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Old 18th Sep 2020, 6:33 pm   #1
SiriusHardware
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Default Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

According to the Hepburn Tropo Forecast there is a likelihood of decent tropo propagation over the North Sea this weekend (19-20th September 2020) so time to dust off all those barely used VHF and UHF amateur sets, especially those living near east facing UK coasts and of course continental amateurs on the other side of the north sea.

This activity may also affect UHF TV reception.

Hepburn forecast for north west Europe including the UK is here:

http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_nwe.html
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Old 18th Sep 2020, 6:48 pm   #2
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

Had a chat with a friend in the channel islands yesterday on our regular 144 MHz sked. Signals were 59+ both ways which is a rarity.

I did notice some co-channel interference on terrestrial TV last Monday and again last night.
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Old 18th Sep 2020, 6:58 pm   #3
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

I've been noticing some periodic 'fuzziness' while listening to semi-DX broadcast Band-II radio over the last couple of days.

Even though I've only got a triple-5/8-wave vertical for 144MHz, I may drag my FT897 up to the summerhouse [the highest point here, so the-place-to-instal-VHF-antennas] and see what I can work.
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Old 19th Sep 2020, 6:10 am   #4
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

It’s been good the last few days, Wednesday evening worked OZ, DL in IO50, 51 and 52 and a couple of OK’s from The Lizard, all well over 1000kms
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Old 19th Sep 2020, 12:18 pm   #5
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

Elevated condx on 4m too (Friday and Saturday)

Hearing GB3ANG at s7-9 and GB3CFG for the first

Today (Sat) GB3ANG also heard for the first time on 70cms on my low EME array

73 Fred G4BWP
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Old 19th Sep 2020, 12:22 pm   #6
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

Oh bs ... what a time to be working away from the Fuba UKA Stereo 8 / Woolies RDS FM set

Guy
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Old 19th Sep 2020, 12:25 pm   #7
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

Quote:
Originally Posted by dodgy-dxer View Post
Elevated condx on 4m too (Friday and Saturday)
That's interesting, I've always thought 4m was 'too low' to be much affected by Tropo. Or have we got Sp-E in the mix as well?

I may go out for a drive later - can't do much else in this area at the moment - and will stick 4m on as well. (Channelised FM only for me, though).
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Old 19th Sep 2020, 12:35 pm   #8
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

NASA have just declared we're at the beginning of the new solar cycle as well

David
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Old 19th Sep 2020, 10:11 pm   #9
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

So... how was it for you?

I did go out for a long cruise around Northumberland and almost as soon as I set off I heard a GM8 in SE Aberdeenshire working stations in Suffolk which I could not hear, so I thought that sounded promising, but it turned out that her situation is such that she regularly works Tyneside so being able to hear her wasn't the coup that I thought it was.

I didn't hear much the usual signs of Tropo activity - unknown repeaters waxing and waning, foreign stations working through UK repeaters, 'foreign'. UK accents from well beyond the horizon.... almost none of that, although the 2-metre repeater GB3NG (Fraserburgh?) was coming in quite strongly most of the time.

I had a 4m FM radio on as well and although there certainly was a beacon audible down near the bottom of the band I didn't hear any other activity and couldn't raise any activity on that band either.

Still, it was a nice day to go out for a drive. I did work over the border to an MM1 who was doing some SOTA on hilltops around Peebles, but that was my lot really.
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Old 20th Sep 2020, 10:53 pm   #10
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

What a difference a day makes... I met SWMBO outdoors today (Sunday) and we went for a walk along a southern section of the Cleveland way, north Yorkshire. I took my FT-60R handheld along and managed to work M(M)6BWA who was having the time of her life working stations far and wide from one of the SOTA summits near Moffat in the Scottish borders, many of them, including me, on 70cms, and when I worked her using the FT-60R I was using it with the supplied rubber antenna, nothing more.

So that was all good, and then when I parted company with SWMBO I drove over to one of my favourite high ground spots in the area, put out a call on 70cms and was answered immediately by a 30-over signal coming out of Cambridge. The path was so good that I reduced my inital power from 20W to 10W to 5W and then I got out of the car and went for a few overs on the FT60R, again just on the rubber aerial. In the same location, almost every simplex and repeater frequency on 2m had conversations going on, a few of them sounding like Dutch to me.

It's been a long time since I have experienced such good Tropo conditions. There was a time about two weeks after I was licenced (early nineties) when we had a week-long spell of intense Tropo, during which I managed to work Shetland using just a handheld from a Northumberland beach. I've never experienced anything like that again, but this was pretty close.
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Old 21st Sep 2020, 11:18 am   #11
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

144 MHz open to Scandinavia from the UK right now!
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Old 21st Sep 2020, 11:39 am   #12
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

Oh, I think I'd better have my lunch Al Fresco today! (In the car). I'm right on a river estuary here.
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Old 21st Sep 2020, 11:42 am   #13
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

My best in the 70,s was working Aberdeen at 5 9+ each way as I sat outside a pub near Rotherham using an IC202 on its whip.That was A3J btw (ssb).All of 3 watts if I remember correctly.
Those little rigs are quite sought after now,though mine has long be traded in.
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Old 21st Sep 2020, 1:16 pm   #14
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

I've just listened to a couple of French FM stations on 91.5 MHz and 87.7 MHz.

John
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Old 21st Sep 2020, 1:29 pm   #15
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

Sadly nothing but local repeaters and operators audible in my location in south east Northumberland just now. (Monday, post lunchtime). May take another look this evening.
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Old 21st Sep 2020, 3:38 pm   #16
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

My goodness, the skip was fantastic this morning. Got out all the way to the Isle of Wight on a 70cms repeater. So that UHF travelled 80 miles over the Chiltern hills, the south downs and back! That was only with 10 watts. I did try a few other stations around, but nothing else heard, but I'm at least impressed with that from a small colinear.
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Old 21st Sep 2020, 5:40 pm   #17
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

Unfortunately this particular event now seems to be on the wane (Monday evening) but I am glad I managed to catch a bit of it. I'm usually only aware of these things three days after they happened.
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Old 21st Sep 2020, 6:05 pm   #18
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

SM and LA were still being worked from Devon and the Home Counties this morning, all I got from The Lizard was PA and ON.
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Old 21st Sep 2020, 6:18 pm   #19
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

The forecast (linked to in #1) shows the last of the event lingering mainly in the eastern English channel before it all peters out. Over the next day or so it vanishes altogether (left-click on the forecast map to advance through the next few days).

Last edited by SiriusHardware; 21st Sep 2020 at 6:23 pm.
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Old 22nd Sep 2020, 2:24 pm   #20
Steve G4WCS
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Default Re: Tropo lift weekend of 19-20th Sep (2020)

missed it. Ive had an opportunity to buy a new (to me ) truck at an unmissable price, and have "de-radioed" the Navara, and thwe shack is in the throes of becoming partially a home office, so Im all over the show in terms of radios being put out of the way etc, glad it was enjoyed
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