Tropospheric Ducting at EI8HH

June 3rd, 2023

In Spring 2022 I installed a new antenna system for 2 m, 70 cm and 23 cm at my second home in Ireland. In the last days I could experience a long duration tropospheric opening to the continent.
On May 23rd I noticed a large ducting area to the north, shown in the Hepburn Tropo Index. Not really expecting something, I turned the antenna northwards and was surprised to hear OY6BEC in IP62mb over 958 km with 529 on 2 m. It could be monitored most of the time until June, 2nd. Even on 70 cm it could be heard from time to time, but nothing on 23 cm, even when it peaked up to S9+20 dB on 2 m on May 28th. I contacted Regin, QY1R and Trygvi, QY4TN, for skeds on 2 m, but unfortunately no signals could be detected. The two stations are quite close to sea level and the beacon is located on Mt. Sornfelli, 745 m asl.

From May 13th to May 28th I had a couple of contacts in the range, aircraft scatter allows. Beside the 2 m QSOs (green), I had some on 70cm (blue) as well. I worked the local lads on 23 cm (red) and had a QSO with Martin, GM8IEM, as I had promised him to arrange a sked, as soon as 23 cm is up and running. On May 26th a short Es opening happend and I could work Paolo, IK7UXW, with whom I had a couple of QSOs and tests from home in Mainz on 23 and 13 cm via a combination of tropo and aircraft scatter propagation in the past.

On June 29th the reach extended by tropo to the costal area from northern France to the west of Germany. ODX of the day was Günter, DG6JF/P, over 1105 km.

As the propagation conditions went to normal for me on May 30th, the next day, May 31st, startet with QSOs to Denmark on 2 m (green) and 70 cm (blue). Around noon the duct extended to the very north of Germany. ODX of the day was Oliver, DH8BQA, JN73ce over 1559 km. The duct seemed to be very narrow, as Chris, SM6VTZ, and Steffen, DD0VF, could only be worked via meteor scatter (yellow).

The duct moved southwards on June 1st with many stations from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. no more DX contacts were made on 70 cm, just the 2 m band was open for me. ODX of the day was Uwe, DL4DWA, over 1559 km, followed by Peter , DL3JIN over 1542 km.

And again the duct moved southwards on June 2nd and calmed down around noon. ODX of the day was Gerhard, DK1FG, over 1459 km with an outstanding signal, just, as I am used to, when QRV at home in Germany.

Fun fact: When I turned my antenna to the north in the early morning of June 2nd, OY6BEC over 980 km was still there. Turning the antenn to the east, I could hear DB0HRF, JO40ff, over 1276 km. It is located on the Feldberg, as close to my German home, that I can see the mountain out of the window of my shack.

FR5DN/B 144 MHz TEP Beacon on Reunion

February 6th, 2023

Phil, FR5DN, is running an experimental beacon on 144.245 MHz beaming to the eastern Mediterranean Sea. It is located on the island of Reunion in LG78qs. The antenna is a 13 dB yagi, horizontal polarized at 7 m above ground, running 80 W. He will operate it in CW, when he is at home, mainly from 16:00 to 18:30 UTC.
The operation will be announced on DX Summit and in the ON4KST chat. As he transmits continuously, feedback may be sent in the chat or via his email address on QRZ.com.

FR5DN/B beaming towards the Mediterranean Sea
The geomagnetic equator is shown in green

He already tried years ago, but got inspired by the TEP events that happened recently in South America and hopes for monitors in Europe to gather some experience in this propagation mode.

Nice Morning Inversion

August 2nd, 2022

As the Hepburn Tropo Index predicted some ducting over northern Germany and the Baltic Sea for todays morning, I checked the beacons on 23 cm. DB0VC, JO54if, 509 km, was strong on 23 cm as well as on 13 cm, but nothing on 3 cm. I went on with the OZ and LA beacons and found OZ5SHF, JO45vx, 685 km and LB2SHF, JO48ad,917 km, with booming signals. Unfortunately there was no one QRV in Scandinavia.

Then I called in FT8 on 2 m and got some response from Denmark and Northern Germany. Surprisingly I got called by UA2FBW, KO04ir, 1002 km and much more surprised I have been, when I saw in the DX cluster, that EA5GJ, JM97jw, spottet me as well at the time, I worked Igor. Might have received me by some Es or MS, while beaming northeast.

With the rising sun the beacon signals on 23 cm became weaker and weaker and disappereared at least. The same happened to the DX stations on 2 m.

QSOs on 2 m in green, all in FT8. Received beacons on 23 cm shown in red.

New Antenna System at EI8HH

June 4th, 2022

When going to Ireland in May, I went with a trailer and could take a pneumatic mast and some antenna stuff with me. So I setup a 2 x 7 elemt yagi for 2 m, a 15 element yagi for 70 cm and a 67 element yagi for 23 cm. The rotator is a Spid BIG-RAS/HR, so elevation is possible as well. There are SHF-Electronic LNAs at each antenna and Gemini linears with 200 to 300 W driven by an IC-9700.

On 2 m I could log a couple of QSOs in FT8 (blue) and SSB (green) so far and have been lucky to use some tropo to France on May 27th and 28th (F6DBI, IN88ij, 716 km and F8BON, IN86wv, 903 km) and Spain on May 28th (EC2BBS, IN93bi, 1262 km).

