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

[Jim Moss]

Congrats again to you guys!
Jim
N9JIM



----- Original Message ----
From: I <stuart.wisher at talktalk.net>
To: laser at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Thu, April 14, 2011 1:47:20 AM
Subject: [Laser] England to Scotland on a lightbeam (the first QSO between the 
two countries?)


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".




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