[Lowfer] KA7OEI on 2200m in EN90

Sun Dec 10 16:27:55 EST 2017

Clint: Well Thank You very much for the LF beaconing.  I noticed a 
worthwhile improvement going to a perimeter wire ground along with 
orthogonal "X" ground wires with 4ft ground rods at each corner and one in 
the center of the ground system for my EWE antennas which I installed about 
a year ago.  I also have a substantial AC service ground in a french drain 
trench which seems to handle my power line noise reasonably well.  The EWE 
ground is isolated from the AC service ground when the receiver is in use. 
The ground systems are connected via a substantial copper knife switch when 
the receiver is not in use.  Also mid-point grounding on the pair of RG6 
cables to the receive antennas with common mode chokes on each end...

I'll have the receiver on 2200m again tonight, but may have the NE EWE 
antenna in use for a few hours after SS before switching to the NW direction 
like last night...

Neat to see that modest 50mw make the path in WSPR2 mode !

73 Mike wa3tts

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Clint Turner" <turner at ussc.com>
To: <lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2017 3:36 PM
Subject: Re: [Lowfer] KA7OEI on 2200m in EN90

> Thanks Mike for spotting my signal.
>
> Yesterday I went around with a large spool of wire and ran some perimeter 
> ground wires around my (rather small) suburban lot which seemed to improve 
> the signal receive by a local (about 40 miles north) by a couple dB - and 
> I've noticed that the previous 16-22dB difference between my signal and 
> WH2XXP has reduced a bit to something closer 8-14dB, depending on phase of 
> the moon, etc. This morning, with the (very) unseasonably warm weather I 
> was outside, bonding the sections of my chain link fence to further tie 
> things together and improve the extent of the ground system.
>
> I've not noticed a huge difference in antenna current (its about 1 amp, 
> more or less) after all of this "bondage" of radials, fences, etc. but the 
> remote spots indicate that there are gradual improvements. It will take 
> some burying of wires to make much difference - but I probably could 
> improve the vertical portion of the radiator (the window line of my HF 
> "lazy loop" and get it a bit higher - and wind a Litz wire loading coil 
> for 2200 (I have enough 660/42 Litz to do this) to replace the current one 
> that is wound with 22 AWG stranded - which runs very slightly warm.
>
> A few details on my MF/LF station may be found here: 
> http://ka7oei.blogspot.com/2017/12/now-qrv-on-630-and-2200-meters.html
>
> Still lots of room for improvement!
>
> 73,
>
> Clint
> KA7OEI
> (Also MedFER "CT" - not online at the moment...)
>
>
> On 12/10/2017 11:57 AM, Michael Sapp wrote:
>> Thanks Garry: I was watching the waterfall at the time working on a rx 
>> filter project. At first I thought it was XND but it did not seem to be 
>> in the right place, Ron's signal usually shows
>>
>> up a bit lower in frequency...so I was able to grab a screen shot...
>>
>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/0chw2vlwaij3g1f/IMG_0959.JPG?dl=0
>>
>> Exceptionally quiet at the time with no local in-band QRN sources and 
>> pretty much only 120 to 150 kHz energy making it to the mixer in the LF 
>> converter...about half of that
>>
>> energy in 7~8 kHz bandwidth centered on 137.5 kHz...
>>
>> Currently 137 kHz fairly polluted with in-band switcher noise, which my 
>> best guess is hash from neighbor's cloths and dish washing machines from 
>> the periodic mid-day nature of
>>
>> how the QRM shows up. Also caught WA9CGZ mid-day here for the first time 
>> this afternoon, lower atmospheric temps seem to have an impact on noise 
>> level....and/or the rx filter is working exceptionally well...or some 
>> combo thereof...
>>
>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/y2guuiakblfc3i2/IMG_0961.JPG?dl=0
>>
>> The CGZ captures may have occurred without the background noise as I was 
>> out to lunch at the time and the waterfall capture was around 1830 UTC vs 
>> 1700~1800 for the CGZ captures....
>>
>> Mike, tts
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Garry" <k3siw at sbcglobal.net>
>> To: <lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
>> Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2017 11:59 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Lowfer] KA7OEI on 2200m in EN90
>>
>>
>>> Nice copy Mike. I noticed conditions to the NW were up last night but 
>>> was monitoring DGPS and the lowfer watering hole instead. Nice to know 
>>> the signal is making it so far east.
>>> -- 
>>> 73, Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL
>
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