Digital Activity on 23 cm

March 16th, 2022

Last January the QSO BANAT Association added a 23 cm section to their VHF-UHF FT8 Activity contest, open to all digital modes. Tonight it was the 3rd round in this year and my second time in participating. In February I struggled with FT8 and some QSOs could have been much faster completed by using CW, as the one with Roberto, IK2OFO, whom I worked many times before in CW on 23 and 13 cm.

QSOs in the Digital Activity Contest on 23 cm: FT8 in red and FT4 in green

This time I tried FT4 in some skeds and was surprised by the excellent performance of this mode. Of cource I tried with Roberto and it was as fast as in CW. Later at the end of the contest I had QSOs with Andre, DL6AST, in FT4 on 23 cm and on 13 cm as well. After that we tried MSK144 and JT9f (my favourite so far) on the higher band, but without success so far.

It seems FT4 is more robust in handling the varying doppler shift and multipath propagation caused by airplane reflections compared to FT8.

Many thanks to the friends of the QSO BANAT Association for organizing this activity on 23 cm and not dedicating it to FT8 only. This opens space for experimentation, the heart of amateur radio!

First steps on 24 GHz

February 26th, 2022

After my visit to Berlin a fortnight ago, where Thomas, DC7YS, granted me massive support in assembling my 10/24 GHz duo band rig, I have been out today to give it a try in the BBT contest.

The selected location is a building in the vine yards just a little south of my home.

It has a terrace upstairs with a perfect view to the horizons.

Despite beeing an asolute newbie, I logged two QSOs. The first one I had with Martin, DL3SFB/p on the Hornisgrinde in the Black Forrest near Freiburg. Signals were just good enough to complete in SSB over 144 km. Second was Daniel, DL3IAE, near Landau, 70 km away.

Daniels signal was extremly distorted by windmills and even in CW very hard to copy.

A test with Ewald, DK2DB, in Karlsruhe was not successful, because of a pear tree obstructing him in my direction.

The grey box houses latest Kuhne transverters for 10 and 24 GHz, driven by an IC-705. Output after all the lossy semi rigid and relays is measured to 6 W on 10 GHz and 1 W on 24 GHz. The feed a dual band horn, made by Paul, W1GHZ. The size of the dish is 80 cm. Power sources are batteries of my Makita tools.

After the Test with Ewald I decided to leave, because some strong gusts came up and the dish has a quite a good wind load. As the stuff is very heavy, the tripod is too fragile to withstand the weight plus the wind.

DB0KK: Visit at DC7YS´s Microwave Beacons

February 13th, 2022

Today Thomas,DC7YS, took me on a sight seeing tour to the Teufelsberg, a former US military facility and then straight through President electing Berlin to his beacon location in the east of Berlin.

DB0KK, as seen from the Teufelsberg in about 16 km distance.
Teufelsberg, as seen from DB0KK
Thomas, DC7YS, with the beacon antennas to his right. It is located on a 21 storey high rise building in Berlin-Lichtenberg, JO62RM76.
Beacons on a turnable pole with a camera on top to check the correct direction. Thomas can turn it on demand by request. 76 ghz on top, 24 GHz beneath and 47 GHz on the back.
24 GHz beacon
24,048.850 MHz
0.5 W
10 dB horn antenna
47 GHz Beacon
47,088.850 MHz
0.5 W
10 dB sector antenna
76 GHz Beacon
76,032.850 MHz
0.27 W
10 dB sector antenna


Aircraft Scatter Podcast

February 7th, 2022

Today I had a talk about Aircraft Scatter with Michael, OE1CMW, who recorded it to produce a podcast for his series “ON AIR – Amateurfunk D-A-CH“. As it´s in german language, I keep this post in german.

Heute habe ich mit Michael, OE1CMW, über Aircraft Scatter gesprochen. Michael hat das Gespräch für seine Podcast-Reihe “ON AIR – Amateurfunk D-A-CH” aufgezeichnet.

In meinem Blog finden sich viele Beispiele zu QSOs und Bakenbeobachtungen als Anregung für eigene Aktivitäten. Unter dem Menü-Punkt “Aircraft Scatter” habe ich die QSO-Prozedur ausführlich beschrieben. Das Programm AirScout von Frank, DL2ALF, gibt es als Download für das Betriebssystem Windows.

Hier als Beispiel ein QSO mit DJ5BV auf 23 cm. Man hört sehr schön die Änderung der Tonhöhe infolge des Doppler-Effekts und verschiedene Signaltöne durch Reflexionen an verschiedenen Flugzeugen.

Wenn man Baken beobachten will, sollte man WideGraph von WSJT-X mitlaufen lassen, dann kann man auch schwächste Signalspuren sichtbar machen und auch die Doppler-Verschiebung sehr gut visualisieren.

F5ZBM in Sendeart F1

DB0UX screwing in Waterfall

January 14th, 2022

F5ZNI on 13 cm in JN19BQ, 440 km away, is a good indicator for troposheric duting to the west. Drifting up and down, it is transmitting just a little below GPS locked DB0UX in JN48FX, just 105 km to the south.

This is, how it usually looks, when I monitor F5ZNI on about 2320.899 MHz. DB0UX to the right with space 800 Hz lower. F5ZNI about 1250 Hz lower with space 500 Hz up.

Tonight DB0UX appeared a little different, somehow screwing through the waterfall display.

What happened?

Well, there is a windmill in 500 m from my QTH a little north of the path to F5ZNI and the wind raised to blow with 6 km/h from NE ……