110th Anniversary of 1906 Fessenden Christmas Eve AM Broadcast Tomorrow Evening

[AJ1G]

From  the ARRL:

Today at 2:24 PM
SB SPCL @ ARL $ARLX020
ARLX020 Commemorative Fessenden Christmas Eve 600-Meter
Transmissions Set

ZCZC AX20
QST de W1AW
Special Bulletin 20  ARLX020
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  December 22, 2016
To all radio amateurs

SB SPCL ARL ARLX020
ARLX020 Commemorative Fessenden Christmas Eve 600-Meter
Transmissions Set

Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, of Forest, Virginia, will once again put his
600-meter experimental station on the air for a Christmas Eve
commemorative transmission. The transmissions from WI2XLQ on 486 kHz
will mark the 110th anniversary of Reginald Fessenden's first audio
broadcast on the airwaves.

Historic accounts say Fessenden played the violin - or a recording
of violin music - and read a brief Bible verse. It's been reported
that other radio experimenters and shipboard operators who heard
Fessenden's broadcast were astounded.

Justin will use a MOPA-design transmitter built largely with vintage
parts to replicate early vacuum-tube equipment; not a
Fessenden-period transmitter, it uses a UV-202 tube for the power
amplifier. He will conduct a run-up to the event starting at around
mid-day Eastern Time on Friday, December 23. The "official"
Christmas event will begin on Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24,
at 0001 UTC (the evening of December 23 in US time zones) and will
continue for at least 24 hours. Justin plans to repeat the
commemorative transmissions on New Year's Eve and on New Year's Day.

For his transmitter in 1906, Fessenden used an AC alternator
modulated by placing carbon microphones in series with the antenna
feed line. Justin's homebuilt station is slightly more modern, based
on a 1921 vacuum tube master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA)
design. The transmitter also uses Heising AM modulation, developed
by Raymond Heising during World War I.

Justin's WI2XLQ on-air operations coincide with dates in early radio
history as a way to recognize and honor some of the earliest
wireless pioneers and their achievements. Send listener reports
directly to Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, via email at, wa1zms@arrl.net
.
NNNN
/EX

[AJ1G]

Note that the Fessenden MF broadcast starts at 0000 UTC Christmas Eve,  which is TONIGHT Friday night 12/23 here on the East Coast at 1900 EST!

[AJ1G]

At about midnight local here, I could hear a fairly steady carrier with a slight bit of SBE effect wobbulation typical of a modulated MOPA rig, and some very faint audio down in the
high noise floor of the home station R392 on 486 kc, but nothing  more.  Maybe some of the guys down in VA closer to the special event station might have better luck.  Maybe they could ID  every once in while on CW.  Will give a listen on the Wandell und Goltermann AT611 slective level meter when I go down to Stonington Point in a bit to try and copy SAQ on 17.2 kHz, they will start tuning up around 0230 EST, with their Christmas Eve message to commence around 0300 EST 0800 UTC.

[N1BCG]

Brian, KB3WFV in Maryland, heard music as did I in Connecticut. Adding a simple "L" network to help tune an open wired fed dipole made a significant difference in signal strength. The two components consisted of a standard 365pF tuning capacitor and a 220 uH inductor. An AM broadcast band loopstick could also work as the inductor.

Because the antenna and lead-in were short for resonance on 486 kHz, it posed a high impedance to the receiver, so the tuning cap was placed on the antenna end of the coil.

You should be able to tune in several NDB (Non-Directional Beacons) day and night in the 350-450 kHz range for experimenting with component values.

Ant --------- [Inductor]-------- Receiver
            |
     [Capacitor]
            |
Gnd-----------------------------