[Laser] England to Scotland on a lightbeam (the first QSO between the two countries?)

[I]

England to Scotland on a lightbeam


Thursday April 7th saw the active North-East opto stations once again go out on a mission.After a phone call between Brian, G8KPD and Stuart, G8CYW, they decided to activate an old plan to make a contact (believed to be a first, we have since made this known to interested parties in the UK and nobody has come forward to claim a prior contact), for an England to Scotland QSO, on light. 


In the event, Brian was accompanied by Peter, G8POG, and Stuart by Gordon G8PNN. It was decided that they would not attempt too trivial a distance but would match the distance made by the first England to France contact over the channel some years ago, and look at paths across the Solway Firth between 30 and 40km in length. In addition Stuart thought it would be a good idea to work from one major QRA square IO84, to another, IO85. In the event,for the record, the path length was 35km.


Arriving in west Cumbria, Brian and Peter operated from The Promenade, Maryport, right next to the Senhouse Roman Museum (well worth a visit if you are ever in the area) on a road well lit by street lamps and a line of houses on the landward side of a steep grassy bank that must rise 100 feet above the sea. Stuart and Gordon headed for the hills above Carrutherstown, just off the main A75 between Annan and Dumfries. On gaining height there, it was found that a local rise in the ground obscured the path when the bearing given by Peter of 195 degrees was checked. 


Running rapidly out of light, the Scotland team headed back down to Carrutherstown and stopped at the junction on the A75. A quick check with the compass revealed a clear path, unfortunately directly across the A75 at about 2m above the tarmac. A request to Peter to turn on his strobe was made and it was spotted straight away. In view of the time it was decided to set up then and there, just 3m away from the base of a streetlamp in its full glare, and another dozen bright sodium lamps within 50m, the junction was well lit for road safety purposes. Lorries were thundering past on the way to Stranraer and back. This would be a stern test for the gear.


When set up, the 2.5Hz beacon was switched on (the safety policy decided on was that we were only to transmit when there was no traffic in the vicinity of the beam, which went above car roof height anyway, but was blocked by lorries. This was strictly adhered to at all times), The Maryport team reported an immediate sighting, and the beacon was switched to 20kHz, resulting in an if signal being tuned in and optimised at 3.602MHz. Both stations were operating FT817s into the transverter and LED transceiver, no photodiodes were taken on this trip. It helped in this location to use the LED transceiver because light is only emitted on transmit which reduced the time spent directing the beam across the road.


The light level from the street lights at Carrutherstown resulted in a continuous noise level of S5 on the receiver, looking inside the lens enclosure, several bright splashes of amber light were visible on the walls inside coming from the lights. It was bright enough not only to see to erect the gear but to be able to read and write down the contact details.


Despite this, G8KPD's signal was heard immediately, and GM8CYW's reply was equally strong. Contacts were then made on FM with end stopping signals, SSB was way over S9, and even AM was used just for good measure.These were witnessed by the other team members and two recordings made. All contacts were made around 9pm BST.


The callsigns, signal reports and locators could all be heard clearly with no sign of noise or QRM over the optical link, except for directly into the microphone at GM8CYW's end when transission was interrupted for a  lorry which can be heard passing. At one point, G8KPD's SSB signal was "editted" by a passing lorry at speed. It took exactly the same time for Brian to say "five and nine plus" as it did for the lorry to pass, fortunately Brian repeated the signal strength report twice and the second one was heard.


Not a great distance, but, we hope, a country to country "first".