G4LOH 144MHz Blog

2010 first post

The system has suffered in the hard winter here, some elements bent on the yagi's, rotator feedback broken and the whole rotator jammed as the Es opening was coming to a close.

PC with LiveMUF installed is broken.

Did manage a few qso's with 30W (Tube PA is also broken), Two well placed clouds enabled this chordal hop QSO:

06:58 144.310MHz SV9CVY 59 59 KM25ka 2947km

Copied SV9 for nearly half an hour during which I tried CW qso with 4X1UN with a few pings heard but cannot confirm they were from him.

07:52 IT9BLB/9 JM68qe
07:56 IT9CJC JM76ew

Need to make some repairs now...

Transatlantic Experiment

During the Persieds shower my antenna was pointing to Newfoundland the entire time listening for VO1/DM8MM. Although several times the computer decoded letters and letter groups from callsigns i wasn't able to find anything that I can confidently say was a real burst :-(

I look forward to hearing the full story from Fred but meanwhile I would like to express my sincere thanks for his enormous effort to travel to Canada and set up the station.

Fred posted this video on YouTube recently

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=IDk1fNSc9t0

G-OY Tropo Ducting

The take-off to the North from IO70jc is quite poor with a high granite hill just a few km from here. I saw OY4TN working EI on tropo and thought I'll try beaming that way just to maybe get some pings, I didn't hear any any but asked him for a sked on KST chat. I called for a minute and was amazed when he came straight back to me.

14:45 144.300MHz OY4TN 519 519 IP62nb 1335km CW Tropo

Hmm....can't get the thumbnail to work but one click above shows a map of the path, just neatly skimming between the coasts for a near perfect sea path from IO70jc to IP62nb

I am sure this will be one of the most memorable QSO's ever from this location, completely unexpected.

A nice new DXCC #56 from here.

Update on Es and Tropo

As a general update about the log I can report that there has been several more DX events here on 144MHz. On the 11th there was finally some tropo to the south west with strong signals from EA8, despite awful wet windy weather I could access the duct well for most of the day.

On the 16th, a long, strong Es event to CT/EA7/CN/EA9 and ZB.

Today the 17th I was expecting an opening to YU with strong VOR signals from there but heard EA9IB calling CQ on 144300.0MHz off the side of the beam. We exchanged 59+ reports after I turned the beam, he stayed strong for about 30minutes but I heard no other stations from that area.

Working away from the Radio for just a few minutes I missed RU4AN being heard on chordal hop at F0EJW IN78 (just a little south from here) so dont know if I would have heard him here, but will always wonder about it :-(

A brief opening to Italy at 10:00 and high MUF all day but no other contacts.

20:50 UTC update

MUF stayed high and produced an excellent fai opening in the evening.

IC8FAX was first in the log at 19:10, with IZ4BEH on ssb at 20:32. IZ4BEH via FAI 144.305MHz MP3 file

In between were: I8MPO with this ssb qso: I8MPO via FAI 144.305MHz MP3 file, IK0BZY, S50C, I3MEK, IK4PMG, I2FAK, 9A9SF, IK4GRD, 9A4M, and IQ3AZ.

Signals were still strong from I8MPO after 22:00 UTC.

CS3BTM Es again

Nice to hear the beacon again today but no-one qrv.

CS3BTM 144481.0MHz 12:00 - 12:30UTC

Still chirpy but very distinctive.

Es report

There was a brief opening today to Maderia Island with CS3BTM on 144481.0 making a brief appearance at 12:02 for 10 minutes or so. The beacon has developed a fault and is chirping badly, hope it gets fixed soon as it has been very useful this summer.

Looking through the recordings from 3rd July Es event I found this recording:

G4LOH with SV9CVY 144.285MHz 2893km

And a little while later when he was even stronger here:

F6KHM with SV9CVY

Tim.

More Es

In an truly remarkable year, 144MHz was open for many hours yesterday, at several times opne to CT and I at the same time:

No new squares or countries today despite 5 hours of listening.

Highlight of the day was to hear Gibralta again, 3rd time this year but still special.

4/7/2009 15:22 ZB3B IM76he

144MHz Chordal Hop Es to Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Another fantastic Es opening today.

