[Lowfer] UWL and others

[Garry Hess]

Lowfer UWL produced several full callsign decodes last night on 185.302 
kHz, QRSS30. Didn't see anything of WMS and EMP was just barely noticeable.

On the WSPR front, Andy's XR4TN was painting decent waterfall traces on 
185.705 kHz for quite awhile. Not sure why the signal only decoded twice 
during that period. The SNR was -24 dB and the timing was nearly perfect.

On 137.7775 kHz, QRSS60 XKO was blasting in. Higher up at 137.3804 kHz, 
MP provided company. Both stations were visible on the VE7TIL grabber.

The German RTTY station DDH47 on 147.3 kHz that Todd mentioned recently 
decoded fine around 0500Z when the German text became understandable CQ 
... Frequencies ... RYRY.

Earlier, at 0400Z a panoramic display of VLF activity showed 13 
stations. NDB reception in the evening wasn't bad either. The most 
common Caribbean and South American stations (DDP, PPA, CBC, SPP, BOG) 
were at least fair copy.

Just looked at the 518 kHz Navtex frequency and the strong interferer is 
still there. Maybe someone will note the emails sent to 
marine.weather at noaa.gov and investigate.

Regarding Ed's query about what software decodes Navtex, the free but 
complicated MultiPSK works. Another free software is NAVTEX Decoder 
v2.1.1 at www.frisnit.com. However, as pointed out by Jay, W1VD, the 
most sensitive decoder seems to be SeaTTY (www.dxsoft.com). It's not 
free but well worth the cost.

73, Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL