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 |
We had an interesting tropo event starting on 28th December and ending at my QTH on 30th. All QSOs were SSB. Conditions were very good to the East and North East, and good to the South and South West, but surprisingly from my QTH there was less propagation to the South East, so no HB9s etc. On 2 metres I used my newish IC9700 with 100 watts to my 7 element and on 70 cms my FT991 with 50 watts to a 13 element.
Amateur Radio News from Jon Stow, G4MCU 