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Author Topic: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630  (Read 15408 times)

K0OD

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France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« on: December 01, 2017, 05:09:56 AM »

Spent a lot of time watching WSPR spots last night and saw that F5WK was printed by KA9CFD in western Illinois and SWL/K9 in Indiana aound 0330Z. The French station, transmitting with one watt, was -24 in Illinois. That's the first I've noticed that a European station had been printed in the interior of the US. Interestingly, not many east coast stations reported  F5WK around that time. 

KA9CFD usually hears remarkably well. What's his antenna? Apparently just an E-Probe!
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K5DN

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2017, 06:36:53 AM »

I also decoded F5WK a few days before, in Central TX, a bit further than IL.  I'm using a 20ft active antenna (E-probe), several hundred ft from the house.  Nothing special.  I have a fairly quiet location in a semi-rural area.  wsprnet.org will sort according to distance or timestamp so you can see the best dx for a certain call.  VK4YB has some of the longest, decoded all over NA.
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K0OD

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2017, 07:03:04 AM »

I hadn't noticed your reception before. 7962 Km is remarkable over so much land. 

"2017-11-29 03:12     F5WK     0.475777     -27     0     IN99ef     1     K5DN     EL19aw     7962     295 "

Describe your "20ft active antenna (E-probe)."

KA9CFD is also in a rural area. He almost always hears better than I do even tho he's only 180 miles from me. He seems to have the best ears in the midwest on 630.  I'm trying to make some station improvements, without moving to a farm. :)   
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AE5X

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2017, 07:14:54 AM »

I also decoded F5WK a few days before, in Central TX

That is amazing. My own decodes are typically 10 dB weaker than those who decode me - I clearly need a better rx antenna and am starting to realize that an effective rx station on 630m is far more difficult to achieve than an effective tx station - the opposite of what I had previously thought.

Also, it would be very helpful if active 630m stations (tx, rx, trx) put their station description (particularly antenna info) on their qrz.com bio page.
« Last Edit: December 01, 2017, 07:18:36 AM by AE5X »
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K5DN

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2017, 08:56:24 AM »

The RX antenna is 20ft of EMT conduit with my home-brew amplifier at the bottom.  It was designed for 160m arrays where phase and amplitude matching were important;  overkill for a single element.  It's mounted on a 3ft piece of T-post driven into the ground.  Several hundred ft from the house, other buildings and power lines.
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N3DT

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2017, 03:47:11 PM »

What kind of amp? FET or something more modern, like 2 bipolars? I've got a simple FET 2N4416 amp as a source follower with a ferrite transformer as a match to 50Ω but in the past I've noticed it gets overloaded pretty easy. I'd like to try something at my ant farm about 150' away from the house and I'm really in the boonies.
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AA2UK

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2017, 06:18:49 PM »

What kind of amp? FET or something more modern, like 2 bipolars? I've got a simple FET 2N4416 amp as a source follower with a ferrite transformer as a match to 50Ω but in the past I've noticed it gets overloaded pretty easy. I'd like to try something at my ant farm about 150' away from the house and I'm really in the boonies.

Take a look at W1VD's LF/MF site http://www.w1vd.com/ also N1BUG http://blog.n1bug.com/category/mf-lf/.
Both have designs for RX only - LNA's, filtering and antennas.
Bill, AA2UK
« Last Edit: December 30, 2017, 06:26:59 PM by AA2UK »
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K0OD

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2017, 07:16:25 PM »

I received my commercial longwave e-probe last week just in time for single digit temps and snow to hit.

Results so far have been unimpressive, but it's just mounted atop a 14 ft fiberglass pole leaning against the house. On 630-meter WSPR it picks up far fewer stations than my 43' DXE HF vertical. When decent weather arrives I'll move the e-probe away from the house for more tests.

