[Lowfer] Lowfer BR ... and others

[JD]

Pretty fair audible reception of BR in SE Kansas tonight, at least in CW 
mode.  The voice ID was distinguishable as voice, but that's about all.  The 
CW appeared to be centered at 185.580 kHz (top trace on the attached shot).

Surprising amounts of static here, considering how far away any 
precipitation is ...or was when I looked at radar before going to the field, 
which is still soggy from Monday night's rainfall.  More distressing was the 
return of powerline buzz for several minutes at a time, not only at 170-210 
kHz as it was one night a couple of weeks ago, but also up at 13.56 MHz 
tonight.

Elsewhere at 1750 meters, WMS and SIW were doing fine, apart from a fairly 
deep fade that affected both of them shortly before 9 PM, and then several 
minutes of buzz that made them hard to detect for a little while around 9:12 
CST.  I then watched 188.83 until I finally caught an A and an R from EAR. 
The QRN was the biggest factor in making that catch difficult, although I 
once again had to use USB mode so I could null the broadcast carrier at 189 
with the receiver's built in notch filter, and had to use the IF shift to 
escape a PLC below EAR's frequency.  With those two out of the way, generous 
clipping allowed EAR to work its way up out of the noise for a little while.

The LWBC signals in the band were all moderately strong tonight, and would 
have been downright enjoyable without the static crashes and roar.

At 137 kHz, I couldn't see anyone but MP.  In fact, I had to cut the Argo 
sensitivity way back.  I sometimes think I could see that one even if Mitch 
were off the air!

DCF77 and JJY were both recognizable, but would have been difficult to 
decode under the static.  And for about the third time this fall, LORAN from 
the other side of the pond was chattering away prominently.

John
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