[Lowfer] Tonight's Target, 1750 M Watering Hole

[Garry]

J.D., sorry my lowfer is having problems. First, the recent heavy rain 
caused a GFI to trip, putting it briefly off the air. It was quickly 
brought back online but without a clock correction and that's why the 
mode-switching time is way off. WSPR of course requires a very accurate 
clock and it has that via GPS. But the clock that runs the mode sequence 
is a separate free-running item. There is battery backup but it only 
saves the schedule and doesn't keep the clock running.

A second problem surfaced after today's switch from QRSS on 185.2993 kHz 
to WSPR-15 on 185.185 kHz - the transmitter is keying the latter as if 
it's still in QRSS mode. There is a relay to apply the proper keying for 
each mode. When sending QRSS it should apply a K1EL keyer signal and 
when sending WSPR-15 it should apply a constant 5V since that should 
always be transmitting. When the weather clears Bob, NK9M will 
investigate this problem and correct the clock.

Interestingly, despite only sending about half the time, wspr15 messages 
can still decode so the forward error correction is impressive.
-- 
73, Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL