Fwd: Tuesday Tech Net 8 PM ECHOLINK & 81/21

[Nan and Sandy Sanders]

> From Hal WB3KDU
>
>
>
>Tuesday Nite Tech Net 8 PM on ECHOLINK and the AMRAD REPEATER
>========================================================================
>
>VLF is ham radio's first band and there are signs now that it will 
>soon return.  The FCC appears
>poised to instate amateur radio in the 136Khz and 480khz 
>segments.   Outside of experimenter's
>hams have not communicated on there origin frequencies for more than 
>80 years.  That was
>the era of electro-mechanics devices.  The Alexanderson  alternator 
>is a good example of this
>kind of marriage that combines the simple electric  with mechanical 
>in one design.
>In the 1920's  practical vacuum tunes would shortly make their 
>appearance revolutionizing communications.
>By that time amateur operators had been  pushed out of "long 
>wave"  to "200 meters and above," to shorter wavelengths
>then thought commercially useless.
>
>We return to this original place in the computer age.  With new 
>tools like computers, SDR, GPS discipline oscillators,
>precise frequency control, news types of amplifiers (class D, E and 
>F),  a whole new horizon of
>development is possible.
>
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexanderson_alternator
>
>
>Last week we talked about the upcoming SAQ transmissions on 17.2 Khz 
>scheduled for the first week in July.

(June 28 this year, field day Sunday, at 09:00 UTC)

>
>The West Coast is far away from the Sweden where SAQ lives but there 
>may be sufficient energy on
>conventional transmission paths and perhaps unexpected paths, so it 
>possible some signal will be heard.
>Besides weak signal, thunder storms, powerline noise and good ole' 
>QRN complete with the signal.
>
>A few of us have gotten disciplined oscillators and quite possibly 
>this will be useful for making
>very narrow bandwidth receivers enabling us to receive signals in 
>noise better than any done before.
>
>We also had a discussion of using the input of a sound card directly 
>as a VLF receiver.
>The sound card covers these frequencies directly meaning you can 
>leave aside the receiver
>  mixer and local oscillator.
>
>========================================================================
>Tech Net meets 8 PM (EDT) Tuesday Night on the W4CIA Echolink 
>conference point and
>on 21/81 Amrad repeater in the Tyson Corner, Northern Virginia 
>area.  WB5MMB is
>conference point coordinator and net control.
>