[Lowfer] WM "scribbling" is back in full swing

[Bill Ashlock]

Jay and fellow Lowfers,

Thanks for posting this, Jay..... and sorry for the scribbling. Haven't been reprimanded for this art-form since kindergarten :)

In case anyone does not know what is going on at 185.300, like last winter, I am running #12ga 200ft perimeter loop antennas from Andover, MA and from Ellsworth, NH - both at 1W. The Andover soil is classified as "poor" and Ellsworth soil is "very poor".... and in fact this mountainous, rocky soil is close to being not conductive at all. While the loss in the loop, itself, from the ground eating up some of the field, is less in Ellsworth it is likely that the effective radiation from the loop is much poorer. This is evident from the approx -6db comparison to the Andover signal from most receiving sites.

Last night around midnight I turned on WM, Ellsworth and it came right up, save a slight problem with getting enough range out of the tuning capacitor in final below the loop. Seems the loop has actually gained some inductance from laying idle for a year(?) I corrected the problem this morning but another problem is that the input current to the final is low by about 20% from last year. Funny how that when nightfall approached, tonight, the current went up about 10% (and I can remember this affect from last year). I don't see this effect on virtually the same loop in Andover. Will make some measurements on the final to see if anything is changing, there. Otherwise it must be an effect from the tree sap or the snow or the temp of the ground underneath the loop. Has anyone seen this much change in current on their loop?

Plans for the next few weeks include making comparisons between the two signals so any and all signal reports will be appreciated. Currently the Ellsworth WM is located below the Andover signal at ~184.996 while the Andoverver Wm is at ~ 185.304. Another identifier is that the "m" is from Andover is smaller than the "M" from Ellsworth.

Bill



> From: jrusgrove at comcast.net
> To: lowfer at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:49:22 -0500
> Subject: [Lowfer] XR dogbones this morning
> 
> Andy
> 
> About the best copy of XR so far...don't know if you've made more changes or conditions were good. 
> Solid copy from midnight on with dogbones toward morning. Would be a nice looking capture if someone 
> hadn't scribbled all over the waterfall ;~)
> 
> Jay