Category Archives: VHF

Go west …

Posted on May 14, 2021 by dh8bqa

More 4 m openings today, this time propagation concentrating to the west with extremely strong signals from EI/GI/GW as well as EA. And the first double-hop opening bringing up S01WS/IL46 as well as EA8TX/IL18 (3.740 km), the latter even in … Continue reading →

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4 m ES – new antenna seems to work

Posted on May 13, 2021 by dh8bqa

The new antenna seems to work. 😉 Caught the first 70 MHz ES opening to Greece on 7/5/21, another one on 8/5/21 to Spain with EA9IB/IM85 as the highlight and a new country. Four has been open this afternoon as … Continue reading →

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IARU VHF CW aka Marconi Memorial Contest ’20

Posted on November 10, 2020 by dh8bqa

It’s been a few years since I last participated seriously in the Marconi Memorial Contest on 2 m. I tried to be QRV for some hours and hand out some points at least during the last few years. It’s always … Continue reading →

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Slightly enhanced tropo conditions

Posted on November 6, 2020 by dh8bqa

Arrived at the station here in JO73 this afternoon to prepare for the contest this weekend. Tropo condx are slightly enhanced again and predictions look good for the weekend, there might be a few surprises (hopefully). 😉 Worked these DX … Continue reading →

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Tropo summary

Posted on September 23, 2020 by dh8bqa
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Tropo seems to be over

Posted on September 22, 2020 by dh8bqa

Tropo seems to be over. A few QSOs in the morning then no DX signals anymore. Enjoyable five days of VHF DX although mostly FT8 only. But at least contacts could be made. In earlier years it would have been … Continue reading →

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Tropo shifting

Posted on September 21, 2020 by dh8bqa

The high pressure system is moving to the North-East. So just one QSO to Scotland still in the morning and nothing during the day but I also had to concentrate on QRL again. 😉 In the evening it was Scandinavia … Continue reading →

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Tropo still

Posted on September 20, 2020 by dh8bqa

Still pretty stable signals from Northern U.K. today. GI4SNA was pounding in all day long, amazing. Early evening EI2GLB popped up but was in & out only on FT8 but I finally caught him and thus crossing the 1.400 km … Continue reading →

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Tropo continues

Posted on September 19, 2020 by dh8bqa

Tropo condx continued today. There were some long distance contacts reported to the East in the morning, too, but only UR4WWT heard and worked over here which is pretty much normal tropo range (worked him several times on CW in … Continue reading →

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Tropo

Posted on September 18, 2020 by dh8bqa

Finally with a stable high pressure system across the North Sea and nice autumn weather (one month later we would call it a Golden October, hi) we got a little tropo, too. Not well suited here in JO73, it’s much … Continue reading →

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Perseids final

Posted on August 13, 2020 by dh8bqa

My final day being active in this year’s Perseids. Seems there was a second peak (or THE peak?) of meteor activity this morning. My gut feeling is the shower is still not on par with recent years. There were very … Continue reading →

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More new ones thanks to the meteors

Posted on August 12, 2020 by dh8bqa

Did we see the Perseids maximum already? Predictions suggested it would be early morning 12 August. The screenshot right (click to enlarge) seems to confirm it. If the maximum is over already it has indeed been the worst Perseids I … Continue reading →

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MS condx slowly improving

Posted on August 11, 2020 by dh8bqa

Besides playing with the satellites MS conditions improved a bit, too. Still way below usual for Perseids but at least three QSOs above 2.000 km already and three new squares with LO31, LN19 and IM79. 😎 Tried a little on … Continue reading →

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Working the birds …

Posted on August 11, 2020 by dh8bqa

Started playing with the satellite function of our IC-9700 during the last few days to escape the boredom of too few MS reflections. 😉 I made my first satellite QSOs back in 1992 not much later than getting my first … Continue reading →

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Quite a slow start

Posted on August 9, 2020 by dh8bqa

Not many reflections yet. A few long and strong ones as I produced at RQ3P (see screenshot) but still much less than we’re used to from earlier years. Usually spending most of my time on MS beaming East. Activity by … Continue reading →

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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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DARC July VHF Contest ’20

Posted on July 6, 2020 by dh8bqa

Oh boy. Seems this is the third year in a row to complain. 😀 Indeed conditions have been even worse than during the last few years. Saturday had such bad condx I could not even hear the big guns from … Continue reading →

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A band-pass filter for 144 MHz

Posted on July 3, 2020 by dh8bqa

To cure our severe RFI issue described in one of my recent blog posts I decided to order an 144 MHz BPF. Found it on Ebay first but finally ordered from the seller’s Italian web shop directly and saved another … 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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