SAQ Transmission on Christmas Eve, Dec 24, 2016

[AlexanderSAQ]

We are now planning for the traditional transmission with the Alexanderson 200 kW alternator on VLF 17.2 kHz on the morning of Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24. The message transmission will take place at 08:00 UTC and the transmitter will be tuned up from around 07:30 UTC.

Since the plant is old, there is always the risk that the transmission will be cancelled with short notice. An updated information will be published on our website https://www.alexander.n.se.

NOTE: There will be live video streaming from the transmission on https://www.alexander.n.se

There will be activity on Amateur Radio Frequencies with the call SK6SAQ. Frequencies: – 7,035 CW or 14,035 CW

QSL-reports on the SAQ transmission or SK6SAQ are kindly received via:
– E-mail to: info@alexander.n.se
– or via: SM bureau
– or direct by mail to:
Alexander – Grimeton Veteranradios Vaenner,
Radiostationen Grimeton 72
SE-432 98 GRIMETON
S W E D E N

The radio station will be open to visitors.

Welcome!

Yours
SM6NM/Lars

Topic

[Stefano Todaro]

Just a bit late, but….It was my first time with SAQ reception on Christmast Eve,… and it was a great emotion!
Thanks to the perfect weather conditions I got a good signal although I live in an urban center full of noise and using only a little and home made mini whip antenna.

Stefano Todaro
Lecco – Italy

[DE FRANCO Henri, François]

My report’s :

At 08:00 GMT
freq. : 17.2 KHz
20 dBµV on filter A1A @ 0.3 KHz bandpass FI
RX : RX PRO R&S EK070
Antenna : inverted L corner @ 14 m total lenght 42 m, 1 radian of 42 m lenght @ 2 m ground

QTH : city : Mézériat country code 01 (01660) France near Mâcon, Bourg en Bresse south east france
Loc JN26MF

This video with sound reception here :

F1MZC
DE FRANCO Henri, François
PRO : french offcom ANFR

[Andrea]

Thanks for your Transmission ! I’m very happy for you, less for me. Me reception was negative, too much noise and strong in my QTH (JN55VG). Also at the end of your operation my receiver (DIY) decided to broken the audio amplifier…. I ear you via web radio for reference but with non satisfaction…. Merry Xmas everybody. ’73 de IW3IAB !!!

[IW2KPU]

Hello friends at SAQ,
Also I received the SAQ tranmission of 24th December 2016.
My setup:
RX: Icom IC-7400 + upconverter VLF to 28MHz
Antenna: 10 meter fishing pole at ground level (in the backyard) supporting 10 meter wire, ground stake
no balun and no preamplifier.
I’ll post a YouTube video of the reception.
Thankyou very much for giving us the opportunity to listen this wonderful machine on VLF.
73 de IW2KPU op. Cesare, Pregnana Milanese, loc.: JN45MM – Italy

[Colin]

Pleased to report good clear reception here in Cambridgeshire UK, signal received on a quite short (12m) random wire into home-made NE602-based up-converter and Yaesu FRG-100 receiver fitted with Collins 500Hz mechanical CW filter. I switched on around 0725 GMT, having turned off as many other devices as possible in the house to keep PSU mush down, running receiver and converter from batteries and heard the initial VVV DE SAQ etc. tuning up around 0740 and the message at 0800. In fact, the signal was good enough that I could go round switching things back on at home, often LF broadcast reception gets badly hit otherwise! Very satisfying to hear this wonderful piece of antique technology still working, keep up the good work and best wishes for the future.

[Radu]

YO8SXX – amateur radio
qth SUCEAVA-ROMANIA, loc. KN37CQ
Reception Report

Date: 24.12.2016
Frequency: 17,2 KHz
Mode: CW
CALL: SAQ
UTC: start time – (tune up transmitter) 07:40
start time – (message) 08:00
end time – 08:04 UTC
Signal report: 569 / very quiet band / some static noise

Message received:

***********************************************************************************
vvv vvv vvv de saq saq saq ……
cq cq cq de saq saq saq =
this is grimeton radio/saq in a transmission using the alexanderson 200 kw alternator on 17.2 khz =
we sincerely wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new year=
signed : the world heritage at grimeton and the alexander-grimeton veteranradios vaenner association a^r =
for qsl info please read our website : https://www.alexander.n.se ii https://www.alexander.n.se =
de saq saq saq s^k
***********************************************************************************

Received and written: Radu Chisăliţă – YO8SXX

Note:
– The entire transmission, including the tuned up transmitter and the final message has been audio recorded
– Receiving equipment: VLF converter 10-300 KHz to 10,01-10,3 MHz, Yaesu FT1000 MP transceiver, loop antenna for 40 m amateur band, audio interface for PC recording.

