630m Crossband Night 2016

I had never thought much about 630 meters or 2200 meters until I was asked at the last club meeting to say something about those bands. My response, slightly paraphrased: “Uh…”. I really didn’t think much about it following that either, until I saw a post by Steve, VE7SL, about 630 Meter Crossband Night which would be November 12 local time. During this event, a number of Canadian amateurs (they already have this band in Canada) would be looking for crossband QSOs, transmitting on 630m and listening on 160, 80, and/or 40 meters. I guess that’s why they call it Crossband Night! Many of the US experimental stations (FCC Part 5 licenses) would be on beaconing and working each other. I decided to give it a shot and see if I could hear anything using my Beverages which range in length from 550 to about 700 feet.

The first station I heard was VO1NA on 477.7 kHz looking for crossband contacts. I gave him a call on his 80m QSX frequency and had a very nice QSO with Joe at 2222 UTC. I have posted a recording of it to AudioBoom: VO1NA. His signal got considerably stronger later in the evening.

Following that QSO I hard WG2XKA in Vermont beaconing on 472.0 kHz with a booming 599+ signal, WH2XHA in Pennsylvania beaconing with a 559 signal.

At 0006 UTC I had another crossband QSO, this time with VE3OT. Mitch had a nice 579 signal on 477.0 kHz. AudioBoom: VE3OT.

Other stations heard during the evening were WD2XSH/46, amazing 599+ signal from Pennsylvania, WD2XSH/31 in Virginia, and my best DX of the night WG2XIQ in Texas, a distance of 1725 miles. AudioBoom: WG2XIQ.

It was a fun evening and something different to do. I wish I had been able to hear or work a more distant station. PE5T, Kees in the Netherlands worked VO1NA and called CW several times but I never was able to copy him. I listened for the several VE7 stations that were active for as long as I could keep my eyes open. From comments I saw posted the following morning, I gather conditions in VE7 improved after I shut down. I hope I didn’t miss an opportunity! Unless I can figure some way to press one of my existing antennas into service for transmitting, I doubt I will be getting on 630 meters when it opens to US hams. I am already having problems trying to fit effective DX antennas for some bands into the space I have available.

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