Oh boy, what a great VHF DX day today! Already late morning there were spots on the DX cluster reporting Aurora QSOs some 2.500 to 3.500 km east from here, i.e. between UA4 and UA9. It did not look like we would get something serious overhere. LA8AV popped out of the noise on 2 m via AU around 13z and vanished quickly after. SM4IVE made an appearance an hour later but disappeared afterwards, too. All just in and out. Then the band finally opened a bit more around 14:30z allowing to work the usual suspects in a medium class Aurora opening. GM6VXB/P was a nice surprise again. After having worked Martin from IO57 for a new square last weekend he was now on the Shetland Islands handing out IP90. Had worked that square before but always nice to catch somebody there, does not happen very often. After 16z things got really interesting when UA3MBJ called me with a great 56A signal. Kept the beam dir 40-50° and worked a bunch of UA1, UA3 & UR stations up to 1.600 km distance. That’s when I call it a great opening! 🙂 Would not believe my ears when RA3SI sent LO04PT as his locator, my first ever contact into the LO field on 2 m via Aurora! I had worked a (small) number of LO squares on ES and MS before but never via AU. LO04 was nothing new either but it did provide a new Aurora ODX for me at 1.769 km. 😎
The opening lasted until 20z overhere. Seems it also extended further south in Europe at times as IK3VZO/JN55 reported hearing me with up to 52A while I was working the Russians. After all had settled an Aurora-E opening, i.e. Sporadic-E triggered by Aurora condx, suddenly started providing nice strong (and clear sounding) signals especially on 10 m and to a lesser degree on 6 m. Seems I was not in the right spot for 6 m but caught a few QSOs there, too. Also made a few audio recordings again, see below.
I made some 80 QSOs in total (Elecraft K3, 600 W & 9 ele LFA on my remote in JO73ce). To apply some kind of filter to keep the list short(er) 😉 only QSOs > 800 km are shown:
------------------------------------------------------------------ TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB ------------------------------------------------------------------ 14:44 YL2FZ KO37QI 55A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 952 15:03 GM6VXB/P IP9ØNT 57A 49A 2 m. CW AUR 1241 15:38 OH2KW KP2ØIJ 57A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 1023 15:59 OH4LA KP2ØLG 59A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 1022 16:11 UA3MBJ KO87QV 56A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 1539 16:13 RA1WU KO47ES 55A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 1025 16:15 EW6EM KO54EM 52A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 1068 16:18 RK1AS KP4ØUE 42A 56A 2 m. CW AUR 1220 16:19 RM1A KO59BU 55A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 1220 16:21 RT1W KO47EI 56A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 1007 16:22 EW1KP KO33TW 54A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 888 16:24 UX7LQ KN79XW 55A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 1539 16:28 UT8LN KN89AW 59A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 1545 16:31 UA1WCF KO55IR 56A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 1100 16:35 EW1AA KO33RU 55A 55A 2 m. CW AUR 878 16:41 UA1ASA KO48GH 54A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 1059 16:45 LB5WB JP2ØQH 55A 55A 2 m. CW AUR 956 16:46 EU6AF KO35LA 57A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 854 16:50 UE56W KO47DT 56A 58A 2 m. CW AUR 1022 16:53 UA3DHC KO95AW 57A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 1558 16:54 RD3FD KO95CO 56A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 1568 16:58 RA3SI LOØ4PT 52A 55A 2 m. CW AUR 1769 17:08 RO3X KO73FU 56A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 1336 17:11 GM3WOJ IO77WS 59A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 1257 17:23 GM4PPT IO75SK 59A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 1232 17:33 GM4JJJ IO86GB 57A 55A 2 m. CW AUR 1177 17:40 RA1WJ KO37TT 54A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 986 17:57 RA3FP KO94AV 54A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 1560 18:06 UA3AFV KO95BV 55A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 1563 18:07 SM5DWF JP9ØJA 59A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 809 18:13 UA3LID KO64CN 55A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 1186 18:28 LB8DC JP5ØXH 59A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 804 18:31 GM8IEM IO78HF 55A 57A 2 m. SSB AUR 1342 18:49 UA3WM KO72QI 53A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 1421 18:57 ES3RF KO29IF 59A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 932 19:00 EI3KD IO51VW 56A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 1515 19:22 EW6DX KO45JL 53A 55A 2 m. CW AUR 977 19:28 YL2GD KO37ML 59A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 939 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 21:12 LA1MFA JP99BF 599 599 10 m. CW AuE 1795 21:55 OH6DX KP32EQ 59 59 10 m. SSB AuE 1272 22:09 LB2TB JO59NP 599 599 10 m. CW AuE 742 22:15 OH8MXJ KP23KV 59 59 10 m. SSB AuE 1338 22:20 LA9BM JP4ØCN 599 599 6 m. CW AuE 896 22:41 GM4VVX IO78TA 579 57A 6 m. CW AuE 1279 ------------------------------------------------------------------
Having talked about the difficulties of SSB on Aurora in my last blog entry I took the time this time to do some audio recordings to practically show the differences. Please take a listen to the following 2 sound files yourself …
GM8IEM SSB Aurora on 2 m:
OZ6HQ SSB Aurora on 6 m:
Now which one did you find easier to “read”? I’m sure it was the 6 m file. 😉 Both were about equal signal strength. And now compare those concerning readability to the following 2 sound files and you’ll know why I definitely do prefer “brass pounding” during Aurora openings … 😉
SM4IVE CW Aurora on 2 m:
LAØBY CW Aurora on 2 m: