On May 1, 1999, the Blue Hill Observatory celebrated their grand reopening. The Observatory has been the home of the New England Meteorological Society since 1884, and has the oldest continuously monitored meteorological records in the U.S. The future of the Observatory was in question not too long ago, but recent grants have allowed for extensive renovations, and a renewal of the Observatory's mission.
Over the course of its history, Blue Hill has also been the site of many radio propagation experiments, including 5M ducting experiments. Daily radio communications were established between Blue Hill and Mount Washington in November of 1933.
To celebrate the event, the Mystic Valley Amateur Radio Club (MVARC) reactivated the original call sign that conducted the experiments - W1XW. These original experiments took place between Mt. Washington, Cadillac Mountain, and Blue Hill. Since Mt. Washington was not yet open, an alternative site in NH was sought, and Bryan K1SNH stepped forward to set up a site on Mt. Uncanoonuc. K1SNH obtained permission to use another one of the call signs that participated in the original ducting experiments, W1UN.
Station N1MV (the MVARC club call), operated by KC1MA, was active on 6M SSB until noon. At noon they began calling CQ with the W1XW call, again on 6M SSB. At 12:15, we all moved up to 50.400, and changed mode to AM. Conditions were excellent and we were able to exchange 59 signal reports.
Bryan, K1SNH, with Mark, K1RMC, were ready and waiting with a 6M station on Mt. Uncanoonuc. But they only had a home brewed 6M dipole at their disposal. Nevertheless, W1XW and W1UN successfully established communications on 6M AM, authentically reenacting the original VHF ducting experiments.
Today, the experimental frontier for amateur radio is in satellites and on the microwave bands. But we should recall that bands that we work today on hand held transceivers were the frontier of technology not that long ago. If you are in the Boston area, make a point of visiting the Blue Hill Observatory, or visit their web page at http://www.bluehill.org/.
73, de Marc, KB1DFE