[Lowfer] Squiggles in the Wheat Field

[Bill Ashlock]

No that S7 is my signal level.  No, just kidding - but keep those welding goggles handy just in case, Doug :)

Thanks...

Bill

> Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 10:54:16 +0000
> From: kb4oer at gmail.com
> To: lowfer at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Lowfer] Squiggles in the Wheat Field
> 
> Nice capture John.
> 
> I received the same two signals last night.
> 
> http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j231/Goranothos/185300Hz-1.jpg
> 
> http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j231/Goranothos/185300Hz2-1.jpg
> 
> The "WM" graphical did well here in TN pretty much all night, and is still
> coming in strong as I type this. WMS was in and out. Nothing else seen.
> 
> I have a PLC that gives me some problems in the watering hole. It is
> outside the passband of the Argo screen captures, but inside the passband
> of even my 250 Hz CW filter, and keeps the s-meter on the R75 at a steady
> S7, even when static levels don't cause the s-meter to move in other parts
> of the band. Does the electric utility company not understand that they are
> interfering with my hobby? ;-)
> 
> Doug - KB4OER
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 8:56 AM, JD <listread at lwca.org> wrote:
> 
> > Didn't plan to go out to the field tonight, as I wanted to catch up on
> > sleep...and the next two nights are supposed to be warmer anyway.  However,
> > circumstances change, and it turns out I'll need to be up early the next
> > several mornings.  So, tonight may be my last chance to monitor until next
> > week.
> >
> > On one hand, I'm glad for the change in plans, because I managed to catch
> > two new stations (for me) on 1750 meters.  On the other hand, they also
> > came
> > at the cost of a certain amount of frustration.
> >
> > The view shown here captures WMS and WM on the same screen.  I'm very happy
> > with it, but I was even happier with the three views I caught about two
> > hours earlier, after giving up on transatlantic activity for the night.
> >  The
> > earlier captures between 10:30 PM and midnight CST showed just the apexes
> > of
> > the W and Ms at first, all pale and barely visible.  Then, gradually, the
> > slanted lines filled in to form whole letters.  Above them, WMS was strong
> > and unfading.
> >
> > But you'll have to take my word for it.  A quirk of using multiple Argo
> > sessions that I mentioned a few months ago showed up again and wiped out
> > those captures.
> >
> > This time, I know more or less _what_ went wrong, although I'm still not
> > clear on why.  Argo seems to write settings to the registry mainly when it
> > closes, so I have generally been able to give each instance of Argo its own
> > "seed" values for autocapture filenames, without appreciable interaction.
> >  I
> > give Instance One a seed value like "03Jan" and Instance Two the seed
> > "03Jan-b" (and "-c" and so on for any additional instances on the same
> > day).
> > But somehow, tonight, both instances ended up with the same seed value and
> > started counting numbers from the same point as well.  Result: Instance 1
> > captured WMS and WM as "03Jan00000.bmp" and all was well.  But then, eight
> > seconds later, Instance 2 snapped its screen showing SIW on 185.185...and
> > saved it as "03Jan00000.bmp" too, right over the previous capture!  They
> > repeated that action over and over during the whole hour and a half I was
> > tuned to the watering hole, which I discovered only AFTER tuning up to try
> > for SJ (next post).
> >
> > So, I hung around for two more hours in the increasing chill to wait for WM
> > to be strong enough again to catch this view.  The teeth were chattering,
> > but the result warmed my heart--if not the rest of me.
> >
> > John
> >
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