Hi.
Out of topic for this group, but there may be some of you who are interested.
SAQ, 17.2 kHz will transmit today starting at 1130 UTC with tuning and sending message at 1200 UTC
https://alexander.n.se/alexanderson-day-2021/
Enjoy!
73 / Ingolf, SM6FHZ

On Sun, Jul 4, 2021 at 11:15 AM, sm6fhz wrote:

Hi.
Out of topic for this group, but there may be some of you who are interested.
SAQ, 17.2 kHz will transmit today starting at 1130 UTC

Many thanks Ingolf for the reminder. I totally forgot about it but now I shall listen!

73

Max

I can confirm that SAQ is Tx'ing now. (1144 UTC)
73 / Ingolf, SM6FHZ

Message transmission is now over.
Some random test keying still ongoing (1210 UTC).
73 / Ingolf, SM6FHZ

The Alexanderson Generator of SAQ is now shut off.
I can hear the "key up" signal about 30 dB down from the Tx-signal at about 70 km distance.
Antenna is 135 m Beverage antenna beaming in 310 degrees.
73 / Ingolf, SM6FHZ

Heard it on my RSP2Pro with 60ft loose wire out of window at low level. Just above the noise and some characters fully discernible. With a decent antenna I would have copied it no problem. Location, south coast of England (near Eastbourne).

Thanks once again for the reminder Ingolf.

73

Max 

Well

I was going to listen, but telling my Wife “ no we are not going to visit your recently departed Mum’s grave on her wedding anniversary because I want to hear some cw from an old transmitter” was a no go..

Never mind..I made the correct decision..

Simon g0zen

I like listening to VLF signals.....too bad the transmissions did not occur during mutual night time between Europe and NA :-(

Gedas, W8BYA EN70JT

Gallery at http://w8bya.com (under repair)
Light travels faster than sound....
This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

For those who missed it, this is what it looked like during the warm up phase before the second transmission: a bit wobbly, but not bad for its age!

Received near York on an HF+ and a Wellbrook LFL1010 loop.

Regards,
Dave

Hi Dave and thank you for that snapshot of the transmission. It is really neat to see a look at the spectrum from the "other" side of pond of many of the signals that we jump up and down for when we see their faint trace on the waterfall.

I was going to ask you if you wanted to try something for fun......after sunset would you be willing to start out at 10 kHz and slowly tune up in frequency until you hit around 150 kHz and while doing so have SDRC make a video of your screen? You could keep your loop fixed in one direction, say, E-W etc.

I am thinking a slow scan so it takes 4-5 minutes to complete. Then post that video on your Google drive or dropbox etc so others can download it to scrutinize.

After a day or so you can of course delete the MP4. But this way we, far, far away can see what signals are present for you after the sun goes down. I would be more than happy to do the same for you (or anyone else) if you wish. I think it would be a fun way to hunt for signals and take advantage of another awesome feature in SDRC. 73

Gedas, W8BYA EN70JT

Gallery at http://w8bya.com (under repair)
Light travels faster than sound....
This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Hi Gedas,

I think it would be easier and much more fun for all if I just put some recordings up, then you can spend as much time as you want going through them and identifying the signals (naval, time, navigation, grid sync, mysterious, etc.) for yourselves.  I've created a Dropbox folder here:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t1pqcqvs93vqjle/AAAMm9XIH8FyAE4Fx9kmA8wOa?dl=0  which has some more SAQ pics, a recording of the second transmission (I also have the first, if you want it), and a midday VLF recording from today, covering 10 - 200kHz.  The signals you can pick up don't change much throughout the day, except that the clusters of carriers at 16, 32, 48kHz from my solar panel microinverters won't be there after sunset, but there will be a lot more storm noise instead.  Thunderstorms over Europe are very active at the moment, but if they quieten down I'll do another nighttime recording for you.  By chance, the LORAN transmitter about 70mi from me is down at the moment, so the spectrum between 90 and 120kHz is open, instead of being a wall of solid white (the signals visible around 110kHz are probably down to low power testing of equipment at the transmitter).  There are no Russian Alpha transmissions on at present, unfortunately!

The recording today was made on an HF+ (with R3 shorted) and a Wellbrook LFL1010 loop turned E-W.

If you want to post a recording or two, I'd be very interested to see what it's like on your side of the Pond!

Regards,
Dave

I try to listen to the SAQ transmissions every year.
For an antenna I hung about 15m of wire from a 2nd floor window to the roof of my shed.
My radio was a KIWI shortwave receiver. The nice thing is that via Youtube you can see
when the transmission starts,

On my kiwi I only heard static noise. No Morse.

Then I switched to my backup "receiver". I plugged the end of the antenna wire into the
microphone jack of my computer soundcard. To receive SAQ I used a free Windows program
called SAQ Panoramic Receiver (v0.98). This worked like a charm! I could hear the
complete morning transmission (11h00 CET). Also the afternoon transmission (14h00 CET)
although with lots of interference from lightning.

Oh how nice it would be if Simons program would support VLF reception via soundcards
in this way.
The picture below is a screenshot of SAQ Panoramic Receiver playing back the RF recording (0-96kHz)

Note: the GREEN line is the RF spectrum. One of the peaks on the right is DCF. The WHITE (actually BLUE)
line is the audio spectrum. No waterfall.

On Tue, Jul 6, 2021 at 01:25 AM, PE1OSQ wrote:

To receive SAQ I used a free Windows program called SAQ Panoramic Receiver (v0.98).

Where did you get v0.98 from?

I found v0.94 here: https://sites.google.com/site/swljo30tb/home/files

Gisle,

Google "SAQ Panoramic Receiver (v0.98)" gets a top link http://www.dl1dbc.net/SAQ/

Alan

@Gisle,
somebody else allready posted a link to the newer version.

I got mine directly from the author when we exchanged some emails. I praised his program (I realy think it is great)
and asked for some changes. He explained that he modified an old source written by somebody else. In that
source all the screen handling / lay out seems to be hard coded...
The difference with 0.94 seems to be that when you place the cursor on some frequencies of interest the Callsign
of that station is shown.

The following might be of interest (and I promise Simon I will not ramble on off topic after that)
The article linked by Alan G4ZFQ explains how to listen to SAQ with an e-field probe such as the Mini Whip.
I tried that and also listening to VLF with an upconverter. At first it did not work at all.
Most upconverters (like the NoEelec one) contain DC blocking capacitors in the signal path. Most e-field
probes use a phantom-power-feed that also blocks DC with a capacitor. In most cases these capacitors
are intended for MF and SW use, they attenuate (V)LF signals very much. Once I replaced those capacitors
with much bigger ones (capacity wise...) it worked very well.

regards
Jan / PE1OSQ