G4LOH 144MHz Blog

Azores Tropo CU3EQ Terciera Island

I finally managed to make contact with CU3EQ today after many many attempts. Signals were not strong, I could not hear the CU8DUB beacon on tropo at all but had a few pings from it which is usually an indication that conditions are up.

14:25 CU3EQ 144.310MHz HM68KP 429 529 2144km

About an hour later there was no copy at all but the tropo forecast looks OK so hopefully an ssb QSO will follow soon.

UPDATE 22:30

The duct did improve somewhat with EA8 signals reaching way over S9 and CU3EQ 55 on SSB. Aslo in the log is :

20:11 CU2JX 144.300MHz HM77ES 52 55 ssb 2121km for another new one.

along with EA8/DL6FAW and CT1ANO on cw/ssb and EA1QS via a repeater in IN52.

The CU signals never got very strong and had faded by 21:30, CU7BC was apparently QRV but not heard here.

Joe versus the Volcano

Another strong duct from the Canary Islands to the UK today enabled easy contacts with EA8TX and EA8TJ on 144MHz.

Joe, CT1HZE was very strong reflected off the enormous Tenerife Volcano over a 3800km total path, so strong in fact, that his signal was almost fully quieting on FM!!! We made several QSO's between 10:30 and 13:00 UTC via this path.

I guess that due to the time of day there were no other stations on, it would be nice to work EA7 and CN by this reflection mode also someday.

Looking forward to next weeks CQ9U dxpedition to Salvagen Island in IM20bd, hope the tropo duct stays open.

I had a nice visit today from Dick GM4PPT who took a few photos of the antenna's and shack which I will post here as soon as he mails them to me. It was great to put a face to the voice I have heard so many times over many years on 144MHz band. Dick was also able to witness one of the Volcano Reflection QSO's with CT1HZE.

Es/FAI/ Side scatter ?

Well, whatever propagation made it was, a few stations made it into the log as the MUF hovered just below what was needed for a full-blown Es opening this evening.

18:25 S54O 53i
19:05 IZ4BEH 53i
19:09 I8MPO 52f
19:09 HA5CH 57f
19:10 YO2LEA 55f KN06wl odx today
19:11 HA1FV 52f

Beam heading was 080 degrees here. Many thanks to the other stations that tried to call also.

Interesting log today, two brief Es openings and a strong IONOscatter qso with Joe CT1HZE.

02/07/2008
08:02 I4RHP/7 JM99DW 59 59 2151 #
08:03 9A5ST JN83FM 59 59 1795
08:05 IK7UXW JN9�DC 55 59 2139
08:42 IW�FFK JN61DT 59 59 1630

13:12 CT1HZE IM57NH 529 559 1452

17:15 LZ2ZY KN13OT 59 95 2251
17:19 YU8KG JN95WC 59 59 1950
17:19 YTITM KN�4FT 59 59 2005
17:20 9A5SG JN95IM 59 59 1848
17:33 LZ2PI KN23XV 59 59 2441 # and ufb DX

JM99 and KN23 both new squares here.

I missed most of the second opening waiting for the amp to warm up...wish I had solid state! There was very little warning, the band just opened without any notice on OIRT or Band 2 unlike the morning opening, during which the whole of Band 2 was S9++ mush and many VOR beacons were heard as the MUF reached nearly 200MHz.

Day4 IO70IL18IM57 3800km

For the fourth day the duct has stayed open to EA8, today was by far the strongest. So strong that Joe, CT1HZE was easily workable by reflection from the Tiede Volcano that forms Tenerife island, amazing 3800km path, we confirmed the path several times over more than an hour, at 18:54 signals were S9!

Also in the log : EA8TJ, EA8CCG, EA8BPX, EB8CDX, EB8BRZ.

EA8BEX was the strongest with -54dBm arriving in the shack from the antennas, +pre-amp gain 20dB, -rx feeder loss...currently unknown but probably 20dB due to water.

