An announcment of a listening event you might have missed and might wish
to join.

Paolo IK1ZYW

...........................

NOVEMBER 20, 2005 (SUNDAY): UBA CANDLELIGHT TEST, PART #1

(November 15, 2005 - ON5EX, UBA QRP manager) The annual UBA Candlelight
Test is not a CONtest, but a TEST program, e.g. an opportunity to
explore low power and extreme narrowband techniques and put your station
to the test.

The first (out of 3) UBA Candlelight session is scheduled on Sunday
November 20 2005, 8 to 18 UTC, with several stations transmitting
simultaneously on different HF bands running milliwatt power levels and
QRSS signals. The challenge for all participating radioamateurs is to
copy the code words embedded in the transmitted messages.

* Stations *
(see http://www.uba.be/actual/candlelight...elight_en.html for a
better formatted table)

Band Station Locator Freq ± 10 Hz Mode Power
160 m SP5ZCC KO02pf 1919,19 QRSS3 100 mW
160 m DK1IS JN59wk 1,919.200 (dot) 1,919.202 (dash) DFCW10 3 s gap
double space 10 mW

80 m Mystery beacon: 3588.000 / 100 mW / chirped Hell
40 m OE5EEP JN67tw 7000,99 QRSS3 100 mW
40 m ON5SL JO10tt 7000,97 QRSS10 10 mW

30 m IK1ZYW JN35tc 10137,4 QRSS10 100 mW
30 m ON6IH JO20kv 10137,3 QRSS3 10 mW


* Short description of modes *

QRSS3, QRSS10: "QRSS" is plain CW keyed at extremely slow rate, such as
3 dots per second (hence QRSS3), corresponding with 0.4 wpm.

DFCW10, 3s gap, double space: In DFCW or Dual Frequency CW mode, dots
and dashes have the same length (10 s in DFCW10) but are transmitted on
different frequencies. By agreement, dashes are transmitted on the
higher frequency. The gap between dots/dashes and space between
characters are further refinements to the data format specification.

Chirped Hell: This mode refers to the Hellscheiber mode invented by Dr.
Rudolf Hell, but contrary to the original sequential mode (one chirp at
a time), "Chirped Hell" by DF6NM is a concurrent multitone transmission
mode.

Full details and hot news on the UBA Candlelight Test 2005-2006 can be
found here (in several languages,
http://www.uba.be/actual/candlelight...elight_en.html). Please note
appropriate software - such as Argo, Spectran (I2PHD, IK2CZL) or
SpectrumLab (DL4YHF) - is required to view these signals transmitted at
extremely slow rate. Useful links:
http://www.weaksignals.com
http://people.freenet.de/dl4yhf/spectra1.html

If you are new to narrowband communication on HF, the following sites
provide a wealth of information:
* QRSS and you, KA7OE (http://www.ussc.com/%7Eturner/qrss1.html)
* QRSS, W0CH (http://www.w0ch.net/qrss/qrss.htm)
* Extreme narrow bandwidth techniques, ON7YD
(http://www.qsl.net/on7yd/136narro.htm)

Finally, you can join a worldwide group of QRSS addicts by subscribing
to the "KnightsQRSS" reflector
(http://mail.cnts.be/mailman/listinfo...tsqrss_cnts.be).