[HCDX]: HAARP in Burgdorf, Germany

["nils.schiffhauer" <nils.schiffhauer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

HAARP's reception here in Burgdorf, Northern Germany was at follows:

On the 26th of March there was noted a VERY faint signal on 6.990 only with
an unreadable CW message. Detailed off-line analysis of the signal showed a
severe distortion and doppler spread of the signal on that day. There wasn't
noted a preferred polarization of the signal. It seemed that in the CW
message the dits and daahs were running together. I didn't understand any
letter! (As ham radio operator I do have some 330 countries verified, and at
least SHOULD have some experience in copying difficult to read signals)

The signal on the 27.-th of May was much better. S3 to S4 on a free channel,
and only slight doppler shift.The signal was very stable, and the CW message
was completely understandable. What puzzled me was that some daahs seemed to
be split up into two dits. Vertically polarization was clearly favoured by
about 10 dB.

Receiver was IC-R8500 mit 500 Hz IF filter and very steep preselector (Braun
SWF 10-40). Antennas: 41 m long windom, full-size delta-loop providing
vertical polarization, and rotable dipole within a logarithmic-periodic
antenna (namely DLP-11 by Titanex). Off-line FFT analysis (with "Analyzer
2000") showed a SNR of 22,2 dB in a 0.4 Bandwidth on the 2nd day. This
should led to an SNR of -8 dB in a 500 Hz bandwidth, but in fact I estimated
the SNR between -3 and +3 dB. The signal was MUCH weaker than predicted by a
detailed VOACAP analysis presuming 400 kW by an isotropic array.

It really was fun to catch this station!

73: Nils, DK8OK
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