[Lowfer] Terribly noisy tonite

[Andy - KU4XR]

Doug, et all;
 
Hope everyone is having a good day.. I am going to share the email response that Pat - WD2XSH/6
sent me that evening.. I don't think he would mind.. An added note; I was still hearing the howlers the
next night, and had a higher than normal static level, when the storm was causing blizzard conditions
in the NE..I have not noticed them since...
 
Quoting Pat - WD2XSH/6
 
>Andy,
>Your local TV weatherman tonight may mention reports of "winter thunder".
>The explanation I am able to understand is that the different temperature air in the front rubs against air above it and ground below and >builds up charges.
>(The physics math is beyond my little grey cells to compute, I have always worked analog with graphs).
>Every snowflake is charged. The rain drops can also become charged, but it is not as bad as snow when it hits your antenna because >rain is conductive between drops and the small charges even out. The amount of charge depends on the charges in the clouds.
>The storm is exciting your antenna like a million small spark gaps, and you are hearing the result.
>73,
>Pat /6
____________________________________________________________________________________

73 all:

Andy - KU4XR - EM75xr - Friendsville, TN. USA
Coordinates: N: 35º 43' 54" - W: 84º 3' 16"
http://lwca.org/grabbers/ku4xr/
http://www.myspace.com/beaconxr
http://ku4xr.webs.com
http://lwca.org/community/YaBB.pl


----- Original Message -----
From: Douglas D. Williams <kb4oer at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of the Lowfer (US, European, & UK) and MedFer bands" <lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 6:22 AM
Subject: Re: [Lowfer] Terribly noisy tonite

Very interesting Andy. I just now remembered to listen to your audio clip.
Yes, it was very windy that evening. You have a large wire antenna,
correct? I wonder if somehow the high winds were creating a static
electricity effect on your antenna and producing the howls?

I have read that, when listening to VLF "natural radio" with short, high
impedance, wideband e-probe active devices, one can sometimes hear when an
insect flies close to the antenna, due to the static electricity generated
by it's wings.

Whatever the explanation, I'm glad you recorded it.

Doug KB4OER

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm513uwGKec&feature=youtu.be