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[Frequencies]
[Nets] [Contests]
[Museums] [Balloon
beacons]
COMMON OPERATING & CALLING (CARRIER) FREQUENCIES
160 meter band: 1804 kHz
80 meter band: 3574-3584 kHz (Region 1), 3559 kHz (Region 3)
40 meter band: 7030-7040 kHz, 7077-7084 kHz
30 meter band: 10135 - 10145 kHz; 10144 (Region 1)
20 meter band: 14063 - 14080 kHz; calling frequency 14074 kHz
17 meter band: 18101 - 18107 kHz; calling frequency 18104 kHz
15 meter band: 21063 - 21070 kHz; calling frequency 21074 kHz
12 meter band: calling frequency 24924 kHz
10 meter band: 28063 - 28070 and 28100 - 28110 kHz; calling frequency 28074
kHz
"Spot" pages on the internet for Hellschreiber and digi-modes
traffic:
Hellschreiber spots
by Laurie, VK3AMA
Data (digi) Mode spot page
(including "Hell") by Risto, W6RK
Ham2Ham
by Peter, DF7DQ/EA5GVH)
Feldhell Sked Page by K3UK
HELLSCHREIBER NETS
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For over 30 years (!) this Hellschreiber Net has been taking place every Sunday: |
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Frequency: around 3579 kHz |
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Mode: Feld-Hell (of course!) |
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Time: depending on seasonal propagation conditions:
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Stations primarily from The Netherlands, some with original Feldfernschreibers; everyone is welcome! |
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On 6 December 2009, I finally managed to participate in the Net, from my QTH in the south of France. My brief QSO with Bastiaan, PA3FFZ was my "first" Hell QSO on 80 mtrs and covered a respectable distance of 1084 km. I used 80 watt and my ZS6BKW-dipole (reduced to 2x 13 m and installed as "inverted-L"). |
Screen captures of my QSO as seen by Bastiaan, PA3FFZ, Koos, PA0KDF, and myself
(left to right)
(click on any of these to get the
full size image)
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If you're beyond range on 80 meters, you can listen live via this great web-sdr located at the Technische Universiteit Twente, in The Netherlands. This is what I do myself, and when I'm SWL-ing, you can follow the QSO on my Hell-WebCam. |
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In the early years, when there were still plenty of sunspots and 80 meters was pretty much "dead" for shorter distances, the net took place on 40 meters. At the current (extended) bottom of the sunspot cycle, it is the reverse. |
There is also a weekly net in Hell-80 mode (start-stop):
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40 meter band: 7050 kHz, USB |
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mondays |
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11:00 - 12:15local time in Western Europe (UTC+2 in summer, UTC+1 in winter); start time is not always punctual. |
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primary operators: Alie (PD2ALW), Hans-Otto (OE5SMU), Remmelt-Jan (PA0RJW) |
Weekly nets by the Feld Hell Club Yahoo! Group
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160 meter band: Mondays (even weeks of the month), 1806 kHz, 03:00 UTC (2nd and 4th Monday of the month) |
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80 meter band: Saturdays, 3574 kHz, 05:00 UTC |
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40 meter band: Thursdays, 7073 kHz, 01:00 UTC |
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30 meter band: Mondays (odd weeks of the month), 10137 kHz, 00:00 UTC (1st & 3rd Monday of the month) |
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20 meter band: Sundays, 14063 kHz (carrier), 1500 Hz (AF), 12:00 UTC |
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10 meter band: Mondays, 28074 kHz, 18:00 UTC |
CONTESTS
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Feld-Hell Club contests see
here.
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Annual DARC Hellschreiber Contest (since 1980; initially organized by the Deutsche Amateur Funkschreiber Gruppe (DAFG)); click here for the official rules (in German). The 1981 contest results are here. |
HF: Saturday and Sunday of first full weekend of October
Saturday: 80 mtrs, 16:00-18:00 UTC
Sunday: 40 mtrs, 09:00-11:00 UTC
VHF/UHF: Thursday following the HF weekend

On 30+31 December 2006 I
participated in a contest for the first time. Did OK: 79 participants, 12th
place overall. Worked 68 stations in 26 countries on 3 continents.
On 20 December 2008 I
participated 1 hour in the 2-hour September Sprint contest (midnight - 02:00
local time); my QSOs with N8BA and WB2HTO and ongoing poor propagation
conditions made me the DX Winner.
MUSEUMS
To the best of my knowledge, the following museums have one or more Feld-Hells in their collection (i.e., not necessarily on permanent display):
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Germany:
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UK:
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Russia: RKK Radio Museum in Moscow. |
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Spain:
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Netherlands: Museum Jan Corver (Museum voor Radiozendamateurisme) in Budel (near Eindhoven). |
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France: Musée historique 39-45 (Historical Museum of the Second World War) in Ambleteuse (near Calais) |
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Austria: Fernmeldemuseum of the Fernmeldetruppenschule (FMTS, Army Signals School) in the Starhemberg Kaserne in Wien (Vienna) |
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Hungary: Museum of War History (Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum), Budapest. |
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Finland:
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USA: NSA National Cryptologic Museum near Ft. Meade (≈ 30 km northeast of Washington/DC; Hellschreiber in storage/warehouse) |
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CANADA:
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Sweden: Armémuseum in Stockholm (their Hellschreiber is in storage/warehouse)) |
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If you know of any other museums or publicly accessible collections with a Hellschreiber, please contact me. |
Like CW, the Hellschreiber mode lends itself very well to use in amateur radio beacons.
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"ZL1HIT Hellschreiber / PIC Beacon", Bryan Rentoul, ZL1HIT, 1999 [PIC controller] |
One application is in balloons. The annual balloon fox hunt in the Netherlands used to send beacon signals on 80m, 2m, and 70cm, including Feld-Hell, but unfortunately has not done so for the last couple of years...
However, there are other high-altitude balloon projects that do carry a Hellschreiber-mode beacon for transmitting flight data. For instance:
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the BallastHalo (BH) series, managed by James Coxon, M6JCX. BH5 was the first BH with a Feld-Hell beacon (and RTTY downlink), and was launched on 9 July 2010 (see report from the Southgate Amateur radio Club here). The BH6 launch took place on 13 November 2010, carrying the balloon from the UK towards Europe. The CW/Hell beacon transmits on 434.65 MHz at 5 minute intervals. Real-time position tracking is provided on-line here (website shared with other launches). Latest info (project, frequencies, position, etc.) is provided via twitter here. |
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Track of the BH6 balloon with Hellschreiber beacon
©2005-2011 F. Dörenberg N4SPP
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