Radio Ham Operator Achieves Contacts Across All 29 Bands
/Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, in Virginia, has completed contacts on all 29 US amateur radio bands
On 11th April 2018 he completed a CW contact on the new 2200-meter band with K3MF in Pennsylvania, wrapping up a sweep of completed contacts on all 29 Amateur Radio bands. Justin is a bit of an old school guy — he worked K3MF on CW, and now he’s awaiting a QSL card. A paper QSL card.
Justin said he started working his way through the bands at the high end of the spectrum, those allocations above 24 GHz. “By the time 2002 came around, I had managed to have built enough millimeter-wave gear to complete formal QSOs, with QSL cards, on all the bands at the time,” he told ARRL. “On the bands above 24 GHz, I had to build two stations and pass one off to K2AD, W4WWQ, or WA4RTS to be on the other ends of these VUCCs and QSOs.”
To consider it a valid contact, Justin said he used the New England Weak Signal Group (NEWS) guideline of at least a 1-kilometer distance on each band. “While at first this seems very easy, very few hams have even had a QSO across a benchtop on bands like 134 GHz, much less over 1 kilometer,” he said.
By 2003, Justin had confirmed contacts (and paper QSLs) on each band from 1.8 MHz to 300 GHz. He submitted his cards to NEWS, which presented him with a framed award and plaque — the very first “Worked All Bands Award.”
Since then, a few ham bands have changed. For example, the 2.5-millimeter band shifted from 120 GHz to 122 GHz, and the 2-millimeter band moved down from 145 GHz to 134 GHz. “In order to stay current with the award, I built gear for those new allocations as well and made QSOs, VUCCs, and more DX,” he said.
Full ARRL Story - http://www.arrl.org/news/virginia-radio-amateur-completes-contacts-on-all-29-ham-bands
