After a long time with no decent tropo it has been an interesting week with a good opening to Scandinavia and the Baltic. Conditions were first good on 17th September when I worked OZ on 23 cms, but on 2 metres it seemed initially that the good propagation was going over our heads on the East Coast, with the West, Wales and Northern Ireland being favoured into Scandinavia. I cannot complain too much. I did make some good QSOs as the days moved on, the highlights being on 2 metres SM4GGC at 1183 km and on 70 cms SP1MVG who called me when I was just finishing with OZ1BNN. Poland was a new country on 70 cms and obviously a new square.
I run 100 watts on 2 metres and 10 watts on 23 cms with my IC-9700, and 50 watts on 70 cms using my FT991.
Here is a summary of the most pleasing contacts, all SSB:
| 2 metres | ||||
| 17/09/20 | OZ1BEF | JO46 | ||
| 18/09/20 | DK4EE | JO41 | ||
| DL2RZ | JO54 | |||
| 19/09/20 | GM4YXI | IO87 | ||
| GM0OQV | IO85 | |||
| 20/09/20 | DG8LG | JO44 | ||
| DL0CX | JO43 | |||
| DL5BBF | JO42 | |||
| SM4GGC | JO69 | 1183 km | ||
| OZ1BNN | JO55 | |||
| OZ6OL | JO65 | |||
| 21/09/20 | SM7GVF | JO77 | ||
| OZ8ZY | JO54 | |||
| GM4JOJ | IO97 | |||
| SM6VTZ | JO58 | |||
| 70 cms | ||||
| 17/09/20 | SM6VTZ | JO58 | ||
| OZ9FW | JO65 | |||
| 20/09/20 | DJ8MS | JO54 | ||
| DL4EEC | JO33 | |||
| MM0CEZ | IO75 | |||
| OZ1BNN | JO55 | |||
| SP1MVG | JO74 | 987 km | New country on 70 cms | |
| 21/09/20 | SM7GVF | JO77 | ||
| OZ4VW | JO45 | |||
| 23 cms | ||||
| 15/09/20 | OZ1FF | JO45 | ||
| 20/09/20 | DB8WK | JO33 |
Amateur Radio News from Jon Stow, G4MCU 