[Lf] 2225 Km on LF !

[Andre' Kesteloot]

G0MRF at aol.com wrote:

> Hello    Andre'  Larry,  Mitch,  and Jack VE1ZZ.
>
> Hi.
> I've just arrived back home having spent a fair proportion of the weekend at
> the Decca site at Puckeridge.
> Although I have yet to download the weekends e-mail I guess that our attempt
> to span the Atlantic was not successful.
> I thought I would just drop you all a quick line to say thanks for your
> efforts over the past two nights.  Although unsuccessful from a transatlantic
> perspective our weekend was a good learning experience.  I'm sure Derek etc
> will summarise the event on the reflector in due course. I hope listening to
> summer static has not done too much damage to your ears!   I wonder how Jack
> found listening to 137.710 while in close proximity to CFH?
>
> >From my own perspective I was pleased to work a UB5 station crossband at
> 2225km through a daylight path. - Something must be working. - I don't think
> his antenna was even optimised for LF.
> On a technical front I was surprised by the antenna efficiency and the extra
> care needed in an operation of this type. When we first set up the beacon I
> arranged for the keyer / drive to be on, but had the 1.2kW PSU wired to a
> timer.  With the FET driver (4426) powered by 12V but with zero Volts on the
> FETs, the residual signal leaking through a 680R resistor and the FETs could
> be detected nearly 100km away. I'll measure the power output accurately in
> the morning, but I estimate that there was a maximum of 40 milliwatts being
> applied to the antenna, which normally wouldn't be a problem, but in this
> case about 4mW was radiated.
>
> An amazing mast, shame it's probably going to be demolished shortly.
>
> Vy 73 to all,  and thank you once again for the time you have spent away from
> better things.
>
> David  G0MRF