[Lowfer] WSPRing in a thunderstorm...

Fri Jun 6 03:25:49 EDT 2014

>>> Interestingly enough, since I made the system switch a bit ago, reports 
>>> have been lean. That may be part QSB and partly the fact that I reduced 
>>> TX cycle.

I expect you're right.  If there weren't the wide QSB, the reduction of 
spots would likely track the duty cycle linearly; but with QSB, the chances 
of missing enough signal in any given time slot increase.

I have since been very glad for your new duty cycle for diagnostic purposes, 
though.  I arrived there right between two storms and immediately went to 
the tower to remove the buffer and its battery.  Both were in an impromptu 
pond...and neither one are weatherproof.  Slogging back to the barn, I 
immediately disconnected the radio and checked the decodes on the computer. 
It was 0514, but there had been no decodes since XJM after the 0356 slot! 
That was a worrisome.  Was the buffer fried, maybe even the radio?  The WSPR 
waterfall was equally discouraging; nothing showing there but some diagonal 
lines. See attached.

(I realize if I had checked the radio first before unhooking the antenna, I 
could have eliminated much of the uncertainty about the hardware. However, 
the next storm was expanding rapidly and some rumbling was already audible 
when I got out of the truck.  It was throwing lots of bolts from cloudtop to 
ground on its leading edge, so I wasn't going to mess around!!  It was quite 
a sight.)

On the way back to town, I realized the diagonal lines might actually be 
good news.  They lasted a smidgen over 3 minutes, the amount of time it took 
me to wade back to the truck, load the battery and buffer, and get into the 
building.  The R-5000 tends to pick up internal noise when its input is 
unterminated and it is running at full gain, so that waterfall display 
likely provides a very good indication the front end is OK.

When I got back here and had a chance to look at the computer, the Argo 
record showed XXM's apparent last transmission in the 0302 time slot.  It 
didn't cover the upper half of the WSPR-2 band where XJM was later, but 
miraculously it DID show traces of signal at the right frequency and times 
to be XIQ, all the way up to what looks like the end of the 0416 slot. 
After that, the status of the hardware is anybody's guess.  The buffer could 
have gotten zapped--or, with all the QSB on top of QRN from two 
thunderstorms, each with near-continuous lightning, there may simply not 
have been a chance of decoding anything further in that last 45 minutes.

If everything dries out by tomorrow, I'll test the buffer and see how it's 
doing.  It just MAY have survived.  Here are tonight's decodes.  (If anyone 
has suggestions for getting the computer to actually write logs so I can 
upload them to WSPRnet retroactively, I would be grateful.)

0138 -23 -1.4   0.475622  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0140 -23 -1.2   0.475622  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0142 -25 -1.1   0.475622  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0144 -24 -1.1   0.475622  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0146 -24 -1.2   0.475624  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0148 -16 -1.3   0.475625  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0150 -14 -1.1   0.475625  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0152 -21 -1.1   0.475625  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0154 -17 -1.2   0.475625  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0156 -21 -1.2   0.475626  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0158 -21 -1.3   0.475627  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0158  -2 -0.3   0.475706  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0202  -1 -0.3   0.475707  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0204 -17 -1.3   0.475620  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0206 -17 -1.2   0.475620  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0206  -3 -0.3   0.475707  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0208 -15 -1.3   0.475620  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0210 -16 -1.2   0.475621  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0210  -5 -0.3   0.475708  1 WG2XXM EM15 30
0212 -19 -1.3   0.475621  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0214 -20 -1.1   0.475621  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0214  -9 -0.3   0.475709  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0216 -20 -1.3   0.475621  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0218  -7 -0.2   0.475709  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0220 -26 -1.2   0.475621  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0222  -1 -0.3   0.475709  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0226  -5 -0.3   0.475710  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0228 -21 -1.3   0.475620  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0230 -23 -1.2   0.475621 -1 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0230  -5 -0.3   0.475709  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0232 -23 -1.1   0.475620  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0234 -15 -0.4   0.475710  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0236 -24 -1.3   0.475620  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0238 -24 -1.2   0.475620  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0238 -24 -0.2   0.475709  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0240 -26 -1.2   0.475620  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0242 -25 -1.2   0.475620  0 WG2XIQ EM12 23
0242 -14 -0.3   0.475709  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0246 -12 -0.4   0.475709  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0250  -9 -0.1   0.475709  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0252 -17 -1.2   0.475628  0 WG2XIQ EM12 30
0254 -10 -0.3   0.475709  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0258 -13  0.0   0.475709  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0300 -20 -1.3   0.475625  0 WG2XIQ EM12 30
0302 -16 -0.4   0.475710  0 WG2XXM EM15 30
0346 -28 -0.9   0.475778  0 WG2XJM EN91 37
0356 -26 -1.1   0.475776  0 WG2XJM EN91 37 
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