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VE2DDT > ALL 30.09.10 01:04l 68 Lines 2630 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 42548_VE2SAY
Read: GUEST
Subj: First JA-VE QSO on 2200m claimed
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<IR2UBX<IK2XDE<PY1AYH<PY1AYH<CX2SA<VE2PKT<VA2BBS<VE2SAY
Sent: 100929/2202Z @:VE2SAY.#SAG.QC.CAN.NOAM #:42548 [Chicoutimi] FBB7.00i
From: VE2DDT@VE2SAY.#SAG.QC.CAN.NOAM
To : ALL@WW
From Scott Tilley, VE7TIL
First JA-VE QSO on 2200m Claimed.
September 28, 2010
Kunikazu Togashi, JA7NI and Scott Tilley, VE7TIL completed a
trans-pacific QSO on 2200m (137KHz) this morning 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.
Things started off with a surprise as NI copied TIL's beacon signal
30min before his sunrise, something that had never happened before
during previous tests. What followed was a 'quick' exchange of
calls and NI's report was received by TIL. Then a very long and deep
fade occurred. This happened before to us and we lost each other
and an entire nights sleep! But that taught us a lesson and we adapted
to the deep fading on this path by creating new QSO procedures
to deal with the long times it takes to send information and the deep QSB.
NI waited patiently not knowing TIL had copied the calls and
his report. Our procedure was for him to simply wait until he copied
something and respond accordingly... Three hours later RO
appeared on NI's screen and during one of my crawls out of the operator's
bunk to check the waterfall I saw a dot during a pause in
transmission and stopped the transmitter. A few minutes later there was
an R and TU but not in DFCW but rather QRSS as a malfunction
at NI's end had him scrambling to send QRSS30 by hand, a true test of a
CW operators skill! He recovered with grace and the QSO was in
the bag!
The mode used was dual frequency CW, a form of very slow frequency shift
keying which offers a significant time advantage over standard
slow morse code (QRSS). DFCW is read directly off a computer display using
software such a ARGO by Alberto, I2PHD. The dot lengths
used ranged from 30 to 60 seconds.
This QSO caps off months of work by both operators in improving their
stations and beacon testing on the path to learn its characteristics.
What is clear to me is the trans-pacific path on 2200m is a very
viable communication path for amateur experimentation. I'm sure time will
demonstrate this further as procedures and equipment improve
on both sides of the ocean and the QSO count starts to rise and the time to
complete drop.
Further information about the QSO and other LF tests by the operators can be viewed at:
http://www3.telus.net/sthed/argo/
http://ja7ni.web.fc2.com/
--
* * * *
Vernon Erle Ikeda - VE2MBS/VE2QQ
Dollard des Ormeaux, Quebec
RAC E-News/Web News Bulletin Editor
<racnews@rac.ca>
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