November 18th, 2012
Just a few contacts could be logged, because I was short in time during this opening. But some new squares were worked on 23 and 13 cm. SM7ECM in JO65nq was a new country on 13 cm.
Tag Archives: Tropo
Opening October 19th – 23rd
October 24th, 2012
The beacon check in the morning of October 19th gave me the impression of a strong inversion over southeast Germany. When looking for Stations on 23 cm on the SDR I noticed a big signal in CW: OE5VRL/5 calling to Hungary. I gave him a meep in the chat to tell him how strong his signal was here in Mainz, despite the fact that I was in the back of his 3 m dish. After turning the antenna to me he was stronger than many locals.
In the following days a lot of DX stations from OK, SP, HA, S5, OE, HB9, F, LX, G, PA, I and OZ filled the log while the inversion moved from east to west. All of the four OK beacons could be heard on 23 cm. Sometimes it was a little bit confusing when I was looking for new DX beacons and DB0AAT, DB0AJA, DB0GP, DB0LB, DB0FGB, DF0ANN, HB9EME and others could be heard in nearly any direction the dish was pointing to.
QSOs on 23 cm > 400 km
QSOs on 13 cm > 400 km
QSOs on 13 cm > 400 kmI am happy with a couple of new squares on 23 and 13 cm. Two new countries on 13 cm made it perfect: S51ZO in Slovenia and I1KFH in Italy. But I fear that it was more aircraft scatter than tropo.
Beacons heard on 23 cm
| DB0AAT | JN67HU |
| DB0AJA | JN59AS |
| DB0FGB | JO50WB |
| DB0GP | JN48WQ |
| DB0LB | JN48OV |
| DB0LTG | JO31TB |
| DB0VC | JO54IF |
| DB0WTT | JO40LG |
| DB0YI | JO42XC |
| DF0ANN | JN59PL |
| DF5AY | JN49DX |
| F1XBC | JN06JG |
| F1ZBK | JN38BP |
| F5XBK | JN18JS |
| HB9BBD | JN47GA |
| HB9EME | JN37KB |
| OK0EA | JO70UP |
| OK0EJ | JN99FN |
| OK0EL | JO70SQ |
| OK0EQ | JN89BE |
| PI6ASD | JO22KJ |
| PI7ALK | JO22IP |
| SR6LHZ | JO70SS |
Short opening on September 6th 2012
September 7th, 2012
After spending a day in Leipzig, I came home quite late. In the train already I had a look to the KST chat and on the Hepburn index. Both promised an interesting evening. After turning the dish to the west, I heard GB3USK in IO81 (783 km) very loud via tropo. In the following hours I could work G4EAT in JO01, G4ALY in IO70 (888 km), GU6EFB in IN89 (778 km), G6HIE in IO90 and F9OE in IN78 (954 km) on 1296 MHz. The most impressive signal was the one of Keith, GU6EFB from Guernsey, who was 59 here in Mainz, by running only 10 W in SSB.
Opening on September 6th – QSOs on 23 cm – QRB > 500 km