Also nice to hear several CT stations CT1ANO, CT1EKD, CT2GUR

Sadly there were very few stations QRV...if only we had enjoyed these conditions over the weekend whe so many contest stations were active.

Also sadly the propagation didn't extend far inland I would be nice to see the EA8 stations work some stations other than us "usual suspects" on the south coast.

At long long last, Es and Atlantic tropo, firsts of 2008

Finally some Es in what has to be the worst ever year.

28/06/2008
12:58 I�JMH JN61FV 59 59 1635
13:00 IW�FFK JN61DT 55 55 1630
13:01 IZ5EME JN52NS 55 55 1488
13:02 1Z8FAV JN7�ET 59 59 1835
13:07 I�YLI JN61FV 59 59 1635
13:09 IK�XIH JN61KK 59 59 1694
13:12 I5XDL JN52GW 59 59 1440
13:22 IZ8BAD JM88BQ 59 59 1672
13:22 IZ8YFU JM88AJ 59 59 2122

The Atlantic duct has also been open for about 36 hours with EA8TX, EA8TJ, EB8CDX, EA8BPX and EA8BEX in the log too. I listened to them this morning working other G stations as an Es cloud over IN63 extended the tropo over the mountains in northern Spain. I heard CT1HZE briefly, the beacon in IM57 and had half a contact with CT1 on S20.

The tropo duct hasn't got really strong which was especially frustrating as there seemed to be more CT3 stations QRV today than I have ever seen before on the dx cluster. None of them were heard at G4LOH.

It is good to see that there are several stations QRV 2m from CU now with CU2,3,7 and 8 all spotted in the last few days but not even a ping from the beacons there shows the tropo path is still very closed from here.

6 months

Wow, 6 months flies by with no blog entry. Well it's a pretty good representation of the amount of time spent in the shack during this time.

We took a big hit during the storm on the 10th March which lifted a large steel roof and timbers (weighing 1,500kg) from the cattle shed. It flew 100m over the shack before smashing into the side/roof of the house causing lots of damage.

The same storm also damaged the 240V ac cables, wind turbine, solar panels and 2m aerial array.

Hopefully I will be QRV again for the summer.

Tim.

HB0 on tropo

There was a classic high level tropo duct on the evening of the 6th October to the South-East from here.

HB9HB 599 and HB0/DK5EW on 144.310at 2000m asl 59+ and no other stations on the band at all!

It was nice to chat to Erwin and make an incredibly rare QSO with HB0.

6-10-2007 144.310MHz HB0/DK5EW 59 57 JN47tc 1138km

Aurigid meteor spectacular

Predicitions for a short dramatic Aurigids shower on saturday morning proved spot on. For about 1 hour 11-12UTC on saturday 1st September, bursts of up to 5 minutes long were heard. It was as intense as the famous 1998 Leonids although that shower was also much longer.

I worked a few stations but spent most of the time listening for VE9AA who had a 144MHz MS sked with GW4DGU. I didn't hear anything from Mike though.

A few stations did make the MS log including I8MPO, 4O3T, YO2LHD/P, IW2DAL, DL4SD, S50C, 9A4VW.

ODX was 4O3T at 2011km, they were 59++ for several minutes on 144300!

Later in the day the sepetmber contest began with a high level tropo duct to the SSE. EA3DJL JN12ik and F6KEH/P JN02xr 59++ throughout the contest.

HB9WW JN36uu operated by HB9HLM/CN2DX was also 59+++ for hours.

The SSW duct was also open a while

01/09/2007 15:52 144.280MHz EA8BPX 53009 51002 IL18sk 2589km

..and on...

0900 CU8DUB upto 559 again with slow QSB back to almost noise level.

The beacon was in all day, finally in the evening getting really strong to 599+20 and CU8AO was also that strong. Fred worked MW1MFY and G7RAU also.