The e-probe contains a low pass filter that cuts off above 500 kHz followed by a 20 dB amplifier.
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AA2UK

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #8 on: December 31, 2017, 03:13:38 AM »

well the 1st suggestion I can give is get it as far away from the house as you can.
 Once you do that I don't think you'll get stronger signals per say but you should get better S/N which should equate to more decodes and better db numbers.
I know others that 1st tried this type of Rx system close to the house, they had very disappointing numbers like you, once moved they saw a vast improvement.
Bill, AA2UK
« Last Edit: December 31, 2017, 03:17:00 AM by AA2UK »
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K0OD

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #9 on: December 31, 2017, 06:06:06 AM »

Thanks Bill. I'm going by S/N ratio and the number of WSPR decodes. Longwave signal levels on my 43' vertical are very low. Baseline atmospheric QRN is only about S-2 on the Flex's calibrated S-meter. But it decodes WSPR signals extremely well as I can tell from wsprnet.org, comparing what I decode versus what nearby stations decode.

No more antenna work for awhile. It's 4 degrees in Saint Louis.

630-meter conditions and activity were superb overnight. Heard K9FD/KH6 all night and often 20+ other WSPR beacons at a time. 
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N3DT

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #10 on: December 31, 2017, 07:02:49 AM »

Houses are really bad for noise. I put up a 3 el 6M beam at about 10' off my deck and couldn't hear anything with it. Moved it 150' away and it was fine.
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KM1H

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #11 on: December 31, 2017, 08:59:13 AM »

Start buying ferrites and denoising your house as Ive been doing for decades one new noise at a time.

Now even a 500' Beverage that passes close is quiet as are 3 HB verticals for 10-40  that are only 25' away.

Carl
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AA2UK

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #12 on: December 31, 2017, 09:05:10 AM »

Thanks Bill. I'm going by S/N ratio and the number of WSPR decodes. Longwave signal levels on my 43' vertical are very low. Baseline atmospheric QRN is only about S-2 on the Flex's calibrated S-meter. But it decodes WSPR signals extremely well as I can tell from wsprnet.org, comparing what I decode versus what nearby stations decode.

No more antenna work for awhile. It's 4 degrees in Saint Louis.

630-meter conditions and activity were superb overnight. Heard K9FD/KH6 all night and often 20+ other WSPR beacons at a time. 
I don't mean to alarm or insult you but Flex series radios have known issues Rx'ing LF/MF. I'm glad it seems to work well for you w/the 43' vertical. Many of the locals around me wanting to get on 630 with Flex series radios report hearing almost nothing compared to my WSPR Rx reports using a Moxon 6 meter antenna for Rx (me). I know it sounds silly but the Moxon dusts any HF dipoles or the random wire I have up.  My Icom IC-7410 dusts the Flex radio's including (2) 6700 series. Most are using 160 meter dipoles to try and Rx 630.
Happy New Year's (Eve)
Bill AA2UK
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K0OD

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #13 on: December 31, 2017, 11:10:43 AM »

OLDER Flex radios (pre-6XXX) are worthless on longwave. That's why I use a Palomar converter to move longwave to shortwave so my Flex-5000 hears great down to 10 kHz while providing all the virtues of a Flex radio... including nearly flawless stability and calibration that can be read to a few tenth of a Hertz in FMTs. I (and Zenki) adore that the Flex has a lab quality calibrated S-meter. My 5000 also uses the latest KE9NS software... bells & whistle nirvana. 

WSPRnet.org proves that my current 630-m receiving arrangement hears well, better than 90% of nearby stations. The few who hear better are in deep rural areas. Still I think I can improve with the right antenna.

My home is pretty RF-quiet (especially when I shut down most power). Christmas lighting from other homes could be a problem. Should mention that while my e-probe can be powered from AC/bias-T, or 9V batteries, I'm now using battery power to eliminate that variable.

Two things to try next: Moving the e-probe away from our house and adding ferrites for isolation. 
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AA2UK

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RE: France Copied By Midwest WSPR Reporters on 630
« Reply #14 on: December 31, 2017, 02:08:43 PM »

That'll work.
HNYM Bill
AA2UK
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