> In the past EU QRSS beacons were transmitting in the 137.32 range. > Did this 
> changed? I think I missed something.- 
> 73
> Hartmut
> www.h-wolff.de


Hartmut,

You are right. In the past I have strongly argued that Eu beacons 
should be in that part of the band. However, the reality is that no-
one is listening there (apart from a couple of Eu grabbers). There 
are grabbers in Alaska, Western Canada, Japan and Eastern Russia but 
not one covers the 136.320kHz sub-band.

That sub-band was originally created when there were many Eu (mostly 
UK) stations chasing QSOs and reports from the east coast of America -
 there were even several Canadians capable of two-way QSOs. The idea 
of the split frequency was that these QSOs should not cause QRM to 
each other. Now there are very few Eu stations interested in DX 
working, and seemingly no east coast American stations routinely 
monitoring.  

I try not to QRM those Eu stations who are monitoring for US and 
Russian beacons. This is achieved by not beaconing every day, and by 
not beaconing continuously (which is why I synchronise each 
transmission with the start of each hour). My frequency is much lower 
than most US and Russian beacons. I have also announced that if my 
transmissions cause anyone any problems, I will close down. In 
practice, unless the receiving station is within about 150km of me 
there is little chance of real QRM - last night EW6GB was fully 
readable just 0.2Hz HF of me on the grabbers of DF6NM and OE3GHB.

There is still a use for the Eu DX sub-band during two-way DX QSOs, 
or tests involving lots of activity. I will be the first to use it 
again if any DX stations are prepared to monitor it.

Does anyone else have a view on this?

Mike, G3XDV
==========