AmateurRadio.com

Well, I optimised my 136kHz QRSS3 beacon match into my earth electrode “antenna” used on 472kHz and tested it in the house and right outside. All looked promising, so I headed for my local car-park about 1.8km  away. I was quite confident that with an E-field probe on the car I’d get a decent result. From the old QTH I got to the far side of Cambridge before I gave up as copy was so good!

Not a dicky bird – nothing at all, indeed I only got copy again when I entered our close at a range of a few hundred metres. As at VLF, the earth electrode “antenna” at this QTH is useless.

Not only that but at the end of the test I realise how poorly I still must be as I was totally exhausted. In my fitter days this test would have been totally trivial, but not any more. I think my trees and short baseline make this “antenna” totally out of the question at this QTH at LF. I need a better antenna for LF and MF use.

So, 136kHz was bad. A poor result and quite a lot worse than I was expecting. I was hoping for an encouraging result, but none was to be had.