[Lowfer] Lowfer watering hole

[jrusgrove at comcast.net]

>Without it, though, I can only wonder which one OPERA would have tried to decode?

Opera, like WSPR, will decode multiple signals within the passband.

Jay


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "JD" <listread at lwca.org>
To: "Discussion of the Lowfer (US, European, &amp;UK) and MedFer bands" <lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 4:15 PM
Subject: Re: [Lowfer] Lowfer watering hole


> Been a busy day, so my promised "morning" report on last night's LF is a 
> little late.
> 
> First, a quick wrap up of 600m.  After capturing XGR/3, I meandered around 
> the band and observed Dueling OPERAs, one at 499.43 and one at 499.55 
> (actual RF) beeping away simultaneously.  Both were quite strong, so I was 
> unable to separate them adequately with any trickery of IF shifting 
> available to me on the Kenwood.  Had I remembered to take my new audio notch 
> filter to the field, perhaps I could have done something.  Without it, 
> though, I can only wonder which one OPERA would have tried to decode?
> 
> XSH/7 was booming forth on 467.3 as usual.  Both CW speeds and the PSK31 
> segment were perfect copy, even during a slight fade.
> 
> I heard (but couldn't identify) faint recurring CW at 480.00 and 480.05, 
> both being short transmissions with long spaces between.
> 
> The 500 kHz vicinity was relatively quiet here all evening,..just some 
> semi-infrequent static crashes.  Up at 13.56 MHz and down at 185 kHz, it was 
> a very different story--continuous power line buzz, around S9+30 in AM 
> bandwidth, and a solid S9 in CW bandwidth.  No copying LowFERs through that! 
> I tuned lower and ran out of the noise, though.  Lightning static was a bit 
> more prominent at 137, but I've copied stuff through worse.  Didn't seem to 
> be anybody near 137.78, however, and not strong enough signals down at the 
> other end of the band to see anything more than a few snippets of QRSS and 
> DFCW.
> 
> After a while I gave up and tuned lower.  DCF77 was halfway decent by 0445, 
> even though static was pretty rough.  It inspired me to spend some time 
> playing with CLOCK.exe, but the signal from Germany wasn't adequate to 
> decode.  WWVB was, of course.  JJY was barely present at that point on 40 
> kHz.  Nothing on 75.0...haven't heard Switzerland in several weeks now. 
> Well, with the novelty of that pursuit wearing thin, I got curious about 
> decoding France Inter's time signal.  I figured 1750m would still be buried 
> in noise, but I tuned up there just for the heck of it, and the noise had 
> stopped!  Wonderful signal on 162, but I never could figure out what the 
> software wanted in order to decode the information.  Every so often it would 
> lock and begin capturing a frame, but it seldom got beyond the "public 
> holiday" data  bit.  (Nice of the French to let your clock know when you 
> don't have to go to work.)
> 
> With 1750 now quiet, about 0554 UTC, I turned to the watering hole, where 
> WMS and SIW were strong as usual, even though the recent annoying stray 
> carriers were present again, almost right on the same frequencies.  In 
> between those two, I got one good clear W from WM, but thereafter, only 
> partial characters.  Oddly, the upstrokes of the Ws and Ms showed up more 
> often than the downstrokes.  BR could be heard occasionally at the upper end 
> of my CW filter's passband.
> 
> About 0640 I turned my attention to looking for JAM, with the idea of maybe 
> trying for EAR and/or PBO afterward, but before I got more than a few 
> minutes into the attempt, the S9+ buzz came back.  So, after a quick trip 
> back down to 40 kHz and finding JJY coming in nicely at last, I wimped out, 
> shut everything down, and returned home.
> 
> Right now I'm headed back to the field, but will probably be too busy with 
> earthwork to listen again before dark.
> 
> John 
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