RE: [IRCA] LW Help

["Steve Ratzlaff" <steveratz@xxxxxxxx>]

Good luck hunting! Most beacons send their CW idents slowly enough that you
can copy down the dots and dashes and decipher it from a Morse code table,
when you're first starting out. And the beacon is nice enough to repeat its
ident over and over, and over and over--no waiting until the TOH for a
callsign!
And if you tune in CW mode with the 500Hz filter, you'll cut out a lot of
adjacent interference. Just remember that the R8 series have a weird display
offset in CW mode--it doesn't show the actual frequency you're tuned to. The
actual frequency is about 600Hz higher than the display shows. E.g., if you
want to receive something in CW mode on 330kc, tune the radio so the display
shows 329.4, then you'll be close enough to hear something on 330, and can
fine tune for the desired pitch.
American beacons use a nominal 1kc offset for the ident, i.e. a beacon on
330 (where the unmodulated carrier is) would have its idents on 329 and 331.
(Of course you can use AM mode and a wider filter for beacon hunting, too,
it's just the wider filter will present several beacon channels, compared to
using the 500Hz filter.)
Canadian beacons use a nominal 400Hz offset, and usually just the upper
sideband is modulated, with no lower sideband present.
This winter time is generally the best time to hear LF signals, with lower
static levels and longer nights for the propagation to bring signals from
farther away.
You may find you enjoy the occasional diversion from AMBC, hunting for LF
beacons.
Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Ira Elbert New, III
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 2:09 PM
To: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [IRCA] LW Help


Thanks for the message. I realize I don't have the ideal LW setup, but still
it's fun to listen to what I can hear. And some of the stations do come in
quite nicely. I need to learn code so I have an idea what I'm listening to.
I'll give these sites a look-see and go from there.

Bert


Hi Bert,
There's a webpage maintained for these Transcribed Weather Broadcasts (TWEB)
on LF, by Bill Hepburn.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~dxinfo/twb.htm
There's one on 340 from Georgia, which I would think you'd easily hear;
nothing particularly close to you on the freqs you mentioned, unless the 329
one from LA is still on; but you can checkout the list and see for yourself.
Your wire antenna would be a poor performer at LF, unless you used a
matching transformer, or ran it into the high impedance wire input on your
R8B (which has the matching transformer built in from that input); then it
would work a lot better at LF.

There's also a Sangean 909/DX398 modifications page at
http://members.verizon.net/~vze20h45/radio/sangean/909mods.html
I've also heard the C.Crane company will also do these mods for you; as
they're the ones who've worked closely with Sangean engineers on their own
C.Crane radio.
Steve


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