[MRCA] SAQ transmission on 17 Kcs

[Chris Bowne]

No joy here in CT this morning for SAQ.  Have been listening since about 0740Z.  Low local noise levels can hear lightning noise but no CW. The usuals like NAA and NPM very strong. Also heard what might have been the French Navy VLF station on 18.3 with MSK.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 20, 2014, at 12:49, Al Klase <ark at ar88.net> wrote:
> 
> Gang,
> 
> It's been a lot of years since I received SAQ, so I defer to Breck as the reigning expert, but here are some observations:
> 
> Location, Location, and Location!
> 
> SAQ's signal is not very strong.  My pet theory is that either they don't know how to properly tune their antenna, or the grounds, etc., have deterioated to where they don't get full radiated power.  There's a tuned circuit at the base of each of the multiple towers.
> 
> The PC sound-card guys are a couple hundred mile from Grimeton.        But a spectral display on the PC, perhaps looking at the 3 KHz wide output from an SSB receiver, is helpful to sort things out.
> 
> In case you missed it, my adventures from 1998 including an audio recording are here:  http://www.eht.com/oldradio/awa/events/grimeton/grimeton.htm.
> 
> I've tried a number of times since, but no joy.  I'm now living in Jersey City, so it's probably out-of-the-question from here.  Now the MSK signals from the likes of NAA in Maine, and the Navy station in Hawaii are very strong, I can easily hear them from here.  Ditto, WWVL on 60 KHz.  My wrist watch hears them almost every night.  A couple of years ago, here in JC, I was hearing MSK stations that I was pretty sure were in Europe, but not a sign of SAQ.
> 
> A Loop Antenna is likely you best bet:
> 
> At these frequencies, the atmospheric noise is pretty high, even out in in the country.  So, you'd likely need a looooong beverage to out preform a simple loop.  Better to set up portable equipment, and take the loop to the beach.  You need to get down to the point where you can hear 'pherics (lightning crashes, etc.)
> 
> Good hunting,
> Al
> Al Klase – N3FRQ
> Jersey City, NJ
> http://www.skywaves.ar88.net/
> 
> On 11/20/2014 5:37 AM, Christopher Bowne wrote:
>> What are you guys using to receive SAQ on this side of the pond?  A German Wandel und Goltermann Selective Level Meter that covers the range from 2 kHz to 18.4 MHz followed me home from NEARFEST last month.  I can pick up the FSK signals from NAA Cutler Maine at 24 kHz solidly 24/7 and from NPM in Luauluauei HI at night on 21.4 kHz quite well, along with WWVB on 60 kHz at Boulder, CO.  Of course it also does a good job hearing  all of the LF NDBs up and down the East Coast and Caribbean and into Canada, along with the proliferation of differential GPS beacons that are replacing the NDBs.  So far I have just used my 80 meter dipole, but am thinking of putting together a portable loop for use on VLF for the SAQ event, and taking the setup out into real quiet location and powering it from a small 12VDC to 115 AC inverter, powered from either the Tacoma truck battery or a separate 12V battery as the W u G only draws 20 watts. Considering the recent weather, I would much prefer just using the 80M dipole here at home though, I could also configure it and its coax feed line as a top loaded T and put down some radials underneath it temporarily, what do you think?
>> 
>> The W u G is also an excellent CW and SSB receiver for HF use, have been using it as my receiver of choice on the CW MilRad Net of late.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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