Thursday, August 27, 2026

Video: QDX-M assists in the rescue of a spelunker

The low-frequency capability of Hans G0UPL's QDX-M proved its worth in Alberta last week.

Rescuers attempting to retrieve a cave explorer made use of a QDX-M built for the 2200 meter band (136 kHz) which, evidently, will allow communications through solid rock.

The rescue was successful and can be read about here:

Calgary Herald

CBC

According to Hans:

"There is a request to make the QDX-M firmware operational down to 88 kHz which is where the UK and European cave rescue services have an allocation. I will try to get that done in the next week or two.
  
Me, I slept well that night... Well for 3 hours at least, after I worked on fixing the YOTA youngster's QMX+'s until 4am..."
 I'd like to know what type antenna was used for the operation.
 
 
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5 comments:

  1. At 0:55 you see kind of a square antenna. I guess that the wire around it is many windings of wire. Interesting though. Tnx for the video John. 73, Bas

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    1. I guess they lug one of those into the cave as well? The whole thing has captured my curiosity about LF/VLF. I'll bet Hans will soon be offering a 2200m QDX-M to the masses...

      73,
      John

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    2. Its a loop antenna for VLF.

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    3. In the meantime, Multus SDR has 630M and 2200M radios on their menu. I have also been thinking about these bands lately but the last thing I need is more radios, I haven’t even gotten my Anan 10E online yet!

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    4. It's too bad all this SDR stuff wasn't available back in the days when LowFER's were a thing on 160-190 kHz. You didn't have to be a ham to use it but the only mode was CW with a 1-watt max output.

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