[Lowfer] SJ in KS

[Douglas D. Williams]

Congratulations on landing a new one, John!

D. KB4OER

On 1/4/12, JD <listread at lwca.org> wrote:
> I was sufficiently sleepy when I tuned up to 186.849 to try for SJ that I
> forgot Sal uses QRSS20, so everything is compressed in the attached view.
>
> In an earlier message I referred to this as a new reception, although I now
> realize I have seen the same signal before.  There are multiple reasons I
> never previously recognized it for what it is:
> (1)  It has always been very weak way out here on the Plains, and usually
> surrounded by sferics and PLCs that partially obscure it.
> (2)  It is subject to fading that can completely take out anything from a
> single dit to an entire letter at a time.
> (3)  The two letters run together without normal spacing between them.
> Because of those factors, I have previously gotten my hopes up and then
> decided "nope, that's just random interference."  It wasn't until I got good
> enough signal tonight to see one complete ID that I could "reverse engineer"
> the timing of the broken-up dits and dahs and see that it was a genuine
> repeating sequence with different pieces missing at different times.
>
> By then, of course, I also remembered the dit timing and switched Argo to
> QRSS20.  Alas, after one very strong S and a good beginning to the next J, a
> long and deep fade set in and one of the PLCs a fraction of a Hz away began
> picking up in level.  That's when I decided my old bones would be a lot
> happier back in town.
>
> John
>