[Lowfer] Report from the field...

[JD via Lowfer]

I will try to attach a tiny capture of LF MP from sunrise this morning 
here in SEK, if the reflector doesn't decide I'm up to something shady.

This was after a night in which I observed regulars WG2XIQ and WG2XXM 
many times before anyone else came in, even though noise levels were 
down one or two S-units from recent nights.  After about 1:30 AM CDT, 
WH2XGP and WG2XKA showed up a few times each.  No XJM last night, 
though.

While I have previously reported better results using the 250 Hz IF 
filter in the presence of certain types of QRN, the kind we were having 
after sunset last night seems to be handled better with a wider 
bandwidth.  Interestingly, the problem was with STRONG signals, not 
weak ones.  Many times, XXM would require around 4 minutes to 
decode...which meant I missed everything in the next one or two time 
slots before successful reception would resume.  I could shorten the 
decode time by reducing the receiver output significantly, or else by 
notching XXM's audio, but it was evident on Argo that this was 
impairing the spectral purity of XIQ as well as excessively attenuating 
any weaker signals that might have been in XXM's vicinity.  In this 
particular case, it appeared that the filter may have more ringing than 
is usually apparent to the ear when excited by the relatively dense 
spacing of the lightning crashes we had last night.  With the wider 
filter, I could use more hard limiting before degradation took place, 
which is just opposite of results I've gotten previously.

Around 1:30 AM, I took a quick look at 22 meters.  Only EH was reliably 
visible, with faint traces of NC, and nobody else at the watering hole. 
  Up the dial a bit, MTI and (sometimes) PBJ were visible and 
occasionally audible.

During the afternoon on Monday, I'd had NC, 7P, EH, MP, the SIW duo, 
and USC visible at various times, but no MTI or PBJ.  (FYI and FWIW, 
Mitch, MP's frequency was wandering cyclically last Thursday afternoon, 
but seemed to be more consistent yesterday.)  I'll post a few captures 
in the LW Message Board this evening under the heading "Recent HiFERs 
in Kansas" or something similar.

John


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