[Lowfer] Navtex QRM 518 kHz
JD
listread at oswegoblade.com
Sun Feb 13 18:47:17 EST 2011
I've been copying the carrier on 517.9+ during mid-day in SE Kansas since at
least Thursday, but never encountered any modulation, so I've been a bit
curious. It was there again this afternoon, although it seemed slightly
weaker than a few days ago. No evident QSB, though. (Conversely, WWVB was
2 db stronger than when I looked at it on Friday. Whatever they did while
it was off must have been beneficial.)
Wish I had a loop to be able to do a little direction finding on the mystery
carrier. I've been conducting a survey of NDBs audible here in daylight
with my 40' vertical at the farm, along with a survey of PLCs and
miscellaneous daytime QRM at 1750 meters. This monitoring currently requires
taking a vehicle to the base of the antenna to supply power for the radio
and heat for me, but recent record low temperatures have not been conducive
to repeating the process after dark!
Temperatures are much better this weekend, which is a mixed blessing. I got
into the field OK today (
http://lwca.org/library/photos/lowfer/SEK13feb11.jpg ) but almost didn't
make it back out after additional melting. We've had almost two feet of
snow in total over the past two weeks, and as you can see, most of it is
gone now...mainly in the past 24 hours. My car handles snow just fine. Mud
is another story. Thus, there won't be any more full-fledged "dxpeditions"
out there for a few days...only my daily hike on foot with the capacitance
meter while I continue to characterize the antenna in order to design a
matching arrangement for the future LowFER.
John
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