Category Archives: Propagation

Perseids have started

Posted on August 8, 2020 by dh8bqa

It was quite quiet on the blog here during the last few days and weeks. Not much time to play radio but as one of the most intense Meteor Showers of the year is approaching I decided to take a … Continue reading →

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Rare 2 m ES to the Northeast

Posted on July 3, 2020 by dh8bqa

Arrived early afternoon at the station today. Wanted to prepare a few things for the VHF contest this weekend and was monitoring the bands, of course. Thus no surprise I caught another short 2 m ES opening, this time to … Continue reading →

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New squares on 4 m

Posted on June 29, 2020 by dh8bqa

A few single QSOs during the last few days only. A little longer opening to the Balkans today on 70 MHz providing two new squares with JN85 and KN06! 😎 Both are well under 1.000 km so needing a higher … Continue reading →

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Sporadic-E on 2 m again

Posted on June 21, 2020 by dh8bqa

Not very active during the last 2 weeks. Either no condx or me being too busy with QRL stuff. Just caught two smaller 4 m openings last Sunday (June 14) to Finland in the morning and Greece in the afternoon … Continue reading →

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A new square on 6 m & some thoughts

Posted on June 7, 2020 by dh8bqa

Only one QSO today: TA7OM from KN80 providing square #690 on 50 MHz. Despite this I haven’t done much on 6 m this season yet. Seems I somehow lost interest in the band as almost all activity has shifted to … Continue reading →

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Finland on 4 m

Posted on June 6, 2020 by dh8bqa

A short opening to Finland this morning, doesn’t happen too often. KP13 for a new square, now #206. All references for OH8JGG show KP24AE as his locator but he was clearly sending KP23 himself so will probably have to wait … Continue reading →

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OY – Faröer Islands #45 on 70 MHz

Posted on June 1, 2020 by dh8bqa

Another new country in the log on 4 m and square #205! 😎 Glad to catch him this morning, had heard him a few days ago already but no luck back then. This time skip fitted perfectly so easy going. … Continue reading →

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CQ WPX CW ’20

Posted on June 1, 2020 by dh8bqa

Well, I felt a bit uneasy before this one. There was a small tipps & tricks section in last week’s BCC newsletter about the upcoming WPX-CW contest and being interviewed I said there’s a 70% chance of good Sporadic-E conditions … Continue reading →

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Another 2 m Sporadic-E …

Posted on May 31, 2020 by dh8bqa

Being active in the WPX-CW contest this weekend (report to follow) I monitored 2 m in parallel and caught another ES opening. 😎 —————————————————————— TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB —————————————————————— 15:25 EA6VQ JM19MP -08 -02 2 … Continue reading →

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Best VHF-DX day ever!

Posted on May 29, 2020 by dh8bqa

I’ve been active on the VHF bands for almost 30 years now and certainly experienced one or another great VHF-DX day. But what we experienced today certainly deserves the definition as “Best VHF-DX day ever”! The 6, 4 & 2 … Continue reading →

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Another 2 m ES opening

Posted on May 27, 2020 by dh8bqa

Another short ES opening this morning! Not positioned favourably, signals very much in & out, but some QSOs made at least: —————————————————————— TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB —————————————————————— 08:49 UA4ALU LN29LA -17 -05 2 m. FT8 … Continue reading →

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First 2 m ES / 4 m to the UK

Posted on May 26, 2020 by dh8bqa

Glad to catch my first 2 m Sporadic-E this year! Marginal opening to UA6 from here, FT8 had to deliver. 😉 LN26 was a new square, #587. Almost missed the opening! Was sitting on the balcony sipping my morning coffee … Continue reading →

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Great VHF day!

Posted on May 25, 2020 by dh8bqa

Great day on VHF today! First QSO was with RD4AN in LN19 on 6 m. A new square, of course, as operation on 50 MHz in Russia is officially not yet allowed as far as I know. There were a … Continue reading →

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Patchy 70 MHz openings today

Posted on May 24, 2020 by dh8bqa

A few patchy openings this morning. Great to see the first double hop ES that early in the season! Looking at the differences between sent and received reports I feel I probably need more power! 😉 —————————————————————— TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR … Continue reading →

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Sporadic-E season hast started

Posted on May 23, 2020 by dh8bqa

Time to dedust the station. 😉 Didn’t do much (not to say nothing) during the last few weeks. But being a VHF addict as you know it’s time to pay more attention to the radio from mid-May for possible Sporadic-E … Continue reading →

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Another January Tropo

Posted on January 21, 2020 by dh8bqa

Again some tropo, this time also fitting for JO73. 🙂 Forecast showed some possible condx for yesterday already but nothing over here while the colleagues in JO64 could already work some DX. Today sigs came up over here, too. Signals … Continue reading →

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VHF condx around the turn of the year

Posted on January 5, 2020 by dh8bqa

There were some great tropo openings between 28th December and 5th January, just not here. 🙁 😉 Besides the usual path between EA and G it also opened between EA and PA/ON + West-DL, then extended up to OZ/SM6 and … Continue reading →

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ARRL-10M ’19 … or a Meteor Scatter Contest ;-)

Posted on December 17, 2019 by dh8bqa

One would think it’s total nonsense to struggle through a 48 hours contest for only 250 QSOs. Except, you are a bit crazy and/or a total fan of the 10 m band. Well, I’m probably both! 😀 On the other … Continue reading →

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CQ WWDX SSB ’19

Posted on October 29, 2019 by dh8bqa

Uwe, DL3BQA, was going for a serious 80 m entry as DMØY in this one. For me it was only a part time activity. Travelled the 420 km from Hamburg to the station after QRL on Friday and had to … Continue reading →

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Perseids Meteor Scatter Report ’19

Posted on August 16, 2019 by dh8bqa

Moving QTH is basically finished, everything’s setup in the new flat … living room, kitchen, children’s room, a.s.o. all operational, just the shack/office needs a bit more work. 😀 Anyway, time to play some radio again in the Perseids meteor … Continue reading →

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