Fwd: IARU REGION II NEWS - February 2002 # 2002/02

[prinaldo@mindspring.com]

Gang,

A few items of interest to AMRAD folks from the IARU Region 2 news:

Paul, W4RI

VE6DXX <ve6dxx@attcanada.net> wrote:
> IARU REGION II  NEWS

February  2002   # 2002/02

NEW RECORDS SET AT 241 GHZ AND 322 GHZ

Contacts made in mid-December "on the ultra-highs" by microwave enthusiast
Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, set new North American records on two bands that
amateurs don't encounter routinely--241 and 322 GHz.

On December 15, Justin, operating W2SZ/4 in Virginia, made contact with
Gordon Howell, WA4RTS/4, on the 322-GHz band "over a whopping distance of
0.05 km (about 164 feet)," he said. Both stations were located in FM07ji.

"I know it's not much as far as DX is concerned, but it's on par with
DB6NT's 411-GHz DX record and is a North American first for the 300-GHz
band, excluding light," he added.

About an hour later another QSO was made between W2SZ/4 and WA4RTS/4 on 241
GHz over a distance of 1.1 km (approximately 3609 feet). "This is a North
American first for the band and a new NA record at the same time," Justin
said.

Both contacts were made using modulated CW and wideband FM receivers. The
power output on 322 GHz was estimated to be just a few micro-watts, while
the power on 241 GHz was measured at 0.75 mW. The stations were constructed
of 80.6-GHz free running Gunn oscillators driving GaAs diode triplers. Both
set-ups used homebrew six-inch parabolic dishes with hyperbolic
sub-reflectors. Justin said the next step is to phase-lock the Gunn
oscillators to crystal oscillators in the future to permit using narrow-band
modulation, "thus resulting in better DX." WA1ZMS estimated that over the
span of his ham radio career, he's operated at least once on every available
Amateur Radio band.

AMSAT-UK COLLOQUIUM SEEKS PAPERS

The 17th AMSAT-UK Colloquium, set for July 26-28 at University of Surrey,
Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom, invites speakers to submit papers about
Amateur Radio space and associated activities, both for the event and for
the Proceedings, to be published
following the event. Authors are asked to present their papers in person if
possible. Offers of papers should be submitted as soon as possible; the
final date for full documents to be received is mid-June 2002. Send
submissions to Richard Limebear, G3RWL, g3rwl@amsat.org, or to 60 Willow Rd,
Enfield EN1 3NQ, UK. AMSAT-UK also invites suggestions for program topics.
This year's Colloquium will include sessions aimed specifically at beginners
to Amateur Radio satellite operating.

UK 76GHZ BAND DISTANCE RECORD

The UK 76GHz-band record was extended to over 57 kilometres at the end of
2001. On the 31st of December, Paul Widger, G0HNW/P, located at Winter Hill,
IO93RO94, north of Manchester, and Martin Farmer, G7MRF/P, on Mow Cop,
IO83VC47, made a two way contact over the 57.8-kilometre path, a new UK
record for the band. The previous record stood at 52 kilometres. This comes
only two months after the same group set a new UK 47GHz-band record. The
contact was the result of many months of painstaking construction and
equipment alignment. G0HNW/P sent a report of RS42 on SSB and received an
RS43 report from G7MRF/P. Equipment at both ends were DB6NT mixer
transverters and 10-inch diameter dishes.