LF: LF amateurs go to extremes

["Dick Rollema" <d.w.rollema@freeler.nl>]

To All from PA0SE,

LF-pioneers are apparently  not narrow minded. The following message
was sent to me by Arie Dogterom, PA0EZ,  keen VHF/UHF/SHF
operator.

73, Dick, PA0SE

A New European Amateur Laser
Communications Distance Record 
The UK and European distance record for laser communications has been
beaten - by the same team that set the previous record. On Wednesday the
8th 
of October, David, G0MRF, and Allan, G8LSD, completed a contact on a
wavelength of 670 nanometres over a distance of 76.1 kilometres. G0MRF
was 
at Butser Hill in Hampshire, while G8LSD went to Ashdown Forest in East
Sussex for the contact. The previous record, 49 kilometres, was set by
David 
and Allan on the 5th of April this year. The equipment used was the same:
G8LSD used a 3 milliwatt laser diode to a beam expander with a Burr-Brown
detector as a replacement eyepiece for a Russian 4.5 inch reflector 
telescope as a receiver. G0MRF used a 10 milliwatt laser diode without
beam 
expander and, on receive, a wider-bandwidth OPT210 detector. The contact
was 
made more difficult due to the poor weather conditions prevailing on the
night. Further details are on Allan's Laser Communications website, which
is 
linked from the RSGB site at
www.rsgb.org