and off the usual Argo screen.
>
> Thanks for putting another Lowfer station on the air. I'm looking forward
> to receiving it!
>
> Jay W1VD  WD2XNS  WE2XGR (and beacon VD back in the old days)
>
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