I tried several times with CU3EQ but later it turned out that I was off frequency as he was using WSJT to generate his CW. By the time we figured it out the beacon had faded to almost nil.

So that was it, 4 days tropo to CU with a real peak at the end.

Atlantic tropo goes on..

The Flores beacon CU8DUB HM49kl 144420.0 MHz was audible here in the morning and then again at lunchtime through the evening. Strength in the early evening was upto 559 and it looked like we might get a really good opening but it slipped back to 529 and stuck at that level.

No stations from any of the islands were heard at all.

Similar to yesterday when it was copied morning and evening.

Edit 22:00

CU8AO HM49kl 55-59 Nice chat with fred, beacon also heard by Dan MF1MFY in South Wales.

Atlantic Tropo at last

It has been a very poor season for Atlantic tropo (how can I say that after working D44TD ? ), the jetstream stayed south all summer causing heavy rain and flooding in the UK. Even when there was obviously some great ducting from EA8 to EA1 it just didn't reach G. I think there have only been 3 days open to EA8 from here this year.

Today the forecast looked good so I switched on a lunchtime and was pleased to hear CU8DUB on 144420.0 559, I e-mailed Fred and made a QSO after some minutes:

13:28 144300.0 CU8AO HM49kl 31 53 2350km ssb

I tried also with CU3EQ HM68 but nothing heard either way.

The beacon faded slowly down and by mid afternoon there were only enhanced pings. The forecast is good so I am hoping for a stronger opening in the coming days as the high pressure system is expected to persist for a while.

D44TD audio recording of G4LOH

The tests last evening were received on WSJT and recorded. This is the file received at 20:11.30:

0-26 seconds G4LOH received at D44TD 144290.7MHz

26-52seconds G4LOH received at D44TD 144290.7MHz

I believe this is a 25 second burst. It may be a meteor or a high altitude aircraft. It is not clear how far the duct extended from D4 but there was no duct evident from IO70 to the South West at the time.

Split into two parts due to limitation of Moveable Type Blogging software.

I was sending a beacon signal with the CW keyer set to slowest holding both paddles to send a di dah di dah di dah with a "di dah" sequence taking approx one second.

Given that the recording is in 2.3KHz it would have been about 539 in a narrow CW filter. The tone appears to be very close to the expected 700Hz. (edited. DL4YHF says the tone is 820Hz which fits with my experience that the radio at D44TD is approx. 120Hz LF)

I have started looking at the file with DL4YHF's audio analyser and I am more and more convinced this is my transmission.

Apparently there is another burst, shorter and louder also on the HDD with Norbert.

Anyone who can provide audio analysis to really bring out the keying and maybe look for signs of doppler would be most welcome.

This event makes 4 consecutive days in which signals have been received over the 4000km path, most likely by the tropo + ms combination mode.

I would like to offer my sincere thanks to DL8YHR and DL8LAQ (the team at D44TD) who have been largely without sleep for many days now and yet never hesitate to give more of their time to this fascinating project.

I hope many others will now explore DX beyond the "normal" 2500km limit and that the DX records we have set are short lived by your efforts.

I made this picture with Spectrogram 15:

It appears to show a linear doppler shift from 865Hz to 807Hz over 34 seconds. My guess is that this was an aircraft over the Bay of Biscay enabling my signal to access the extensive duct North from D4.

Update 17:44
I listened carefully to this playing it through Spectran, setting the bandwidth filter to about 30Hz (you have to be cute with the left and right mouse clicks to track the doppler) but the da di da di da seems very clear when listening like this. No way 539 like I guessed before though!...about 319-419 at best!

20:05 UTC

Tried sked again with D4 since 18:30 nothing heard at all today.

