144 mhz tropo to EA8

EB8CME IL18 worked earlier tonight, running just 10 watts from IL18, most interesting, EA1VHF/b was around 529 at the time
An hour later EB8CDX was worked followed by EA8AYY IL28, EA8BPX IL18, EA8BEX IL27, EA8BUH IL18 and EA8AVI IL28.
EA1VHF beacon was about 549 at the time but no sign of CT1EKD when we tried on cw
The tropo season is with us, seems a long time (if ever) that I heard so many EA8 stations in one night

K7AD/W7GJ 6m eme

Nice signals again tonight from Gayland, tracking is guess work again although peaked on Gary KB8RQ on 144.127

27/08/2006

Few evenings later I copied W7GJ Lance very well, no luck either, the K index had risen to a 5, suppose ill have to blame something
Best copied was 200800 9 -16 2.7 -46 4 * CQ W7GJ DN27 and was easy to peak on the speaker, I lost Lance at one period for about 45mins with deep fading

Spectacular Meteor Shower for 2007 ?

Sept. 1, 2007 is marked for a possible spectacular meteor shower linked to the Aurigids, the astronomers who discovered this Esko Lyytinen of Finland and Peter Jenniskens used computer models to predict outbursts of the Leonid meteor shower, which wowed skywatchers in 2000 and 2001
I fIrst came across the story at Irish Astronomy.org's website in a forum here http://www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=4731&highlight=2007+shower
More information at these links
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/060817_meteor_shower.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14397250/
Should be interesting for meteor scatter operators

70mhz

Since the ft-847 has 4m it seemed a shame not to utilise that band also.
EI9GQ designed a 4m aerial for me , I used it a litle in 2005 but this year decided to be a little bit more serious, too late for most of the ES but in time for some I guessed
Measurements for the 70 mhz
4ele aerial are as follows and credit to EI9GQ for this
four-ele
Ref: 2168mm
DE: 2028mm
Dir1:1926mm
Dir2:1926mm
All spacings increased to 0.2WL (854mm).
Gain at 70.2 = 10.14 dBi (about 8 dBd) F/B ratio 17dB

73 Charles

50mhz EME

This is new ground for me, spotted K7AD on the cluster closing down but requested he called me on 6m JT65 eme, the results were interesting

I got 9 decodes from K7AD

I found that version 4.9.8 was far better at decoding than the newer 5.9.5
It was also interesting to note that my 756pro2 was much better than the ft-847 in coping with noise on 6m, the Icom decoded long before the 847 as did version 4.9.8 before 5.9.5
My eme setup requires that I need to have a visual on the the moon and use a security camera mounted on the aerial to track, it works fine on 2m, I did not have this tonight, used KB8RQ's signal on 2m to peak on him earlier on and left it at that heading
I gave Gayland K7AD some calls without luck tonight, he was a weak speaker copy and runs a fine station on 50mhz
Thanks to W7GJ Lance for his help and this fine link http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj/ for 6m eme help
73 Charles

End of season ? ES

Just when I was thinking the ES season is starting to wane, 6 opened up last night to the west again with some fine qso's to VE/W/V44/YV/HI etc
Recent qso's over 6500 km include
19/07 20:47 YV4DDK FK6ØAD 55 57 7045
19/07/ 17:55 W5OZI EMØØCL 539 559 7473
15/07/ 12:58 W4IR EL97HG 539 529 6504
14/07/ 14:15 N4IS EL96UB 559 569 6527
11/07/ 21:52 W4SO EL96VA 559 579 6525
11/07/ 20:44 P43JB FK42XM 579 559 6972
No 2m ES since 17th July

2m Tropo

Nice to get some tropo on 144mhz tonight, DL/PA/ON/OK, very happy with that, later checked and did not hear the CU beacon, while bringing beam back to east noted a qso on 300 and worked EA8BEX IL27, EA8AVI IL28 and EA8BTV IL18 between 22:07 and 22:13

Map below shows conditions to EA8 tonight

http://meteo.physic.ut.ee/ilmatark/

50mhz to the west

Been an amazing last few weeks on 6m, so much so God know its been difficult to keep an eye on 144mhz for sporadic E
Sample of what ive worked on 6m from June over 6000 km includes a host of US stations from EM/EL/DN squares best being KØGU DN7ØMQ 6960 km
From June 16th VY4DYJ, PJ2BVU, FM5JE, HI3TEJ, WP4JKK. KP4SQ, WP4EJH, FM5WD, FM5JC, FG5FR, FM5AA, KP4EIT, WP4LUU, WP4U, WP4NIX
From June 20th PV8DX, V47KV, VP2V/W7XU, V44KAI, VP2MDD, V25D, VP5/W5SJ
Best dx so far was 20/06/2006 18:39 PV8DX FJ92PT 539/539 7263km "CW of course" 7263km
18 qsos over 7000km on ssb and 26 on cw

CU/EI 4m 1st

CU

Azores

CU8AO + EI2IP - 17th Jun 2006

Good to see a new kid on the block
Your FT-847 is doing the job nicely Robbie, keep it up
(27th August, just a note to say EI2IP is now at a new qth in IO61CX)
Charles

2M5WL with 6M7JHV under

Robbie, the aerials are slightly elevated as the trailer has a puncture on one wheel, the 2m aerial needs to be adjusted as has too much elevation anyway but what the heck, they both seem to be working
Charles

50/144mhz 19 June 2006

Heard JM1DTF on 50mhz cw this morning, also a partial call from another JA station via multi hop ES, most interesting, he did not hear me but you cant win em all, nice distance too 9760 km, ah well, there is always tomorrow, my first time hearing a JA on 6M

144 mhz this evening was another story, after a brief opening to HA/OM at about 1400z, EI9GQ put out a call on 144,300 and worked ES3RF, very nice, I hrd him but his signal faded before I got the chance to work him. At nearly 1600z I worked 7 OH, 1 OH0 and 2 SM stations, later on while working ES7FU on 50mhz and monitoring 144.300 I hrd an ES station on 300, missed him and worked ES7GN KO28 then missed ES5GAP
It is difficult to work new squares at this stage on 144mhz but thanks to OH6MW and OH3LOR for giving me KP20 as a new one today
What a day, who says VHF is not exciting, I have never before worked OH/OH0/ES on 2m ES and the season has a few weeks in it yet
Charles

New 6m aerial

Replaced my trusty 12ft 5 ele yagi with a 6M7JHV today, seems to be doing the business, worked YV/FM/PJ/WP3 this evening in multi hop ES, lets see what the next few days will bring
Charles

CU8DUB/B 144.420

Arrived home at around 11:30am after been out walking, rig was already on 144.420 in anticipation of ES and the beacon was audible, Tim G4LOH alerted right away me that he was hearing the beacon , delighted to hear it at 529 signals via tropo, at 1st I thought it was ES, beacon was in/out for abt 3/4 hour, called CU8AO who was qrv, he heard me but I did not hear him strong enough to work him, not to worry, im happy to have heard this beacon via tropo for the 1st time, well done to Tim who worked Fred, during the afternoon I have heard weakly a few times.
Azores beacon is up and running since last summer, only time I have heard it until today was during the Perseids last August and that was just a few bursts.
Charles

1st post

Blog will probably Ham radio vhf radio related.
No ES on 144mhz today, missed a possible opening this morning, cant be sitting by the radio all the time.
73 & take care.... de Charles
Cork