Once again the 630m band will become a cacophony of CW and other sounds on Saturday night, November 12! The actual motivation for the weekend event is a celebration of the November, 1906, Berlin Treaty making 500 kHz the International Distress Frequency for the next 80 years. It’s also a great excuse for a lot of 630m diehards to get on the air and celebrate the band.
Three different groups will participate:
- US Experimental Operators
- Canadian Amateurs
- Maritime Radio Historical Society
US Part-5 Experimental Operators including WD2XSH stations and others will operate in the 472 – 479 kHz band. They will use CW transmissions for QSOs and beacons with special messages. There may also be some operation on 500 kHz itself.
Canadian Amateurs will be concentrating their efforts on providing two-way cross-band CW QSOs with other Amateurs in the USA and Canada. They will be transmitting on specified frequencies (see below) and listening for replies to their “CQ” on specified QSX frequencies within the 160, 80 and 40m CW bands.
The Maritime Radio Historical Society will activate its KSM/KPH transmitter at Bolinas, CA for a mini “Night of Nights” with special messages and bulletins.
Listeners are encouraged to send their reception reports to individual stations or via the LF/MF ON4KST chat page which should be very active during the event. Most experimental calls can be found via QRZ.com listings.
All Amateurs are encouraged to participate in the cross-band activity by being able to listen on 630m but being able to answer on one of the specified HF bands
So far this fall, propagation on the 630m band has been excellent and hopefully will continue well into November. Previous cross-band events have seen contacts made from coast-to-coast as well as west to Hawaii.
Confirmed Canadian stations include:
Station: VA7MM (Mark) CN89 Coquitlam, BC
Time: 0400Z – 0800Z (Saturday night Nov 13 Z)
TX Frequency: 475.0 kHz
RX (QSX) Frequency: 1801 kHz / 3574 kHz / 7062 kHz
Station: VE7BDQ (John) CN89 Delta, BC November 2016
Time: 0300Z – 0700Z (Saturday night Nov 13 Z)
TX Frequency: 474.0 kHz
RX (QSX) Frequency: 3555 kHz
Station: VE7CNF (Toby) CN89 Burnaby, BC
Time: 0300Z – 0800Z (Saturday night Nov 13 Z)
TX Frequency: 476.5 kHz
RX (QSX) Frequency: 1836 kHz / 3558 kHz / 7031 kHz
Station: VE7SL (Steve) CN88 Mayne Island, BC
Time: 0200Z – 0700Z (Saturday night Nov 13 Z)
TX Frequency: 473.0 kHz
RX (QSX) Frequency: 3566 / 7066 kHz
Station: VO1NA (Joe) GN37 Torbay, Newfoundland
Time: 2130Z – 0130Z (Saturday night Nov 12 Z – Sunday Nov 13 Z)
TX Frequency: 477.7 kHz
RX (QSX) Frequency: 3562 kHz
Station: VE3OT (Mitch) EN92 London, ON
Time: 0000Z – 0400Z (Saturday night Nov 13 Z)
TX Frequency: 477.0 kHz
RX (QSX) Frequency: 3563 kHz / 7058 kHz
Several US Experimental stations also will be in operation throughout the band, in two-way QSO mode with each other, using CW or JT9. Some stations will also use WSPR and QRSS CW beacon modes.
The success of this event largely depends upon the participation of as many amateurs as possible. Hopefully you will be able to participate in the two-way cross-band activity by being able to listen on 630m and then able to switch over to HF to transmit. This could involve the use of a separate receiver / transmitter or can often be easily implemented via your transceiver’s ‘A/B’ switch.
Full details available at the following link:
https://ve7sl.blogspot.ca/2016/10/novembers-630m-activity-cw-crossband.html