More Atlantic tropo dx and G4LOH-D44TD meteor scatter

The duct that supported the QSO to D4 yesterday had this morning drifted North and produced some strong signals from EA8 this morning in the contest:

The log was as follows:

07:54 EA8ACW/P IL28EC 59 033 59 043 CW TR 2599
07:55 EA8BWY/P IL18UM 59 034 59 047 CW TR 2575
07:58 EA8BFK IL38BO 55 037 57 018 SSB TR 2499
07:58 EB8AYA IL18RI 59 036 59 051 SSB TR 2600
08:01 EE1URO IN62GE 59 040 59 053 SSB TR 897
08:01 EA8BPX IL18SK 55 039 57 047 SSB TR 2589
08:01 EA8TJ IL18RI 55 038 59 034 SSB TR 2600
08:08 EA1AEN/P IN51PW 59 041 59 025 SSB TR 947
08:14 EA1CFA IN53UH 59 042 57 SSB TR 791
08:50 F6KHM IN78RJ 59 043 59 047 SSB TR 196
09:44 CT1ANO IN51RE 59 044 59 057 SSB TR 1024
09:50 CT2IUM IN60CG 52 045 52 052 SSB TR 1305
11:43 EA2BFM/P IN83FE 59 046 59 205 SSB TR 779

Last night I was also able to work T77NC on tropo to make 3 new DXCC on the day C3, D4 and T7 !!!

After a wet afternoon the weather improved. D44TD reported that they could hear EA7 stations. We tried some more meteor scatter tests:

[19:52:12] Tim says: rr 290 then full 1 minutes is OK also
[19:52:29] Tim says: 144290.7
[19:53:31] Tim says: 144290.700 da da da now. see in waterfall??
[19:58:09] Frank @ D44TD says: YESS! a burst
[19:58:15] Tim says: :))
[19:58:28] Frank @ D44TD says: wow! that's cool :-9
[19:58:33] Tim says: would it be enough for FSK441 decode?
[19:58:51] Frank @ D44TD says: yes, it was almost 1 sec
[19:59:01] Tim says: da da da
[19:59:09] Tim says: wow!!
[19:59:30] Frank @ D44TD says: I have monitor on.
[20:00:59] Frank @ D44TD says: It was excatly on the audio freq 700Hz. JT spec center 1270 minus abt 500-600 with doppler
[20:01:43] Tim says: ok i am tx exactly 144290.700 by GPS reference
[20:11:43] Frank @ D44TD says: WOW! AMAZING!
[20:11:51] Tim says: another?
[20:11:52] Frank @ D44TD says: the next one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
[20:12:01] Tim says: what u hear?
[20:12:01] Frank @ D44TD says: a few seconds
[20:12:06] Tim says: how sound?
[20:12:14] Frank @ D44TD says: weak, but CW
[20:13:02] Frank @ D44TD says: 2011 UTC

I have a .wav file to put here but it's too big for Moveable Type blogger so it'll have to wait 'til I figure it out!

[20:14:00] Frank @ D44TD says: and see the trace.
[20:14:12] Frank @ D44TD says: we can do it later
[20:14:31] Frank @ D44TD says: speclab should do it
[20:14:43] Frank @ D44TD says: yes, I think so.
[20:14:55] Frank @ D44TD says: when was the 1st burst?
[20:15:11] Tim says: 1957
[20:23:07] Frank @ D44TD says: the 1st burst is much shorter. what was the time of the 1st?
[20:23:17] Tim says: 19:57
[20:23:51] Tim says: that long one may be an aircraft
[20:29:00] Tim says: meteors should be much better in early moring....this is the worst time!!
[20:48:39] Frank @ D44TD says: I will send the file fromhome.
[20:48:50] Tim says: OK many thanks enjoy dinner
[20:48:57] Tim says: gn
[20:48:58] Frank @ D44TD says: tnx gn

Two good bursts received in under an hour, not at peak time or peak shower over 4040km! amazing.

It is also worth noting that our antenna's are not ideal for MS since mine are stacked vertically and two antenna's side by side at D44TD.

