Experimental LF QSO in Eastern Canada uses conventional CW

The Marconi Radio Club of Newfoundland has been authorised to experiment on
2200 metres, thanks to the efforts of Jim Dean of RAC and Industry Canada.
This followed consultation with the regional IC office in St Johns and
agreement to operate on a noninterference basis with LF reception sites
in the area. A portable station operating under the call sign VO1MRC was
approved as part of the original authorisation granted to Joe Craig,
VO1NA, RAC NL Section Manager and Marconi Club member.  "I am very pleased to 
report that Frank VO1HP, operating the Marconi Radio Club station VO1MRC has 
completed a 2-way LF QSO with me today. I was running a class E TX at 10 watts
on 137.77 kHz. Frank was running a class C with 3 watts on 136.20 kHz" he 
reported following the QSO on 22 August. The QSO was completed in five minutes 
at a CW speed of 20 WPM without computer aided reception and spanned 10 km.  
It is believed to be the first conventional CW LF QSO conducted in Canada.  
Usually, 136 kHz QSOs have used very slow CW with computer signal processing 
at the receiving end to dig the signals out of the noise.  This was the case 
when VA3LK and VE3OT had the first Canadian 2200m QSO four years ago.

Plans are underway to increase the distance according to Frank, also a RAC
member.  He used the CW key from the late Jim Moore 8AW (VO1BY) for the 
historic contact. Frank had been experimenting with his 160 m inverted L on 2200
metres this summer. His signals were 349 at VO1NA who was 559 with him. All the
LF transmitting equipment including the loading coil and SWR meter were
home brewed by the Marconi Club.  Frank was using an IC-R71A receiver
connected to his inverted L through the loading coil while at VO1NA a
2 metre diameter 16 turn resonant loop was coupled via a Bruhans preamp
to an FT-817.

Many countries have made domestic allocations for amateur experimentation
in the 135.8-137.8 kHz band.  A proposal for a world wide allocation has 
been placed on the ITU agenda for WRC-07 by Radio Amateurs of Canada.