[Premium-Rx] Looking for recommendations on high performance VLF receiver.

[Steve Stutman]

Hi,

Agree re the loop.

Can be air core or ferrite core.

As Terry said, modern hardware will not do much more than old stuff except
for SDR filters.

My Novice RX was a BC-779; MIL nomenclature for SP-200LX.

Prem-RX 60 years ago.

Listened to fair number of NDBs; beautiful audio.

73,

Steve

KL7JT/1

On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 12:28 PM, Terry O' <watkins-johnson at terryo.org>
wrote:

> Like Bob Nickels, I owned a slew of VLF specific and VLF capable
> receivers, R-389, WRR-3A, CEI 357, WJ-340A, WJ-DMS-105, Rycom R-2174...
> The noise level in that band is the unforgiving leveler in performance.
> After a certain point, you're just throwing hardware at unconquerable noise.
>
> In many locations I did a great deal of successful NDB DXing with just a
> Sony ICF-2001 with a loop I made on a cut 27" bicycle rim using a control
> cable from a studio TV camera and a three section variable cap.  Like Al
> Klase says, you'll hear better with a simple tuned loop.  And you can't
> beat the ability to null out an undesirable station by rotating the loop.
>
> Location is also critical.  The best VLF DXing I ever did was from a farm
> house in southwestern Wisconsin, where the bedrock was red sandstone (laced
> with iron).  In the winter, I heard France and Alegria on 174 and 164 kHz
> on several occasions using a Hammurlund SP-200LF and a 40m dipole
> reconnected as a T antenna.  The combination of a good ground and almost no
> EMI was awesome.
>
> Now I live 3/4 mile from an aluminum "recycler" and I don't even bother to
> try shortwave, let alone MF, LF or VLF.  When they have their smelters
> powered up, the electrical noise almost pins my signal strength meters well
> over 30 MHz.  I rarely hear WWV down in the noise when they are running
> shifts.  When business is slow and they drop their weekend shifts, I have
> few days of normal listening.
>
> That's why I've gravitated toward researching radio history rather than
> messing with actual radios.
>
> Terry O'
>
>
> On 4/9/2018 10:22 AM, Al Klase wrote:
>
>> Peter,
>>
>> You'll likely hear better with a simple tuned loop.
>>
>> Al
>>
>> On 4/9/2018 10:56 AM, Peter Gottlieb wrote:
>>
>>> I have about 150 feet at a max height of about 25 feet. What would be my
>>> best choice for a VLF monitoring antenna?
>>>
>>>
>>> Peter
>>>
>>
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