[SOC] Fw: 6 Meter Fire...

[Dan W. Dooley]

No wonder six meters has been so quiet recently.


Dan W. Dooley  WB5TKA  Bedford, Texas
   e-mail to: dandooley@pipeline.com
   Web site: http://www.qsl.net/wb9tka
May Goddes love blest ye alle
"Ancient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning."




> Dan, I dont' know if this band damage was localized to us here in the west
> or it also damaged your bands back there.
>
>
>
>    FIRE DAMAGES 6 METER BAND
>
> The phone portion of the 6 meter band was hit by a
> freak fire last week that destroyed over 10 KiloHertz,
> according to FCC Special Frequency Engineer, Marvin
> Larpsnogg.  Apparently the fire originated on about
> 50.125 MegaHertz following an unusually long series
> of QSOs by an undetermined number of California
> stations running very high power and extreme modulation
> compression. Several A0 carriers were observed at the
> same time and may have contributed to starting the blaze.
> "We had a hell of a time putting the fire out," said
> Larpsnogg.  "Shutting down the propagation generators
> did no good at all.  The fire just spread up and down
> the band," he went on, "so we had to turn off all the
> ham bands from 40 through 6 meters to smother the flames."
> Finally, after nearly three hours, the FCC had the fire
> under control.  Most bands were back to normal use the
> next day; however, 6 meters will be closed for several
> weeks while the frequencies are being refurbished. When
> notified of the fire, the League of Radio Relaying
> Americans cancelled all 6 meter DX contests until further
> notice. According to League spokesperson Sandy Ampersand,
> the 6 meter fire was the worst such incident since the
> famed 5 meter holocaust completely wiped out that band
> for all time over 40 years ago.
>