[Lowfer] 136Khz Emergency Communications

[Les Rayburn]

At 03:25 PM 7/9/2002 +0000, you wrote:
>Read your posting with interest and it recalled to me an incident that is 
>along the same lines. Back around 1959 when I was a lowly RM2 in the Navy 
>(retired as RMC) at a remote transmitter site in Iceland we had 
>VLF/HF/Tropo-scatter links to Europe and North America. During that time 
>there was a tremendous magnetic storm that was so intense that it even 
>knocked out the Icelandic PTT's submarine cables (which our military also 
>had leased ckts on). HF and Tropo-scatter were also gone. This continued 
>for a period of about 3 weeks. The only link we had with the rest of the 
>world was our AN/FRT-4 (50kw on 86 kc into 800 ft stick) and an old 
>Press-Wireless PW-40 (40kw on 129 kc into a 400 ft stick). We were even 
>handling commercial traffic for Icelandic post off during that period.
>73 N4GL (ex-TF2WEB at that time)
>
>I


My experiences in the Navy were similar. There was more than one occasion 
where HF links
were useless due to propagation. Our proposed 60 meter allocation will help 
a lot, but I do
think that LF could serve well as a reliable backup link for routing NTS 
messages using
PSK or even AMTOR.

Lyle correctly pointed out that useable range might be on the order of 
100-200 miles
for 24 hour coverage. 100 watts sounds like a lot for those of us used to 1 
watt, but
the reality is it won't make a ton of difference in ERP.

I disagree with those who think the big four would ignore this band in future
equipment, however. While the actual LF population is small, if you consider
that all US, Canadian, and European hams would now have access to 136khz,
the potential market is big.

The big four have seen how successful sales of "all bands" rigs can be.
For instance, offering six meters on most new radios hasn't caused the
population on the Magic Band to grow rapidly but rigs that incorporate
that band outsell those that don't by a lot.

I think that you'll see rigs with 60 meter and 136khz coverage sooner
rather than later. Certainly, there will be a much larger market in the
US than there has been in Europe.

I do think that the 160-190khz band is a lost cause for future
allocations. Granted, the power companies are not even
authorized users and have no real status. Granted, GWEN
operated kilowatt transmitters in this range without
causing problems...but in the current political climate, I'd
suggest that the ARRL just drop that effort.

I also think that most amateurs will leave 1750 meters in
favor of the new allocation, and that beacon operation
will be almost gone once the new band comes into
effect.

I'd love to be wrong, as I have a sentimental attachment to
1750, but I think it will be little used soon.




Les Rayburn, director
High Noon Films
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