[Lowfer] SAQ & NAA

[JD]

Thanks for confirmation of NAA having switched to plain carrier for a while 
this morning, Doug.  I went out to the field for the first real-world test 
of my VLF Time Shifter project last night, rather than trying to handle the 
receiver, the LPF and upconverter, the battery pack for the upconverter, two 
computers, and their audio cables out in the frost and the wind.

The first capture, up to 24 kHz only, was during the last 10 minutes of SAQ 
tuneup, the scheduled message time, and 20 minutes or so afterward.  During 
that one I monitored plenty of nice, juicy tweeks and related sferics in the 
audio range, and upon playback in the house this morning, I can see and hear 
the Big Four MSK signals, the three Russian ALPHAs, two likely spurs, and an 
intermittent carrier on 18.7 that's well up out of the noise for a dah or a 
couple of dits at a time.  (Hmm, you could make a catchy Christmas song out 
of that.)  Even on repeated play, though, I still haven't heard SAQ.

The second session was in wideband mode.  I haven't studied that capture 
fully yet, but was afraid I had messed something up when I switched sampling 
rates, because there was a steady carrier where NAA should have been.

It was a good quiet night here, for the most part.  There's a chance I might 
have gotten a little signal if I had driven the Time Shifter a little 
harder, but the biggest shortcoming of the prototype in its current form is 
that the only level indication is on the recorder itself, and that's hard to 
see in the dark.

John D