On November 16, 2022, the CW was transmit from the SAQ station in Grimeton, Sweden on 17.2 kHz. I wanted receive the signal of this station for a long time, but only this year I managed to do it.
Preparations began in June. I found comprehensive information on how to receive the historic station from Grimeton at http://dl1dbc.net/SAQ. Based on the schematic provided by Sabine DL1DBC, I designed the PCB in KiCAD. I had never done this before, so I had to learn the basics of this very helpful tool along the way. After consultations with Marek SP4ELF, the project took its final shape and went to production at JLCPCB in China. At the beginning of July, the PCBs were ready. Marek SP4ELF sponsored 10 pieces and they went to interested colleagues. Piotr SP4ELO bought the electronic components, and Adam SQ2DOL designed and printed the case for the e-field probe.
A few days ago I received a happy e-mail. To commemorate the UNESCO 50th anniversary, World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station has scheduled SAQ to be on the air at 17:00 CET (16:00 UTC) on Wednesday, November 16th, 2022, to send out a peace message to the whole world, using the 200kW Alexanderson alternator from 1924, on 17.2 kHz CW.
I put a 9V battery into the “antenna” case, pulled the cables, started the SAQrx program (VLF receiver by SM6LKM), turned on the preview from the SAQ station on YouTube in the background and waited. And I did it!
Thank you very much to everyone who helped me receive the SAQ transmission today: Sebastian SO5WB (he was in Grimeton in SAQ a few years ago and told me about the station), Sabine DL1DBC, Marek SP4ELF, Piotr SP4ELO and Adam SQ2DOL.
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