It started off good at 14:40 there were Italian Repeaters on FM but no-one on ssb, very odd, but a call on 144300 then produced:

14:42 IH9GPI JM56xt 2018km at 59++

I would have been happy with that contact but the opening soon got even better, the band opened to Italy with IK�RWX, IK�SMG, I8MPO, IW�BJP/� and IK2XEG making the log before a second Es spot produced a spectacular 20 minute opening to Crete

14:58 SV9GPV KM25EH 59/59 144MHz SSB ES 2893km

SV9GPV with G4LOH 144MHz 3rd july 2009 2893km

New country #54 and square 269 from here for me.

Then even louder:

15:07 SV9CVY KM25KA 59/59 144MHz SSB ES 2948km Es ODX

Highlights of rest of the log being:

15:17 SV1BJY KM18UA 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 2647km
15:18 SW1NZX KM17VV 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 2662km #270
15:18 SV1COA KM17UX 59 58 2 m. SSB ES 2650km

A bunch of Italian and Croatian stations then made it into the log with last signals heard here at about 15:50 UTC.

is it or isn't it?...yes it is!

There was strong tropo from Spain today with a couple of contest stations on the north coast 59+ so when I heard EA8ACW/p at 16:10 I though it would be tropo although the fading was very rapid. I worked EB8BRZ and EA8BPX soon afterwards and it definitely sounded like Es but didn't want to set off any alarms without being sure.

Spanish FM radio then overpowered my local stations (although the beam was to the south) so it was Es for sure and there followed a fantastic opening lasting several hours covering CT/EA/EA8/CT3/CN/CU and ZB.

A few new stations in the log too.

20/06/2009
16:19 EB8BRZ IL27HX 59 59 2606km
16:25 EA8BPX IL18SK 59 59 2589km
16:30 EA8YT IL18SL 59 59 2585km

17:29 CT3EE/P IM12 59 59 2181km
17:30 CT3KY/P IM12 59 59 2181km
17:31 CT3DL/P IM12 59 59 2181km

17:39 EA8YT IL18SL 59 59 2585km

17:56 CT1EAT IM68DA 59 59 1358km
17:57 EB7DBX IM67LG 59 59 1434km
17:59 CT1EPC IM68GD 59 59 1341km
18:04 EA7TL IM67VO 59 59 1392km
18:13 CT1DHM IN61CA 59 59 1029km

18:20 ZB3B IM76HD 59 57 1552km

18:21 EA4LU IM68TV 59 59 1249km

18:26 CN8SG IM64QG 59 59 1764km
18:42 CN8QN IM63MM 59 56 1849km on S20 FM
19:02 CN8LI IM63NX 59 59 1798km

19:10 EA8AVI IL28FC 59 59 2597km

19:12 CS3BTM 599 2137km

19:50 CU2VHF 559 2389km

D44TD was QRV throughout the opening when hundreds of QSO's were made in his direction from all over G/GW/EI/GI it was a pity that the Es signals didn't seem to connect with the duct that was open EA7-D4 at the thime.

Another 3 1/2 hours of strong Es on 144MHz to the South from IO70, some amazing year 2009.

Tim.

UPDATE

22:02 144419.6 CU8DUB 559 Es Heard, no stations

Living on the edge

A good sporadic E cloud developed today over JN64, almost too far away from me. I did manage to find 2 stations though:

10:49 SV3BSF 55 55 KM08uf 2510km
11:31 SV2DCD 52 59 KN00nf 2320km

Both very good distances.

I also heard SW4LRJ/2 but couldn't crack the pile up but it sounded like he was enjoying himself.

Tim.

12th June tropo

Nice tropo duct to Italy last night. Surprising because there was no prediction of it by Hepburn at all, I have usually found the tropo forecast quite reliable but maybe I only look for tropo when Hepburn forecasts it!

19:35 F6BEG JN25js 886km
20:19 F0CXO JN26pp 865km
20:33 F8CHM JN07ik 525km
20:35 F0FVK JN08ib 487km
20:59 IK4PMB JN54gn 1376km
21:05 I2FAK JN45nd 1205km
21:22 IW2DAL JN45nn 1181km then also 59/57 in FM!
21:30 HB9G/P JN36bk 931km
21:32 IW2NRI JN45nr 1171km
21:36 IZ4BEH JN54wl 1431km
21:56 I2FAK JN45nd 1205km

I must try flying this path on Google Earth, surely there are mountains in the way.

