[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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