[HCRA] N2XE Beacon Tribune - Six Million Miles Plus!!!

[Steve Rodowicz]

N2XE in Wappingers Falls, NY has been experimenting with QRP Beacon 
transmissions.

He's gotten reception reports (via email) given "communication" distances 
equivalent to over 6 million miles per watt.

He's running a 5mW 40 meter beacon tonight on 7.0315MHz starting at 2100Z 
until at least 1300Z.

Give a listen.

73 & GL,
Steve - N1SR

>Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 16:10:15 -0500
>To: topband at contesting.com
>From: John C Ceccherelli <cecchere at us.ibm.com>(by way of Bill Tippett
>         <btippett at alum.mit.edu>)
>Subject: Topband: N2XE Beacon Tribune - Six Million Miles Plus!!!
>
>Bill, W4ZV goes into the history books with an impressive 6,807,692 miles
>per watt!  The official calibrated and verified output power over the 4 day
>run was 80.6 uW.  Let's put that in perspective:  Working the eastern edge
>of Germany--say Berlin--from the east coast at 500mW would be 11,500 miles
>per watt.  If you did it with 1mW, that would be 3,850,000 miles per watt.
>Bill has put up 6.8 million miles per watt and he's not out of steam yet.
>The guy is phenomenal.
>
>By the way, the code word was ROGER.  Eight (8) stations got it and 1 had a
>good shot at it.  That's 99,256 correct reports per watt--also a new
>record.  It is never arm chair copy.  The stations that get it and many who
>get bits and pieces put in a lot of time and hard effort.  I can't thank
>them enough.  There are things you can do to improve reception besides
>putting up a 1000 foot beverage.  Perhaps Bill would like to share some
>tips.  In any event, the late Bill Pierpont, N0HFF, goes into some of the
>psycho-acoustic science that can vastly improve weak signal performance.
>If you don't have "The Art and Skill of Radio Telegraphy", get it!  It's
>free and on the web or available in hard copy from FISTS.
>
>The night of December 27 and 28 clearly had the best propagation.  Only
>Paul, N1BUG snagged the codeword on the following evening.  Here's the
>Summary in order of receipt:
>
>Call, Name    State    Grid    RST    Time    Miles/watt    Rig/antenna
>
>December 27
>
>KR2Q, Doug    NJ    FN20ru    5?9    2021Z    769,231    TS940sat/half 
>wave wire
>K3SV, Bill     PA    FN01ik    509    2111Z     3,476,427    1000D/4-square
>N2NC, John    NJ    FN20ve    419    2113Z     1,232,010    1000MP/Dipole
>W1CSM, Bruce    MA    FN42fu    439    2235Z    1,826,303     756/Dipole
>
>December 28
>
>K3UL, Bob    PA    FN11lf    349    2351Z     2,060,794    746pro/2 
>element vertical array
>K3JJG, Ed    PA    FM29bw    349    0030Z    1,929,280    Drake RC4/Slinky 
>Beverage
>W4ZV, Bill    NC    EM92uk    529    0140Z    6,807,692    Orion/1000' 
>Beverage
>N1BUG, Paul    ME    FN55mf    339    2355Z     4,352,357 TS450s/Inverted Vee
>
>AA4XX, Paul, North Carolina reported copy of N2XE/B many times during the
>run but never got good copy on the code word.  The QSB gods have been
>treating Paul poorly of late.
>
>For a change of pace, I'll run a 40 meter beacon tonight at 5mW on 7.0315
>MHz  starting at 2100Z until at least 1300Z.  That should be heard around
>the globe.
>
>73,
>N2XE
>
>_______________________________________________
>Topband mailing list
>Topband at contesting.com
>http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/topband