Despite the Stay At Home order Deals In Owen Sound is still open. The store does ask that you write your name and phone number on a sheet as you go in though. I went in this morning (Sat 16 Jan) and I noticed the shelves are looking a bit empty in some aisles. I hope this only indicates delay in getting new stock and not a general clearance.

From the ARRL Website:

Very low frequency (VLF) enthusiast Joe Craig, VO1NA, reports that Stefan Schaefer, DK7FC, copied his 50-character message transmitted from Newfoundland on 8.271 kHz, with a radiated power of 10 mW.  “This is a new record for amateur transatlantic VLF,” Craig told ARRL. “The mode used was EbNaut by Paul Nicholson. EbNaut is a synchronous coherent BPSK mode for use at VLF and low LF. Craig’s tower supports a VLF RL (rotated L) 10-meter (33 feet) average height and 100 meters (328 feet) long. VLF is the ITU designation for radio spectrum in the range of 3 – 30 kHz, corresponding to wavelengths from 100 to 10 kilometers, respectively.  “Since VLF waves can penetrate at least 40 meters (131 feet) into saltwater, they are used for military communication with submarines,” Craig noted.


The US Navy uses 24 kHz VLF to contact their subs.  They have several sites with massive antennas that transmit using 1 MW or more.  Here's a link to one of them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Creek_...io_Station

73
Dave, VE3WI

Just read on QRZ that DARA has cancelled the Dayton Hamvention again for this year

Looks like we'll just be attending online hamfests, for the near future anyway.

Stay safe
73
Dave, VE3WI

If you enjoyed the first QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo, you'll be glad to hear they are doing it again this year. 

Live seminars on 13-14 March, after that the presentations can be viewed until 12 April.

https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/

Registration is open now, $10.00 US$

73
Dave, VE3WI

So at John’s suggestion I put up a doublet today, about 40’ up and V’ed down 30 degrees to two trees. I used about 55-70’ of ladder line to my MFJ versa Tuner III over to my Yaesu 857D. I used 12 gauge insulated wire, it was touching tree branches in a couple of locations. 

To my surprise after doing the “rough” tuning by ear(max noise) I was receiving brothers in the US no problem (I monitored the frequencies from the waterfall on my IC7300 to locate good frequencies to listen to.) But:

I’m no expert on the MFJ tuner beyond my uTube training but what it was telling me was this:
1. At 100w output the meter showed about 10 watts going out and maybe 1 w reflected, couldn’t read an SWR(would have been high where the two needles crossed).
2. The radio’s SWR meter was showing an SWR of about 2:1
3. The radio’s PWR meter was showing about 30watts output
4. It was blasting the input of my IC7300

I CQed a few times, no response. I don’t know if I’m transmitting or not. The uTube showed the meter going up to 80w and reflected about 20 and a decent SWR, I can’t tell what’s happening with mine. But it receives crystal clear, doesn’t that mean a low SWR and that the output power should be high?

I checked the 857D manual and it will restrict output power if it detects a bad SWR.

So what might be happening here oh gurus of the airwaves.

This year marks the 1340th anniversary of the first Bulgarian Empire! Wow, the things you learn listening to HF DX stations. A Bulgarian station with the special event callsign LZ1340B is on the air on 3521 KHz working CW at around 30wpm (00:30UT 08 Jan 2020). It took me several tries to copy the callsign correctly. The way he sends signal reports (always 599 for DX stations) sounds like BRRRR dah-dit dah-dit.

A little light-hearted amusement to relieve the January blues ...
   

The Surrey BC ARC really goes all out with their newsletters - 110 pages for the Jan-Feb issue.  Lots of interesting lockdown reading.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/160eNeRz...nqrRD/view

Enjoy.

73
Dave, VE3WI