Re: [IRCA] Possible PL-606 LW reception on barbed wire fence?

[Stephen Airy <pianoplayer88key@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Tim,
 
Well if you'll listen to the 404-MOG comparison, that'll give you an idea of the performance of this fence antenna.  That recording is the NDB received barefoot, then with the radio on the fence.  To my ear, there's quite a difference.
Also I've noticed that not the entire fence works - just a specific section at a specific level.  I just happened to discover it accidentally. :)
So when you heard Neil on your fence, what radio were you using?  Or was the fence itself demodulating the AM signal and acting as a speaker of sorts? :o ;)
I've heard AM signals on other devices as well, too.  When I was at my grandpa's memorial service a year ago in his back yard, I could hear two Asian-language stations in the speakers for the audio system.  (The 50kW station on 1430 is 1/3 mile to the northwest, along with a 23kW diplexing with them on 1300.)  Recently I was near 50kW 1170 KCBQ's transmitter site attempting to record a few things with some radios, and noticed that if I held my audio cable right, I could clearly and loudly hear KCBQ's audio on my Zoom H2n recorder (with no trace of 5kW 910 KECR which uses the same antenna farm).  If I touched one end of my audio cable to the metal sheath (on this one - most are wood) encasing the grounding wire on the utility pole, it just about blew my eardrums out.
 
73, Stephen
 
One of these days I should see about building a small FSL.  I could probably only afford to spend $20-$40 for one for now, though, so Gary DeBock's "affordable" FSL is still way out of reach for me.  Even something inexpensive and small should be a huge improvement over the stock antenna in my PL-606, I'd think (even more so than the fence I've been using).


________________________________
From: Tim Hills <thills@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Stephen Airy <pianoplayer88key@xxxxxxxxx>; Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent: Saturday, December 3, 2011 6:14 AM
Subject: Re: [IRCA] Possible PL-606 LW reception on barbed wire fence?

Stephen:

I'll give those MP3s a listen later, busy day and I haven't had enough coffee yet.

I would think the barbed wire fence would be a very poor antenna since it's grounded every few feet through the fence posts.

I have experimented with electric fences (make sure they're off!) with mixed results. I think the poorer than expected reception on a 1200' run of electric fence was because it ran along a barbed wire fence that was sucking the RF out of it. There were no weeds since it had been on shortly before I used it. I removed the end on the fencer and hooked a DX-160 to the fence and ground rod and unhooked the far end at a gate. Got about the same results as a 50' wire in the air. Little or no directionality. It was a quieter antenna than one in the air but no real advantage. A Balun and/or end termination may have helped. We wound up running a longwire between his barn/shack and an old windmill tower that worked much better. Besides, my friend was worried his dairy cows would figure out the fence was off.

High RF levels and rusty/corroded wire/fences can do odd things. Last winter when it was about -10F I could hear Neil Boortz ranting about something on my chain link fence in the back yard. KSOO 1140 and KELO 1320 both pump 5KW directional with KXRB 1000 running 100W directional all straight at me at night. Strong signals on 570, 800, 1050, 1230 and 1270 all get in the mix too. Barefoot the DX-440 and DX-399 are both pretty useless on LW because of the intermods but both seem to do fairly well on MW.

When you figure out what a barbed wire fence would be classified as for an antenna let me know. I haven't sent reception reports for the chain link receiver or hearing AM C2C (1320) on an antique Sunbeam Toaster. The toaster is quiet after I cleaned the crumbs out :(

Tim Hills
Sioux Falls, SD
DX-400, DX-399
Remote active loop
Chain link fence
Sunbeam toaster...

On 12/3/2011 5:13, Stephen Airy wrote:
> Hi LW ULR DXers on the list ...  I was checking the LW band a couple mornings ago (around 2am local) with my PL-606, and thought I heard traces of audio on some channels.  I've uploaded the audio clips here:  http://www.mediafire.com/?kmm6adkwz0yyk ; -  they range from about 30 seconds to about a minute and a half.  From what I can tell, 162 kHz was the most likely to have some trace of something on it, but even that was very faint at best - HEADPHONES REQUIRED (!) along with a quiet listening environment.  The others I thought I could hear something on them as well, but it's hard to tell, and I wouldn't be able to ID any station that was there.
> I had my radio sitting on a barbed wire fence, without which I would not have heard the signals at all.  Here's a photo of the radio on the fence (taken early this year):  https://picasaweb.google.com/118228966367965758611/TecsunPL606#5575071497405231394 and a barefoot vs. on-fence comparison of 404-MOG with the radio on the fence: http://www.mediafire.com/?xv0719a0vyri6xc - recorded around the same time.  (I checked for MOG the other morning, and even on the fence it was only about as good as my barefoot reception in the linked recording.  Interesting thing is that fence is the only place I've found around the house that enhances LW signals noticeably.  The chain-link fences around other parts of the yard don't work, and using utility ground only desenses the radio from the mediumwave signals.  (I am able to get 302 kHz GPS from Pt. Loma near San Diego about 16-18 miles west of me with the utility ground wire, though, as well as at about
>  "15/22" or so barefoot.)
>  One thing I was thinking ... is it possible that the audio I think I have on the LW channels could really be intermods from my local mediumwave stations?  The fence is not a tuned antenna (and wasn't even designed to BE an antenna), and there are a few suspect strong MW signals.  (Following MW readings are while on the fence, program is what was on at the time.)  760 KFMB was 88/25 running Doug McIntyre (brief check of TP frequency 774 revealed 49/00 and no audio), 910 KECR was 86/25 running Family Radio Bible Reading Fellowship, 1130 KSDO was 86/25 with Radio Nueva Vida, as well as several other stations over 70 dBu (including 1170 KCBQ at 81/25 but I don't know who was on at the time).
>  So is there a chance I had traces of legitimate audio on some LW channels, or was I hearing MW intermods?
>  Also for ultralight longwave DXing / awards / etc, what category would using the fence count as?  It wasn't originally intended to function as an antenna, is not tunable, and would be nearly impossible to reorient to favor other directions (this one's north/south), so would that go in the basic category? ;)
>  73 and good DX,
>  Stephen
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