2

-LF news past....2010.

• December

  • 27/12. JA received in Eu on 136kHz. RN3AGC's grabber is proving very sensitive and Andrey has received JA7NI's beacon on several occasions, some with very good copy. He is hoping to make a QSO.

• November

  • 19/11. Spain on 500kHz. Six Spanish stations have been granted special permission to operate between 501 and 504kHz with an ERP of 5W and a bandwidth of less than 100Hz. The calls to look out for are EA1AY, EA2HB, EA3CC, EA4BVZ, EA3WX and EA5DY.

• October

  • 23/10. DK7FC's 8th VLF kite experiment acheived excellent results with a best DX of 1310km on 8.97kHz to EI8JK. He then tried 6470Hz and 5170Hz and made it to SQ5BPF near Warsaw at 904km!

  • 20/10. 136kHz IOTA. JD1AHC will be QRV at Chijima island (IOTA AS-031) from 26 October to 3 November 2010. The DX vacation includes 136kHz (CW,QRSS30), HF band in CQ-WW-SSB contest(phone). QSL:JA1BVA(Masaaki Saito), a member of "The 2200m club of Japan".

  • 14/10. Extra SAQ transmission next week. There will be a transmission with the Alexanderson alternator on 17.2 kHz on “United Nations Day” October 24 2010 at 11:00 UTC. Start up and tuning from about 10:30 UTC. This time we do not require any QSL-reports and will not verify. Don't forget our annual transmission on Christmas Eve (morning), Dec 24, at 08:00 UTC with tuning up from 07:30 UTC.
    Info from SM6NM/Lars

• September

  • 29/09. First JA - VE QSO on 136. Kunikazu Togashi, JA7NI and Scott Tilley, VE7TIL completed a trans-pacific QSO on 2200m (137KHz) on September 28th, a first between Canada and Japan. The distance between CN89dk (TIL) to QM09fl (NI) is 7162km. While not the DX record for 2200m it comes in second to the distance achieved by ZM2E and UA0LE in 2004.

• July

  • 20/7. VK tests underway on 600m. As of June 15, Wireless Institute of Australia is conducting 600m tests. A limited number of licenses have been issued to VK hams under WIA arrangement and AX2VKW beacon is already on the air transmitting CW on 507KHz. More general access to the band is expected soon. ..info from VK2DX..

• June

  • 12/6. SAQ transmission next month. There will be Grimeton Radio/SAQ transmissions on 17.2 kHz, CW, with the Alexanderson alternator on Sunday July 4 ,“Alexanderson Day”, at 09:00 UTC and 12:00 UTC. Tuning up starts some 30 minutes earlier. The radio station is open to visitors. QSL-reports are kindly received: - E-mail to: info@alexander.n.se

• March

  • 23/3. VLF experiment succeeds. Stefan DK7FC carried out his third test on 8.97kHz at the weekend with a kite aerial. Unambiguous ID of the QRSS signal was made by Jim M0BMU out portable, about 658km distant. Reception reports also came from Germany, The Netherlands and Italy. Not bad for "audio" frequencies!

  • 19/3. G8RW Silent key. I am sorry to report the death of Bob G8RW aged 95. Bob was active on 136kHz.

  • 15/3. VLF dream come true. Stefan DK7FC has been planning a test on 8.97kHz for a few weeks (Christened "the dreamers band"). Everything was ready for the tests today using a massive loading coil and a kite aerial. Many had predicted that a few kilometres might be the limit, in the event the signal was detected by several listeners, most notably Paul Nicholson at the UK - 858.7km away! These frequencies are deregulated in Germany but UK experimenters will need an NOV.
    Temporary grabber 3 added at http://www.wireless.org.uk/grab

  • 2/3. New Zealand on 600m. The latest to arrive on 505-515kHz are the ZLs, all ZL hams can operate on the band - no special permit required - with 25W EIRP. Effective 1st March 2010 on a non-interference basis.

• February

  • 20/2. Iceland gets 600m. On February 19, 2010 The Post and Telecom Administration in Iceland granted a temporary experimental access to the 600 meter band in Iceland. The permit is valid until December 31, 2010. Frequency range is 493-510kHz on a secondary basis, CW only. Power limit is 100 W. N and G class licensees can apply to the PTA for the special license.
    Info from TF2JB.

  • 8/2. Canada on 136 at last. All Canadian amateurs can now use the 136kHz band, previously this was just by special permit. The new footnote to the Canadian licence states: "Stations in the amateur service using frequencies in the band 135.7-137.8 kHz shall not exceed a maximum radiated power of 1 W (e.i.r.p.) and shall not cause harmful interference to stations of the radionavigation service operating in countries listed in No. 5.67. (WRC-07)" VO1NA has already been copied over here.

On to 2011---Back to 2009.