[Lowfer] Tuesday Afternoon LF and HiFERs

[JD]

Yesterday was the first day in over a week that it became possible to get a 
vehicle near the antenna.  Too bad conditions were so lousy.  I'm on my way 
out there again in a little while, after I talk with my tractor salesman, 
and hope things are a bit better today...both the soil condition, and 
propagation.

It was also the middle of the afternoon before I got a chance to listen 
yesterday.  For much of the afternoon, NC was present, though sometimes the 
trace was spread a bit by Doppler effects and there was quite a bit of QSB. 
Unfortunately, ONLY NC was visible!  No SIW, no USC or COM, and not even MP, 
You know conditions must be bad when none of those show up!  Nobody in the 
CW crowd from the East or Midwest, like EH, WV, or GNK, was audible, either.

Even NC disappeared rather unceremoniously, a good two hours before sunset. 
At 2238 UTC it began fading to oblivion over the course of two squarewaves, 
and never returned.  The CODAR traces were unaffected, so I assume they were 
from the West Coast.  The ISM noise has recently grown wide enough and 
strong enough here to obliterate any beacons from just below 13558 to just 
above 13562.  I thought AJO might be present, but I never could tell for 
sure under the caterwauling.  Farther up the dial, though, FRC was in the 
clear, and sometimes very loud!

Down on LF, afternoon static was already consistent around S9, with some 
peaks several dB above.  That's enough to obliterate even WMS at the 1750 
meter watering hole.  But MP at (well, slightly above) 137.7805 was solidly 
present while it was still at least an hour and a half to sunset, with 
aggressive clipping employed.  (Both HF NC and LF MP are shown in the 
attachment.)

Commentary:  It is worth noting that MP sometimes reaches S3 on the receiver 
late at night, but never exceeds S2.5 in the day.  With that representing 
approximately -40 dB S/N over a 270 Hz noise bandwidth, QRSS30 impresses me 
a lot more than similar numbers from the johnny-come-lately propagation 
spotter modes/protocols that inflate their S/N figures by referencing to 
noise energy in a much wider SSB bandwidth.  If QRSS30 can do this, who 
knows what might happen if I had the frequency stability necessary for WOLF.

John

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