As previously when this path opens signals dont break into the Mediterranean area, even though there is excellent tropo there too at this time. I did try with I8MPO for several minutes and continuous weak signals were heard but it's hard to say what the propagation mode was for this.

Still low power here (about 200W) due to tube failure, antenna 2x16ele.

Sporadic E Morocco and Maderia Island

The hotspot seemed to be in the same place as saturday today with a nice opening to Morocco:

11:34 CN8WJ/M 145500 FM Khorigba IM62
12:10 CN8VX/M 145500 FM IM63em
12:28 CN8TY 145500 FM Casablanca

Then at 13:12 as the cloud drifted West the new beacon CS3BTM appeared from IM12.

CS3BTM 144481.1MHz heard at G4LOH 1313utc 9th June 2009

Update 15:55

14:15 CN8WJ/M 145.500 called again and gave his QRA as IM62NV
14:33 CN8QN 59 145.500
14:45 Strong arabic chatter on 145.180MHz I was hoping for a rare square but the reply was "we are fishing ships, fishing ships near Casablanca"....

15:16 CT3KD 59 145.500

The opening continued and CS3BTM got very strong for over half an hour:
CS3BTM 599 at 15:04utc

The beacon peaked over 599 for a long time, D44TD (same QTF) qsy'd from 6m but I didn't hear him at all.

144MHz was open with sporadic-E for about 4 1/2 hours today...amazing!

Location, Location and Location

And, today I was in the right place for the probably the longest, most intense Es cloud I have ever heard on 144MHz.

Activity was limited as is always the case with openings to the South but I worked a bunch of new stations including ZB and EA9 for countries 52 and 53 (excluding EME and MS).

07/06/2009
10:30 ZB3B IM76HD 59/59 SSB ES 1552km

10:31 CN8SG IM64QG 59/59 SSB ES 1764km
CN8SG 144MHz SSB via Es 7th June 2009

10:31 CN8YM IM74 59/59 FM ES 1732km

10:32 CN8SR IM73 59/59 FM ES el hajeb 1844km

10:43 CN8QN IM63 59/59 FM ES 1849km

11:01 EA9IB IM85MH 55/53 SSB ES 1654km

11:10 EA7RZ IM86SU 59/59 SSB ES 1489km

11:19 CN8FF IM63 59/59 FM ES 1797km

11:23 EA7CD IM86RQ 59/59 SSB ES 1507km

11:26 EA9IB IM85MH 59/59 SSB ES 1654km

11:30 EB7GWV IM66UM 59/59 SSB ES 1512km

11:34 EA7ERP IM87EE 59/59 SSB ES 1441km

11:37 EA7DUD IM76SR 59/59 SSB ES 1488km

11:46 CN8AT IM63EL 59/59 SSB ES 1859km

11:48 CT2IOV/M 59/59 FM ES 1305km

12:04 CN8WJ/M IM63GO 59/- SSB ES nc 1797km

12:23 EA8AVI IL28FC 55/55 SSB ES 2597km
EA8AVI 144MHz SSB via Es 7th June 2009

12:29 EA8BWY IL18UK 59/59 SSB ES 2584km

12:31 EA8ACW/P IL28EC 59/59 SSB ES 2599km

12:34 EB8BRZ IL27HX 59/59 SSB ES 2606km

12:35 EA8BPX IL18SK 59/59 SSB ES 2589km

12:36 EA8BWY IL18UK 59/59 SSB ES 2584km

12:37 EA8TX IL18QI 59/59 SSB ES 2603km

12:48 EA8BWY IL18UK 59/59 SSB ES 2584km

12:53 EA8YT IL18SL 59/59 SSB ES nc 2585km

The cloud continued to drift west and at 1318 I briefly heard CS3BTM/B.

Not quite Es

Made a few QSO's this evening on "side scatter Es" to I8 I0 I4 and I7 areas. Paolo posted this on Youtube, nice clear tone not rough like FAI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WHghIhC5dU&feature=channel_page

Later in the evening the signal tone became very distorted.

Duct closed

The duct is closed now but yesterday was a lot of fun. Both CU beacons were audible all day with 599 strength in the afternoon.

I worked CU3EQ again who made this video:

I spent sometime listening for N7BHC and K4MHZ beacons but heard nothing. I even tried a sked with PJ4NX FK52 on the Dutch Antilles at 7000km....needless to say nothing was heard either way but when the beacons are so loud anything feels possible.

Tim.