20 Jan 2010

Done it at last! 1232 km on 500kHz

This evening, my target of exceeding 1000kms on 500kHz has been exceeded by a great margin. Lubos OK2BVG in JN88ks managed to hear my 1mW ERP signal at a distance of 1232kms. This is by far my best DX and a new country on the band using WSPR. Lubos even moved to his quieter country QTH in order to hear my weak signal. I am SO pleased he has such good ears! This was his message half an hour ago:
Hello Roger, LF!
This moment is just now:
2136  -7  0.2   0.503874  0 G4JNT IO90 23
2142 -29 -0.5   0.503910  1 G3XBM JO02


Congratulation!
Lubos, OK2BVG, JN88KS

A little later the signal was even stronger:
2206 -24 -0.6   0.503903  0 G3XBM JO02 0

7 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your achievement. Very cool stuff. I've been following your 500khz experiments, and am glad to see that you've finally broken the 1000km barrier. I've always been interested in lowfer operations, and to see a simple transmitter and limited antenna perform so well is inspiring. I even learned something about amplifier design by studying the schematics for your transmitter.

    Keep up the good posts.

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  2. Thanks. Well it certainly has opened up my eyes on what is possible. You really would be hard pressed to make an LF/MF station much simpler than mine! I need a new challenge now, HI.

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  3. Congratulations, Roger! I am only sorry that I never managed to log your 500KHz signal myself. Your activities encouraged me to Rx on the band, but because of the high noise level here only the strongest ever made a trace on my screen. Good luck for the next challenge!

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  4. Congratulations. I've been following your posts as you've gradually edged towards the 1000km mark. To break through it with 229km to spare is a great achievement!
    73, Dominic M0BLF.

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  5. Congratulations, Roger - very exciting. Do you think you can make it across the Atlantic ?!

    73, Tim, G4VXE

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  6. Congratulations, Roger! Nice stuff thanks for sharing this.

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  7. Thank you everyone. It has been such great fun.

    Tim, when I first started with 500kHz with my tiny station I honestly did not expect to get more than a few kms down the road. Since then, 20dB worth of ERP improvements have seen that range leap to 1239kms. It would not totally surprise me now to be spotted in Iceland (about 2200kms I think), but crossing the Atlantic would need me to find another 20dB from somewhere. I don't plan to increase the RF from the transverter and I cannot see me erecting a big antenna. So, TA DX will have to remain for the "grown up" stations.

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