Virginia Amateur Group Sets New 145 GHz DX Record
NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 22, 2003--Four amateurs
from the Lynchburg, Virginia, area celebrated the new year January 12 by
breaking their own distance record on 145 GHz and by confirming a fifth grid
for VUCC on yet another microwave band. Brian
Justin, WA1ZMS; Pete Lascell, W4WWQ; Hal DeVuyst, KA4YNO; and G. P. "Geep"
Howell, WA4RTS, spanned a nearly 80-km path to set a new North American and
world DX record.
 Prior to the record-setting QSO, Brian
Justin, WA1ZMS, tests his 145-GHz station on a 0.5-km path to measure signal
margin. [Mt Greylock Expeditionary Force Photo]
|
 A screen shot of Spectran software showing
the grid on the 79.6-km QSO sent by W2SZ/4 at about 4 WPM CW. [Mt Greylock
Expeditionary Force Photo]
|
"This claim should be the very first VUCC for
that band, and it took two years of hard work to make it happen," said Justin.
Both stations exchanged contact information using FSK-CW. All participants are
members of the Lynchburg Amateur Radio Club (K4CQ), of which Justin is president.
The group already has earned the first-issued VUCC awards on the 47 and 76 GHz
bands.
Justin, who designed and built all of the
equipment, traveled to Southwest Virginia--just off the Blue Ridge Parkway near
Mabry Mill--to set up his station in grid square EM96wx. On the other end of
the circuit was the W2SZ/4 station, with Howell as the CW op assisted by
Lascell and De Vuyst. W2SZ/4 was at approximately 4000 feet above sea level on
Apple Orchard Mountain in Virginia's Bedford County in grid square FM07fm.
Weather conditions were just right for the
QSO to take place with little wind and an extremely low dew point and no haze.
Both stations ran about 4 mW of power and used one-foot dish antennas, which
must be precisely aimed. Justin said signal margin
was about 2 dB on his end of the contact and about 6 dB on the W2SZ/4 end.
"One station has a better RX mixer than the other," he explained.
Additional information is available on the Mt Greylock Expeditionary Force Web site.
Page last modified: 08:30 AM, 22 Jan 2003 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2003, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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