Thursday, September 11, 2014

The L-O-N-G Waves: 630-Meter News

Canadian hams will be able to participate this year in the Maritime Radio Historical Society's annual special event on 630 meters, with the opening of 472-479 kHz to VE hams this past May. The ARRL Letter reports that the special event will take place on October 31 - November 1, and will include coast stations KPH and KSM operating on 500 kHz. U.S. hams may participate by conducting cross-band QSOs. VO1NA in Newfoundland, along with VE7SL and VE7BDQ in British Columbia, will be transmitting on 630 meters (477.7, 473.0 and 474.0 kHz, respectively), while listening for responses on 80 and 40 meters.And in case you think DX is not possible at these frequencies, consider this: The ARRL Letter reports that in late August, VK2DDI in Australia was able to monitor WSPR transmissions on 475 kHz sent out by KB5NJD in Texas, operating under an FCC experimental license as WG2XIQ. The path is over 8,700 miles long.