[Holger DL1BLE]

Hi Grimeton crew,
Heard you rst: 3 0 9
Rig: Teletron TE704, 23m wire ant. guess a little bit too short for the wavelength…

Pls keep ur station alive!
73 hny merry x-mas
Holger
DL1ble

[Chris Bowne, AJ1G]

Merry Christmas All! Sad to say, I think I missed the transmission! I had my Wandell und Goltermann AT-611 selective level meter all set up in our Tacoma 4X4. pickup, powered from a 100 watt DC to AC inverter, using my 40 meter Hamstick mobile antenna at about 0030 local here. I settled down for a quick nap, with plans to be on station at Stonington Point, CT at about 0230 to catch the tune up and then the transmission. (I did id not get local command approval to deploy to Pt. Judith, RI , She said to far there and back!) I woke up at exactly 0300 local/0800 UTC here and ran down to the truck to get underway for Stonington Point. I had the W und G on to listen enroute, but was always in high power line noise fields until I arrived on site around 0812 UTC, The noise level on the W und G there was at about -100 dBM and I could hear infrequent static crashes, but no SAQ. NWC from Northwest Cape Australia on 19.8 kc and NPM from Oahu Hawaii on 21.4 kc were both pounding in with +20 dB and +30 dB SNR respectively. What time did the SAQ message transmission end? I heard SK6SAQ on 7035 kc but not very strong, and did not break through the EU stations they were working. ZLs were actually the strongest signals on the Point on 40 CW this morning, I have worked them from the Point in the Tacoma mobile setup with just 5 watts to the Hamstick antenna on 40 meter CW using an Elecraft K1.. I heard a verbal report later this morning on 75 meters that a station further west of me in CT did in fact receive SAQ very well, better than in previous years.

73 and God Bless you all on Christmas and in the New Year! Time to go to the live stream video replay to see and hear what i missed!

[Götz DJ3IW]

This was the first time I could hear the SAQ transmission! First signal received at approx. 0740 UTC – in fact I copied the very first VVV DE SAQ but did not copy down the time HI. My setup: 80/40m dipole, converter VLF->14 MHz, IC-7851 with preamp2, 500Hz filter and 160Hz APF. Signal was always Q5 in the speaker. Signal strength was about S3 to S4. My location JN69ae near Regensburg/Bavaria.

Thank you very much for this wonderful experience!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you.

73 de Götz DJ3IW

[Benjamin Grogg (HB3YIW)]

Dear SAQ Team
Dear Lars

Thank you for this Transmission!
RST 479
QTH Bern, Neufeld (JN36RX21JC), Switzerland
RX : Tecsun PL-880
VLF Converter : DIY
Antenna : DIY Mini Whip
You can see the full transmission again on Youtube
Video : https://youtu.be/HiT0QB7z8ws

<iframe width=”854″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/HiT0QB7z8ws&#8221; frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

vy 73 de
Benjamin (HB3YIW)

[Wolfgang Fritz]

Merry Christmas to everybody!

I received SAQ for the first time today. Location ist Notherrn Germany near Hannover (JO52BJ).
Receiver was a SDRPlay RSP1 SDR with gqrx 2.6 software on a Linux Notebook. Antenna was a home made PA0RDT mini whip active antenna.

Signal report “by ear” was 579.

Video:

Also thanks for the contact with SK6SAQ on 7035 kHz

Wolf, DK7OB

[Knut Rothstein]

Good morning to you all,
Thanks to the Alexanderson team for another successful Christmas transmisson!
Good copy of the signal in the middle of Germany (JN49hr).
Around my antenna (80m wire dipole) the noise floor is increasing from year to year.
The S/N ratio was below 10dB most of the time this year, therefore.

vy 73 de Knut Rothstein, DL1KRT

[Ruben Padilla Ramos]

Good morning to everyone, Merry Christmas.

SAQ signal received in Tenerife Canary Islands, very acceptable for the atmospheric noise that there is today.

I used a 40M wire antenna
A VHF VHF converter and a kenwood receiver
All powered with batteries to eliminate as much network noise as possible.

Greetings merry christmas and new year.

73 of EB8ARZ
Loc IL18UK

[Dennis G8IMN]

SAQ received here in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, UK IO92CN
Received using RFSpace SDR-IQ, good signal strength @ -108dBm

Best wishes to all
Dennis G8IMN

[DL6HH]

Mery Christmas to everyone!

Today very clear reception in Germany Loc JO30WX!

This year i got outside to eliminate the Noise from all Houses around here.
I got a lot better Signal then last Year!