D4 tests continued

Just as the tropo finally opens to UK from Spain....it closed from D4 to CT.

D44TD reports that even CT1HZE only 31 now in Cape Verde. So I guess the chance is now gone. The low latitude jetstream that has caused so much disruptive flooding in the UK stopped the tropo duct reaching south west England.

Modest compensation was provided by:

13:15 C33IU JN02TO 59/59 for a new DXCC

Well not so fast...conditions continued to improve with many stations in South France and EA1 EA2 EA3.

Then at 18:17 EA8AVI was 55.

I called D44TD and we tried again:

[18:24:06] Tim says: Can you listen for my morse dashes beacon??
[18:24:50] Frank @ D44TD says: qrg?
[18:25:14] Frank @ D44TD says: "&%
[18:25:16] Tim says: 144185.00
[18:25:31] Tim says: 200-400 packed with contest stations!
[18:25:51] Frank @ D44TD says: RRR!(%CW
[18:25:58] Frank @ D44TD says: 185
[18:26:15] Frank @ D44TD says: cw will rx..have some mailwork so no problem
[18:26:32] Tim says: will start next odd min (second per) at 18:27.00-59
[18:26:55] Tim says: one minute TX, one minute resone minute TX etc etct
[18:27:09] Tim says: running
[18:29:23] Tim says: running again now - - - - - - - - :)
[18:29:51] Frank @ D44TD says: ok
[18:31:18] Frank @ D44TD says: da da da
[18:31:22] Frank @ D44TD says: da da da
[18:31:25] Tim says: yes!!!
[18:31:29] Tim says: ms?
[18:31:31] Frank @ D44TD says: are you tx?
[18:31:34] Tim says: yes
[18:31:39] Tim says: i send da da da
[18:31:44] Frank @ D44TD says: ok..go...hear it
[18:31:54] Tim says: tropo?
[18:31:59] Frank @ D44TD says: yes
[18:32:05] Tim says: rest one minute now..
[18:32:13] Frank @ D44TD says: ok..
[18:32:21] Frank @ D44TD says: me first 00 02 04
[18:32:22] Tim says: you warm your amp??
[18:32:26] Tim says: OK
[18:32:27] Frank @ D44TD says: is warm
[18:32:29] Tim says: :)
[18:33:20] Frank @ D44TD says: you now
[18:33:23] Tim says: r
[18:39:15] Frank @ D44TD says: $!) A BIT LIKE AURORAL

It took until 18:53 before I had enough of callsigns and then a nice 45 seconds when I copied 419. Started sending r319.

Then at 19:10 copied "RR" via a meteor enhancement.

[19:10:29] Tim says: HEARD RR on MS!!!
[19:10:32] Frank @ D44TD says: you went DOWN !== IN TX�
[19:10:37] Frank @ D44TD says: YEP
[19:10:42] Tim says: wow
[19:10:52] Tim says: that's it then!!
[19:10:56] Frank @ D44TD says: you went down a bit?
[19:11:08] Frank @ D44TD says: NO REAL TROPO:::A BIT MIX
[19:11:29] Frank @ D44TD says: best 429 10 sec..rest 419 noisefloor
[19:12:07] Tim says: was sending final rrr but not needed
[19:12:19] Frank @ D44TD says: yep
[19:12:25] Frank @ D44TD says: sending 73
[19:12:37] Tim says: I am going to make DX spot on cluster
[19:12:57] Tim says: :) ready for your pile up?
[19:13:06] Tim says: wow " 73" hrd
[19:13:29] Frank @ D44TD says: many tnx
[19:13:41] Tim says: HK86no
[19:13:57] Tim says: ?
[19:14:53] Tim says: - - - - - - - - - - - - - again for you
[19:14:54] Frank @ D44TD says: yep

So In the log:

4-8-2007 19:12 D44TD 144.185MHz r319 419 HK86NO 4049km

:-)