AmateurRadio.com

Just a reminder about the 630m Activity Night coming up at the end of this month. You may recall the details in an earlier blog. I think the most exciting thing about this evening will be the opportunity to try to make a crossband CW contact between one or more of the three participating Canadian stations, hopefully covering both ends of the country:

• VO1NA - Joe, in Torbay, Newfoundland. Joe will transmit on 477.7 kHz starting at 2130Z Oct 31 and will continue until 0130Z Nov 1. He will listen for callers on 3562 kHz and 7062 kHz.

•  VE7BDQ - John, in Delta, B.C. John will transmit on 474.0 kHz starting at 0100Z and will continue until 1000Z on Nov 1. He will listen for callers on 3536 kHz.

• VE7SL - Steve, on Mayne Island, B.C. I will transmit on 473.0 kHz starting at 0200Z and will continue until 0600Z on Nov 1. I will listen for callers on 3566 kHz and 7066 kHz.

Joe should have pretty good coverage of the east coast with his fine antenna system, shown above.

Please note that, at present, the 'crossband activity' is planned for Friday evening only since Saturday night's CW Sweepstakes Contest will make HF listening more difficult.

All stations will either call CQ or run “VVV” marker beacons while listening on their respective HF receive (QSX) frequencies, which will be included in the CQ or marker beacon message.

Also know that it is completely legal for U.S. and VE amateurs to contact Canadian amateurs via the crossband mode. Unfortunately, it is not possible to contact those stations that may be operating in the Experimental Service and not using an amateur radio callsign.

For additional information, please see the ARRL's description of the event.

Remember that you don't need a fancy antenna to listen on 630m. One of your HF antennas, fed as a 'longwire', will probably do the job....even better if you can tune it to resonance.

I will blog another reminder just before the event. We all hope that you can be there!