** Trans-Pacific Canadian Amateur LF Signals Confirmed Heard **

The first confirmed trans-Pacific  reception of Canadian amateur LF (2200m)
signals occured on the morning of October 4, 2005. The slow speed (QRSS) CW
signals of VA7LF were confirmed heard near Wellington, New Zealand, at the
Wellington Amateur Radio Club station at Quartz Hill. Signals from the ZM2E
club station were heard in Canada as well but propagtion was not of
sufficient duration to enable a QSO to be completed. VA7LF was located on
South Pender Island, British Columbia and operated by VE7TIL, VE7SL and
VE7MM. The Quartz Hill station was manned by ZL2CA and ZL4OL. The present
amateur radio LF world record two-way is shared by ZM2E and UA0LE, a
distance of 10,311 km. The distance between VA7LF and ZM2E is approximately
11,700 km. Both stations were operated on 137 kHz using DFCW QRSS120.
VA7LF was running approximately 1 watt erp while ZM2E was at the 5W erp
level.
Propagation conditions were generally poor during the three night test
period.
The next scheduled trans-Pacific tests will be in the spring of 2006.
As Bob Vernall, ZL2CA, summarized, "The bottle of bubbly
is back in the cellar ...."


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