[Lf] [Fwd: LF: DCF39 heard in the US]

[Andre' Kesteloot]

Mike Dennison wrote:

> >Andre' wrote

> >Dave Wilson, AC4IU, who lives near Fredericksburg, south of Washington DC,
> > reports to have seen DFC39, but rarely, and adds that he is not sure what
> > determines when he can hear that station of not. It should be noted that
> > Fredericksburg is well inland, far from the ocean.
> >
>
> Excellent. I feel that concentrating on this high ERP station will
> provide a useful pattern. Once fixed stations can receive it with
> some reliability (or at least predictability), preferably by ear, then
> there is a good chance that a coastal portable expedition can detect
> amateurs. It also gives something to work with, that is to measure
> improvements in propagation and receiver/antenna performance.
> When you hear nothing, you can't tell if you need another 3dB or
> 300!
>
> > The reason DCF39 was not mentioned in the Nags Head reports is that,
> > sadly, we did not look for it. Our mistake, but we were concentrating on
> > the narrow band between 137.600 and 137.900 where the 4 British amateur
> > stations were located. 73 Andre' N4ICK
> >
>
> Quite understood. Portable expeditions are by no means trivial and
> you have to set your agenda in advance and concentrate on that. If
> you had detected the amateur signals, that would have been
> marvelous, but it looks like you need to set your sights a little lower
> in order to determine just how far you are from succeeding. The bad
> news is that conditions were exceptionally good that weekend as
> CFH was strong well into daylight in the UK.
>
> I am quite sure, however, that you learned useful lessons for next
> time. With my LF portable expeditions to GW, I have got better and
> better because each time I came away with a long list of things I
> knew I had done wrong - it's true about learning from your mistakes.
> An expedition only fails if you can't think of anything you would do
> better next time.
>
> It's pretty frustrating for us in Europe as we feel we would like to just
> pop over with our own gear and hear for ourselves what the band is
> like, as we might with a listening station a few hundred km away.
> Perhaps you can put a few .WAV files onto the AMRAD website
> after your next expedition so that we can hear and also analyse the
> receiver output. It might help us to help you.
>
> Anyway, your efforts are very much appreciated and we all look
> forward to the day when the US (and Canada) has an LF allocation
> in the licence. Then we can be the ones desperately looking in vain
> at the noise on a DSP screen!
>
> 73
>
> Mike, G3XDV (IO91VT)
> http://www.dennison.demon.co.uk/activity.htm