My Equipment: Home made Circuit and Sondcard in Laptop and around 50m of Wire about 5m over Ground.

So thank you for the transmission and i wish you a happy new Year 2017!

73 de DL6HH

[EA5FX]

SAQ 17.2 Khz 24/12/2016 at 08:00 utc RX Siemens 745e ant W3DZZ from EA5FX qth IM99XV RST: 599

Video:

[Kjell Bergqvist]

Received in Boden (KP05vs) in Sweden Kjell SM2FOB https://vimeo.com/196940601

[Wim Ton]

Very good reception in the north of Switzerland JN47CL, RST 598 . Less QRN than last year.
Equipment: Telefunken ELK 639 with a PA0RDT active antenna , 7 m above ground.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year, 73 de Wim HB9EZF

[Florian Bratu]

Good signal in Campina south east Romania – KN25UD

Vertical mini loop antenna, BBB4 receiver and Baudline sofware

https://instaud.io/Gay

[Sergio Bergonti]

Merry Xmax SAQ team, vy good signal this morning nearby Milan, Italy!
Using a miniwhip antenna and a FDM-DUO SDR rtx. 25+ dB out of noise even if the antenna is not too high off the roof.
Thanks for your transmission, it is always a nice event! Looking forward to the next one.

Merry Xmas to all and HNY
Sergio IK2MMB, JN45pq

[Bob Houlston]

I received SAQ with RST 329 and uploaded my copy to: http://www.g4pvb.eu.pn/saq-text.htm thank you and 73 de Bob G4PVB.

[Alexander Hahn]

Hello,

thank you for your christmas transmission on the 24. December 2016.

I could see very faint signals on my screen but could decode only a few words.

My report therefore is only 224 this time.

My location and equipment:

Canico de Baixo on Madeira island, locator IM12np IOTA AF-014

Receiver: RFSPACE SDRIQ
Software: CW Skimmer
Antenna: ML-200 Magnetic loop

We wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new year 2017,
73 from Madeira,
Alex – DH2ID

[Jan SM4UKU]

Transmission well received in Töcksfors, Sweden. Listened remotely from Bratislava. Thanks to Jonas/SM4VEY who kindly set up his HPSDR with active antenna and let me log in remotely to his computer. Very good signal – 599.

[Bernhard Villwock, DM2DXG]

Merry Christmas

SAQ was ufb to day in JO51MV
Rig: VLF-converter BX-082 (SO42P) from “FUNKAMATEUR” and IC756ProIII on 10 Mhz. 160 m LW.
Contribution in the FUNKAMATEUR 12/2011 from SM5ZBS.
Thank you to the Grimeton team!

73
Bernhard, DM2DXG

[IZ0GIF]

Hi all,
SAQ transmission is well arrived in central Italy (Latina)!!!
I used a selective level meter W&G SPM15 and marconi antenna 32 mt long and 12 mt above the ground.
I sent an email to you with a short video attached.
Merry XMAS and HNY

73, Erminio – IZ0GIF

[Albin Stigö]

Merry christmas to everybody!

Grimeton SAQ RST599 QTH Göteborg JO67AQ 08.00UTC.

“This is Grimeton Radio/SAQ in a transmission using the Alexanderson
200kW alternator on 17.2kHz = We sincerely wish you all a merry
Christmas and a happy new year =…”

Video:

SM6WJM

[Janne (SM0OFV)]

Merry Christmas y’all!

Good reception of SAQ here in Solna, Stockholm this morning.
RST 599. My Equipment is an AOR AR-5000+3 connected to a
Procom BCL-1KA active HF antenna on the roof of a 5 storey
building..

Thank you to the Grimeton team!

73 de Janne/SM0OFV

[Chris Bowne, AJ1G]

Will be listening for you here from Point Judith, Rhode Island USA overlooking the western entrance to Narragansett Bay, using a Wandell und Goltermann selective level meter. Will also try to work you on your 40 meter CW frequency of 7035 with my QRP mobile setup.

[PA3CNO]

Copy-Paste from last year? In our timezone, 24 is on Saturday, not Thursday 🙂

[AlexanderSAQ]

Sorry!
Of course its on SATURDAY December 24th and not Thursday…thanks for noticing. 🙂
//Fredrik – AlexanderSAQ

[AlexanderSAQ]

Hi all!
We are looking forward to hearing your stories, how you spent Christmas Eve morning, listening to SAQ.
Please write a short story to info@alexander.n.se and let us know how it was.
Bonus for attached pictures 😉

Thank you!
//Fredrik – AlexanderSAQ
P.S. Don’t forget to see the live video stream of the transmisson on https://www.alexander.n.se

[Author]

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