Europe to USA s2s Frequencies?

Old Reflector
1

DE WA7JTM in Arizona,

I was just wondering if there are any established frequencies for s2s contacts between Europe and the USA on 10/15/20 meters, or is everyone just on the usual freqs like 14.062? I managed to work my first s2s to Europe Saturday (M0GYX, CW, 15 meters) pretty much by accident, as I was just tuning across 15 meters and heard him calling CQ SOTA. I would obviously like to work more EU stations on my 5 watts and Link Dipole now that I see it is possible. Any ideas/frequencies towards this goal would be appreciated.

thanks

73

Pete
WA7JTM/P

2

In reply to WA7JTM:
The established frequencies for NA 2 EU s2s qsos seem to be those spotted on here. So best bet seems to be take a device with you to monitor the spots. Thats how many of them were set up in qrpttf anyway.

Tom M1EYP

3

In reply to WA7JTM:

I’d say 99% are on 060-063 (14 or 21 MHz), a few below 060 (down to 058) and rarely the WFF frequency of 044. Even more rare, some will pick a random frequency below 025…why, I don’t know. I normally use 60-63 but higher or lower if the band is extremely crowded (as in QRPTTF). It’s also not a bad idea to use non-integer frequencies in case someone else is on XXXXXX.00 that you cannot hear.

Thanks for several S2Ss!

73, Bill W4ZV

4

In reply to W4ZV:

Even more rare, some will pick a random frequency below 025…why, I don’t know.

Doesn’t seem (from a quick skim of the band-plans I have handy) to be anything special either over this side of the Atlantic or in Australia. Maybe it’s just where the spare band space was? However, as it’s in the “Extra class licence holders only” bits of 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres over in the US, it’s clearly less than optimal for S2S contacts involving the US…

73, Rick M0LEP

5

In reply to WA7JTM:
Peter, you did well to hear me by chance! Good ears. Many thanks for the new state.

73, cul
Ian, M0GYX/P

6

In reply to MM0GYX:

Tnx Ian for hanging in there and working a weak one. You were good copy here. Now, all of a sudden, I want to work more EU…this could become habit forming.

tnx agn

73
Pete
WA7JTM

7

In reply to W4ZV:

Tnx Bill for all of the QSO’s. Looking forward to many more from new summits.

Pete

8

In reply to WA7JTM:

I think it would be good to avoid frequencies in multiples of 5 kHz (for example 14.060, 14.065, 21.060, 21.065 kHz) due to the potential evening intermodulation interferences from shortwave broadcasting. This applies especially to those of us who use simple radio with a low dynamic range input circuits - for example, those having NE602, NE612 used at the input.

For if I turn on the input attenuation to prevent IM interference, the sensitivity is lower and weaker signals are not heard enough.

But this is perhaps the problem occurring mainly on the European continent.

73

Karel
OK2BWB/P