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Re: LF: 160 to 190 KHz a real magic band ?

To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: LF: 160 to 190 KHz a real magic band ?
From: John Andrews <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 13:39:41 -0500
In-reply-to: <94EA5354DC8E4A60BCD14F3398302FFD@AGB>
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Graham,

In the U.S., 160-190 kHz is available for unlicensed use with the 1 watt DC + 15 meter antenna as previously mentioned. This has nothing to do with Amateur Radio. There are no assigned call signs or any government documentation required. There are no limits on emissions other than staying in the band and keeping reasonable harmonic/spurious levels. The call sign that Andy was using was purely made-up...generally we do not use amateur call signs lest an ID'd signal be confused with something restricted to ham bands. There is no legal requirement for an ID at all, in fact.

And to make things even more confusing, a number of Amateur operators have applied for and received Experimental Service licenses for various frequency ranges at LF/MF. But the licenses are not in the Amateur service, and have assigned call signs with an "X" at the start of the suffix. There are currently no ham bands below 1.8 MHz in the U.S. These Experimental licenses allow whatever is requested (and approved), and usually involve higher power and bigger antennas similar to those in use elsewhere in the Amateur service. Emission types must be specified in the license application, and must fit in the requested allocation. We are required to ID by CW or voice at least once every 30 minutes.

Regarding groundwave coverage, 160-190 kHz is much more similar to 137 than 500 kHz. The unlicensed stations with good antenna setups can expect 200-300 miles in the winter daytime. The longer distances you see reported are usually via "skywave" at night, and as others have noted, may involve short-duration signal peaks. All of this is very similar to operation at 137 kHz.

John, W1TAG

On 12/28/2010 1:04 PM, Graham wrote:
Ok Warren

Not sure what the land is like in Tennessee , Andy says he was getting
reliable wspr decodes over 400/500 miles , but that was from -LF- hams ,
all the same , with the Ae and power , that's going some .... thought it
was a bit like 500 , where compared to 160 , ground wave is good to 70
miles

If its a un licensed band how did you get a licence ?

Q what dose the licence say about modes of emission (hint > recent lofer
posts )

73 - G..


--------------------------------------------------
From: "Warren Ziegler" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 5:33 PM
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: LF: 160 to 190 KHz a real magic band ?


Graham,

Yes 2000km is very good for one watt but is not to be expected on a
regular basis!
I have an experimental license that lets me run 10W ERP on 160-190kHz,
my best guess is that with 250W out my ERP is less than 1/2W. Most of
the time 250W is not sufficient to cover 2000km so you can imagine
just how rare a 2000km reception is with 1 Watt !!

--
73 Warren K2ORS
WD2XGJ
WD2XSH/23
WE2XEB/2
WE2XGR/1


On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 12:23 PM, Graham <[email protected]> wrote:
1/4 KW ?

Andy is talking about 1 watt dc feed to the PA and a short Ae , I
thought 2000 kmt was good going for 1 watt

is it the same band ?

G..

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Warren Ziegler" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 5:08 PM
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: LF: 160 to 190 KHz a real magic band ?


I occasionally put a beacon on the 180 kHz band with 250 Watts out and
have been copied in France and the Netherlands during the time each
night that Europe 1 is off.
No magic, about the same results as 137kHz except that 137 is quieter.


--
73 Warren K2ORS
WD2XGJ
WD2XSH/23
WE2XEB/2
WE2XGR/1

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 11:40 AM, Gary - G4WGT <[email protected]>
wrote:

Graham,
Have a listen after dark, I seem to remember it was quite
horrendous last
time I looked at that part of the spectrum. I will have another listen
tonight. I think the EU chaps wait until Europe1 has stopped Txing.
Here
is
one frequency I know of, extract from Joe's e-mail.
VO1NA, 184.509.3kHz
TX about 5 watts 0.4 amps to 100m wire at 15 m high.
73,
Gary - G4WGT - IO83qo.
LF MF Grabber - Web Site - Blogspot - 9kHz Grabber



On 28 December 2010 16:22, Graham <[email protected]> wrote:

Ok Gary,

Seems to be some quite big gaps in that spectrum , big enough for
a cw filter and wspr signal to sit with no splash ?

G

Nb looks like someone has the spam filter -mal-adjusted- ?

----- Original Message -----
From: Gary - G4WGT
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 2:54 PM
Subject: Re: LF: 160 to 190 KHz a real magic band ?
Graham,
I have occasionally read mails on LF regarding U.S. 184kHz qrs
beacons &
captures from Europe. Apparently there is a very powerful broadcast
station
in Europe on a near frequency which causes high qrm when on, I
believe
it is
"Europe1"
Gary - G4WGT.

On 28 December 2010 12:16, Graham <[email protected]> wrote:

Lifted from the WSPR web site http://wsprnet.org/drupal/

1 watt and 15 mtrs of antenna ,decoding over 1148 kmtrs , (best
round 2000k) seems to make the 137 attempts look a little 'coy
with
somewhat bigger power levels and rather large arrays , (possibly
mal-adjusted ?)

Is this a band like 500 with enhanced propagation ?

WHAT IS THE POSSIBILITY OF A TA DECODE ?

The frequency range is 160 to 190 KHz. This is most commonly
known as
Part-15 operation ( under our FCC Part-15 rules ). The basics:
Power is
limited to 1 Watt DC Input to the Final amplifier, and the antenna
length
cannot exceed 15 meters, including the feed line,

(XR4TN is the experimental call of KU4XR)

2010-12-10 11:16 XR4TN 0.185701 -27 0 EM75xr +30 1.000 W1VD
FN31is 1148
G..











--









--
73 Warren K2ORS
WD2XGJ
WD2XSH/23
WE2XEB/2
WE2XGR/1








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