More tropo and square #507 on 2 m

tropo-18z     tropo-00z

Seems I was correct with my yesterday’s assumption concerning tropo moving. 😉 Sorrily I was rather under the duct tonight thus the really big distance contacts where done i.e. from LAØBY down into 9A & S5 over 1.600 km, and between G/PA and OH, even on 70 cm! EI3KD reported hearing the SK1UHF 70 cm beacon on Gotland, that’s a whopping 1.800 km! A pity nobody of the SM1 guys was on to provide him with a QSO. These are the moments where I wish to be QRV on 70 cm again but taking it seriously, is it worth it for that one big tropo once every 10 years? 😉 Also read that EI3KD finally worked SP4MPB on 2 m, that’s almost 2.000 km on tropo! Amazing …

Only did a few QSOs myself as I had some other things to do besides radio. But signals were great most of the time! Did a few more audio recordings, see below. Nice to catch SM4DXO in JP71! It’s been a very long time since I worked a new square on tropo. 😉

Also remembered reading about a new tropo forecasting website in the past. A quick Google search revealed F5LEN’s refractive index forecast for Europe. It seems to be much more accurate than Hepburn’s tropo index. The two pictures above show the forecasts for 18z and midnight and are sorta identical to my experience on the band.

------------------------------------------------------------------
TIME   CALLSIGN        LOCATOR TX      RX      BAND  MODE      QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------
17:17  OZ5AGJ          JO47IA  59      59      2 m.  SSB       551
19:40  SM4GGC          JO69RK  59      59      2 m.  SSB       696
19:46  SM4BDQ          JP8ØFG  59      59      2 m.  SSB       799
20:20  SM4DXO          JP71SB  57      59      2 m.  SSB       879
20:44  LAØBY           JO59IX  59      59      2 m.  SSB       785
21:14  LA6LCA          JO59FE  59      59      2 m.  SSB       706
21:53  OH1UM           KPØ1UL  59      59      2 m.  SSB      1024
21:56  OH1ND           KPØØXL  59      59      2 m.  SSB       936
22:04  OH1XT           KPØ1UK  559     599     2 m.  CW       1020
22:11  SM7WW           JO65OR  59      59      2 m.  SSB       290
22:15  OH1OP           KP1ØGL  52      59      2 m.  SSB       954
------------------------------------------------------------------

SM4BDQ:

OH1XT:

OH1ND:

SK1VHF/B, the Gotland beacon:

SK4MPI/B, the Aurora warning beacon, this time on tropo for a change: 😉

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