[600MRG] Do you feel 630-meters is practical for ham use?

[Bill Cromwell]

Hi,

I suppose my quick reply to that other recent post about no DXCC could 
influence some people's reply. I'm not about "non-QSO" modes but I have 
copied some of the normal CW transmissions including one from Louisiana 
around about 1000 miles distant. That with a miserable excuse for an 
antenna and a regenerative receiver designed in the 1930s! I suppose ham 
radio licensees could manage to get by with this band. At last some of them.

Other people have pointed out that we are unlikely have a mass migration 
from 20 meters and 75 meter phone to 630 meters. But there isn't room 
for *everybody* there anyway. I'm getting excited about improving the 
antenna performance here. The weather is breaking and the ground will 
soon be dry enough to walk on and support the base of a ladder (for 
climbing of course).

Looking at the small slice of spectrum available AND the way SDR works I 
am building such SDR for the 630 meter band that can most easily copy 
the entire band at one go. Xtal control gets me more than the entire 
band instead of just a small piece of it. As things like that come on 
line on my workbench my enthusiasm ramps up.

73,

Bill  KU8H

On 03/25/2015 05:57 PM, John Langridge wrote:
> Hi Steve -
>
> Yeah I firmly believe that 630m is practical for ham use and even from small lots.  When I did the microantenna experiments in January 2014 using existing small antennas on 630m, the results were very reasonable to me for what I was testing.  But everyone has a different view of what success is to them so the next guy might scoff at being heard at -24db SNR 800km away using an 8 foot tall vertical.
>
> Look at WB5WPA / WH2XQC who is having nice results using a small loop (maybe 30 feet tall and 30 feet horizontal?) and hardline for caps in his small backyard.
> This line of thinking in addition to a conversation I was having with another 630m jockey yesterday has me thinking about some related items but I will send those in a separate email in order to prevent the inadvertant derailing of Steve's original message...
>
> good discussion!
>
> 73!
> John XIQ
> PS:  I don't get any list messages from AOL for some reason so please be sure to direct any replies with a direct response to my email in addition to the list.  thanks!
>
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