Voice powered 14 MHz transatlantic test on Tuesday

On Tuesday November 10 at 1500 UTC Radio Amateurs will attempt to span the Atlantic using a Voice Powered transmitter on 14.055 MHz CW.

Mike AA1TJ and other Radio Amateurs have been experimenting with 'Voice Powered' transmitters, the power comes from rectifying the audio signal from the microphone.

Some remarkable distances have already been achieved using voice powered transmitters, which generate an output of between 2.5 and 15 mW. Now they are going to attempt to get this incredibly low power signal across the Atlantic

Mike writes

"Some of the lads are heading over to the Maine seacoast on Monday morning for what we're calling a "Rexpedition. " W1REX was kind enough to secure the use of his family's beachfront camp for us for a couple of days. He explained the urgency to them, saying, "...a bunch of radio-heads want to talk to Europe with the equivalent of a cellphone with a dead battery."

Rex, Seab, AA1MY and Jim, W1PID, are going to arrive early on Monday to begin putting up the antennas. I plan to show up in time for lunch; hopefully after all the hard work is done.

Seab wants to erect a pair of half-wave phased verticals on 20m. I think the plan is to lift a 160m antenna using one of Seab's big kites.

Our hope is to cross the pond on both 160m QRP and with my voice-powered 20m transmitter. The weather forecast looks great at least through Tuesday.

My "Code Talker" will be rockbound on 14.055MHz; same as last Thursday. We'll begin the voice-powered 20m CW attempt the first thing on Tuesday morning [1500 UTC Nov 10]. Again, the goal is to span the Atlantic, but as always, I'll be very pleased to work anyone that hears me.

By the way, last Thursday's voice-powered operation on 20m was a great success. Altogether, I worked four stations and received one SWL report. The best DX was W4FOA in Chickamauga, GA; a distance of 923miles. Tony reported that my 15mW signal was "an honest 579".
W4OP - located one hundred miles to the north of Tony - handed me the same report and followed up with an amazing recording (you can hear it on my website).

Later in the day I received an email from AD5VC. Dana reported that he clearly copied my callsign while listening on the LSU club station (K5LSU) in Baton Rouge; a distance of 1375 miles (nearly half the distance between the Maine coast and London, England).

I thought these were remarkable results for 15mW into an endfed wire at 35 feet. It makes next week's attempt from a saltwater QTH, coupled with the low-angle of radiation with a spot of directional gain all the more exciting.

So please keep us in mind come next Tuesday morning. I'm guessing Seab will be operating 160m QRP on both Monday and Tuesday evenings.

Thank you,

Mike, AA1TJ

See details of the first 161 km voice-powered QSO using voice generated CW
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/october2009/
161_km_voice_powered_qso.htm

GQRP Club
http://www.gqrp.com/

GQRP Yahoo Reflector
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gqrp/

Mike Rainey AA1TJ
http://mjrainey.googlepages.com/