[Lowfer] This is more like it!

[us66soft at aol.com]

(Well, I _hope_ this is more like it.  It's actually a second attempt 
to send this message, since a BS spam blacklist is suddenly preventing 
me from sending messages to the group tonight.  Otherwise you would 
have seen it hours sooner! -  John "JD")

No powerline buzz at all today.  From the time I started listening in
mid-afternoon until sunset, there was also no static!

HiFERs were great today.  Heard and saw SIW, MP, USC...and saw NC.  
Then I
went on to hear EH, WV (first time!), MTI (also first time!), and FRC.
Plenty of fading on the regular CW signals, but sometimes they were 
quite
loud, too.

I was delighted to see both WMS and SIW  at 185.3 again.  During the 
time of
that particular capture, the noise level gradually increased from under 
S3
to an average around S6 or 7.  EAR was just barely present about 6 PM
through that rising noise, but no sign of BR.  Down at 137 kHz, VO1NA 
was
challenging MP for King of the Kanadian Kilowatts.  (See all of these 
in the
attached image.)  By the end of the last capture, noise was peaking 
around
S9.

Depite that, France Inter was near local quality and all the other 
usual
LWBC stations were recognizable.  DCF77 was good, JJY was just 
recognizable,
and after Garry's mention of HBG, I tried 75 kHz and found it there 
pretty
readily.  At that point I unhooked the buffer from the base of the 
tower
with a strong south wind blowing a chilly light rain up the back of my
shirt, so I'm doubtful about returning to the field tonight.

All in all, it was a pretty good day.  I'm very glad now that I didn't 
let
the buffer amp work at anything less than unity gain.  I was tempted to 
cut
the gain earlier this fall when I discovered some days that seemed 
"quiet"
(that is, with sferics and receiver noise combined below S3) without 
the amp
measured at least S9 with it in circuit.  I figured there was no point
raising the atmospheric noise floor so far above that of the receiver
itself.  But sometimes the atmosphere is TRULY quiet around here, and 
then
even with the 40 or 50 dB power gain, signal plus noise in a 270 Hz
bandwidth call STILL be below S3!  Under those conditions, every last 
dB of
that impedance transformation is useful!

John
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