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

Sat Jan 16 22:39:25 EST 2010

Hi Rick,

Good  to hear from you. This current shift thing (and for me, a resonant freq shift) took another turn toward the unusual, yesterday, when the resonant freq changed back to where is was when I first turned the rig on three days a go. Also the input current to the final, at resonance, went back up to where it was..... and is holding fast from this morning's value to tonight's, even though there was a freeze-up after 4:00pm. Might be something weird going on in the final so it's lucky I brought up the scope this trip. I'm hoping the problem isn't with the loop wire, its self, and the insulation is worn where it contacts a tree limb. This isn't supposed to make much difference at this low power. Another possibility is that the coax leading to the final is  damaged. I must have run over it a 100 times this summer with the tractor (having chains on all tires) and a couple of 1000 pounds of load in the bucket. The coax to the receiving antenna suffered the same abuse and a continuety check show's that it is open.

I'll keep you posted.

Bill

> From: theumpire at verizon.net
> To: lowfer at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:29:46 -0500
> Subject: Re: [Lowfer] WM "scribbling" is back in full swing
> 
> 
> Hi Bill,
>  Its funny you mention the change  in loop current.I was just mentioning 
> this to the guys 2 days ago. I fired up "PBO" last weekend.I had only 1 
> solid report and I havent had a chance to go check the antenna current 
> consistantly. But I have seen the input current(monitored in the shack) go 
> from 38 ma in the day up to 45 ma( full power) at night! We have about 1-2 
> inches of snow left here .
>  As you know ;I am running your final and loop and xfrmr setup.I live in the 
> Pocono Mtns. so I have no ground to speak of.
>  This wekend I hope to move one of the vertical legs a little further from 
> the support tree.Seems its moved to within a foot of it.Also ; because of 
> sag , the lower horizontal leg is only 5 feet off the ground.
>  One thing I wanted to ask you- I am feeding the loop in the lower corner 
> because of convienience. Have you noticed a difference in feeding in center 
> as opposed to the corner.I checked it with EZNEC and the plot looked the 
> same.
>  Well hopefully this weekend Ill get it figured out. I was expecting a few 
> more reports so something must be going on from the xfrmr secondary  out.
> 
>        73
>               Rick  KA2PBO
> "PBO" 187.2 khz     QRSS60
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Bill Ashlock" <ashlockw at hotmail.com>
> To: <lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 8:42 PM
> Subject: [Lowfer] WM "scribbling" is back in full swing
> 
> 
> >
> > 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
> >
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