[Lowfer] TA etc

[JD]

No early signs of anyone on 136 or 137 today, except for Mitch.  Hardly any 
sign of LWBC in late afternoon, either.  But right at sunset, someone 
flipped on the switch to Heidelberg!  Thereafter, the Big Four LWBC were 
present too.  I wonder if this had anything to do with x-ray absorption 
events that were predicted for up to 1 MHz over the day side today.  The 
only folks I had seen below 500 kHz all afternoon were WMS and SIW, once the 
powerline buzz finally stopped, and I could hear BR intermittently in late 
afternoon.

Before it stopped, the buzz was only intermittent up at HF, unlike the 
continuous mess it made yesterday.  HiFERs MP, NC and USC were visible with 
considerable level fluctuations...partly QSB, and partly the effect of the 
powerline noise.  EH was nicely audible for several seconds at a time, but 
gone other times.  The junk around 13,560 extended farther than usual on 
both sides of center today, wiping out anyone between 13,558 and 13,562. 
Above that, the SWBC splatter took care of anyone else trying to be heard.

Something kind of odd today at 600 meters...more white noise than usual, 
around S9 in AM bandwidth.  I first suspected noise from the buffer amp, as 
it does exhibit some slight hiss in the quieter upper parts of the AM band 
(likely from the presently-unbypassed forward conducting diode in the power 
line).  However, unlike the presumed diode noise, the white noise from 
around 400-530 kHz was unmistakably coming from the antenna, as it 
disappeared completely the instant the antenna was unclipped!  At twilight, 
WD2XSH/7 was back with the slow CW/fast CW/PSK31 triple crown, just as 
strong as the middle of last night.

Would like to go back out there tonight, but I'm definitely too chilled this 
time!

John