Category Archives: Propagation

SØ – Western Sahara #136 on 6 m

Posted on May 28, 2015 by dh8bqa

Well, not much worked during the week. Bands were rather flat. 6 m just only opened quite nicely this evening but I spent most of my time on 4 m again as there was a big ES opening in Western … Continue reading →

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ZP – Paraguay #135 on 6 m

Posted on May 17, 2015 by dh8bqa

Another day without any ES overhere. Was not very sad this time as I could spent all afternoon in bed trying to recover from a flu I caught on Friday and not fearing to miss anything on the bands. 😉 … Continue reading →

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TJ – Cameroon #134 on 6 m

Posted on May 16, 2015 by dh8bqa

Propagation sucked today. Six and above stayed closed all day long. Thus I had to rely on Meteor Scatter to work something new. The Camb-Hams are currently active as GS3PYE/P from the Isle of Mull, IOTA EU-008, in the relatively rare … Continue reading →

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More 4 m and first 2 m Sporadic E this year

Posted on May 15, 2015 by dh8bqa

What an interesting day! Just worked two OH1’s on MS for a new country and square before leaving for QRL in the morning. So could only watch all the fun on the cluster and DXMaps website. Seems 6 & 4 … Continue reading →

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First 4 m ES opening + 6 m ES/TEP link

Posted on May 14, 2015 by dh8bqa

Father’s Day is a public holiday overhere so I had the chance to be at the station early morning already. Sporadic E season has started and the whole day saw massive ES propagation over all of Europe. MUF went up … Continue reading →

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My first week on “four”

Posted on May 12, 2015 by dh8bqa

Having spent my first week on the new for me 4 m band it might be a good time to sum up my first experiences. As anticipated the band is very interesting. Despite running QRP only into a small 5 ele Yagi … Continue reading →

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Small Aurora tonight

Posted on May 6, 2015 by dh8bqa

Had a rather small Aurora opening this evening with signals fast in & out. Worked: —————————————————————— TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB —————————————————————— 17:05 LAØBY JO59FW 55A 55A 2 m. CW AUR 784 17:13 SM5KWU JO89IP 57A 57A … Continue reading →

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First 4 m QSOs done

Posted on May 5, 2015 by dh8bqa

Finally found a bit time late this evening and worked my first two 70 MHz tropo QSOs with Greg, SP3RNZ, in JO92 (300 km) and Marek, SP2MKO, in JO93 (267 km). Also tried with SP9HWY in JO90 (465 km) whom … Continue reading →

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Temporary permit to use 4 m in DL again! :-)

Posted on April 29, 2015 by dh8bqa

German BNetzA informed today (Amtsblatt 8/2015, Mitteilung Nr. 412/2015) that they allow German class A radio amateurs to operate on 4 m again during the upcoming Sporadic E season. 😎 Effective from today the permit is valid until 31 August 2015 … Continue reading →

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CQ-WPX-SSB 2015

Posted on March 30, 2015 by dh8bqa

Another WPX-SSB is done. Although not planned I managed to take Friday off and drive the 700 km to the station the night from Thursday to Friday already. Was certainly the better choice than driving after QRL on Friday evening … Continue reading →

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Superb Aurora opening

Posted on March 18, 2015 by dh8bqa

Thanks to the phone alert by Heiko, DG1BHA, I managed to get out of QRL not too late yesterday evening. There was a very strong Aurora going on and Heiko being at our station had already worked over 20 stations … Continue reading →

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Weak and short Aurora opening this evening

Posted on February 17, 2015 by dh8bqa

Had a very small and weak Aurora opening on 2 m this evening. Did not last longer than 20 minutes. The SK4MPI Aurora warning beacon was barely audible via Aurora which is quite unusual even in weak openings. Elsewise only … Continue reading →

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CQ-WPX-RTTY 2015

Posted on February 16, 2015 by dh8bqa

Another RTTY contest is history. After I was rather disappointed after last year’s CQ-WWDX-RTTY this one was real fun! Uwe, DL3BQA, was going to use our station as the 1st OP again and had the choice of band. He decided … Continue reading →

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Tropo – the final

Posted on February 12, 2015 by dh8bqa

Taking the F5LEN tropo forecast into account I anticipated the tropo would move further east this morning and then start to vanish. Today is Fat Thursday in the Cologne carnival which means we only have to work half-day. What a … Continue reading →

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More tropo and square #507 on 2 m

Posted on February 11, 2015 by dh8bqa

      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, … Continue reading →

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Nice 2 m tropo opening tonight

Posted on February 10, 2015 by dh8bqa

Coming home after work today I saw a few spots on the cluster that looked like a bit of tropo enhancement between the UK and Western Europe. So I switched on the radio to check condx and boy, was lucky … Continue reading →

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Nice trans-polar 10 m opening this morning

Posted on February 7, 2015 by dh8bqa

Had a great trans-polar 10 m opening this morning. Worked KL7XU who was peaking 59 and said he was waiting for that opening for 12 years. 😉 WL7E had a nice signal on CW, too, but was only working (or not) … Continue reading →

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Aurora this afternoon

Posted on January 4, 2015 by dh8bqa

Certainly not too good for HF propagation and all the guys doing the ARRL RTTY Roundup this weekend but a nice start into the new year for the VHF fans. 😉 QSO by DH8BQA on 2 m. Type of propagation: … Continue reading →

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A few 2014 statistics

Posted on January 2, 2015 by dh8bqa

Now that 2014 is history time has come to do some statistical work. 😉 As already mentioned before this has been my most “radio active” year so far. I made almost 23.000 QSOs in total: 17.845 as DH8BQA, 2.816 as … Continue reading →

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10M-RTTY & skimmer spots analysis

Posted on December 8, 2014 by dh8bqa

Moving house is slowly taking over priorities overhere so as sad as it is seeing the still good condx I decided to skip the ARRL-10M next weekend and concentrate on moving things over to the new house. Uwe, DL3BQA, will … Continue reading →

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