The tropo event of Sept 1 and 2 was the first real good VHF tropo event
that I have experienced in many years here in Maine.I had suspected that
something would occur around this time as the Hepburn map looked
promisingseveral days beforehand, but, as is often the case, things
started to unravel and the great condx promised had been downgraded to
just a possibility for us tropo starved beings in Northern New England.
There had been some great East West tropo the morning before, but the
good paths were confined to southern New England. The Midwest has had so
much tropo lately, that they are getting sick of it I am sure. This time
it looked like southern New England would get good conditions, but
stations to the East and North would get shut out.
The latest scientific nomenclature employed these days is an offshoot
from the APRS propagation maps. If you are in an area conducive to
inversion layers and enhanced propagation, you are in “The Blob”. If you
are not in the “BLOB”, you are out of luck. Well on Friday night, the
Blob was forming up and covered the mid Atlantic states out to the
midwest as far as Kansas and Nebraska. On the Eastward side, the Blob
stopped at mid Vermont and did not extend anymore eastward than that. It
was about 100+ miles away! That fact was somewhat depressing!
I was up in the shack after dinner at 23:00 UT and monitoring the
beacons. I saw nothing unusual. W3CCX/B on 222.060 had a typical strong
summertime signal with little fading. No beacons were heard farther
South. K4LY was on and we tried a sked on 222 with nothing heard. Other
paths farther south and west were working for those folks, but things
were quiet and normal up here.After about 45 minutes of no success, I
tried looking West again on 222 MHz and a bit after 8PM local time, I
decoded K9MRI in Indiana for my first of the evening. I was surprised
and instantly excited! We worked quickly and the tropo event was ON!
Another 40 minutes of listening and calling produced a signal from AA9MY
in Illinois. Then AA4ZZ was contacted on both 222 and 432 on a 232
degree SW heading. An hour earlier the path to AA4ZZ was not there. I
tried again with K4LY on 222 but had no luck.I think the success rate
depended on geography and elevation. I then worked Bob K8TQK in EM89 on
both 222 and 432 SSB/CW, a 700 mile path, but then waited almost an hour
before the next DX station appeared. It went on like that all night.A
station would just come up out of the noise for a few minutes and then
disappear again with an equally mysterious exit.
I kept watching for the “Blob” to slide Eastward, but it never did. For
the rest of the evening I had to keep monitoring the bands, and keep
making calls.As the upper level winds swirled the air layers around, it
would sometimes align and allow signals to come to ground here in Maine
and I would have a few minutes of great signals and then soon after, all
reception stopped for long periods.At 02:25 UT N9LB came up out of the
noise and I was aware that N0LWF was active in EN10 as well. I peaked
the sharp 222 tropo array on his actual azimuth, and to my surprise,
N0LWF was there calling me. That is a 1300+ mile contact on 222 MHz, and
the best distance of the night so far.
During that same tropo peak, I switched to 432 and immediately started
working stations on that band as well. The best distance was to KC0CF in
EN32 at 1156 miles and with rather strong signals. Then things faded out
and I had 30 minutes of no signals heard at all. At 0326 UT up to 0419
UT signals were back in on 432, but no more signals on 222. It was
getting late and activity was dropping. At 04:19 K2DRH went on 222 and
we worked right off with loud signals.Things had slowed down greatly, so
I called it a night at about 04:30 UT with plans to be up early to catch
the early birds getting on in the morning.
I was up at the shack at about 10:00 UT and made my first QSO at 10:23
with W9FF on 432 at over 1000 miles and then switched to 222 and worked
a bunch of “new blood” including K0TPP at 1067 miles in EM48.A few
minutes later at 11:05 UT, I had my best distance QSO of the event as
KF0M started rolling in on 222 MHz from EM17. The distance was quite a
haul at 1437 miles. I am not sure, but I think that is my personal best
DX on tropo for 222 MHz. It was all anti climactic after that. The bands
held together up until about 12:30 UT (8:30 AM local time) It looked as
if the long haul tropo had dissipated around that time. Other long
distance contacts made after the KF0M QSO included KA9CFD EN40 at
11:17,and N0PB EM3 at 12:13 UT andK0TPP in EM48 at 12:23. These were all
in the 1000-1100 mile category.
Here is a copy of my log for the evening and following morning.
DATETIMECALLGRIDTXRXBANDMODE QRB (Miles)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/02/2023 00:08 K9MRIEN70IU-18-17220 MHzFT8TR754
09/02/2023 00:46 AA9MYEN50FM-18220 MHzFT8TR973
09/02/2023 01:07 AA4ZZEM96-4-11220 MHzFT8710+-
09/02/2023 01:15 AA4ZZEM96-470 cm. FT8710+-
09/02/2023 01:18 K8TQKEM89JE5858220 MHz SSB698
09/02/2023 01:19 K8TQKEM89JE559 55970 cm. CW698
09/02/2023 02:11 W8PATEM66GM-16-19220 MHzFT8992
09/02/2023 02:25 N9LBEN52-8+1220 MHzFT8910+-
09/02/2023 02:27 N0LWFEN10WM-14-17220 MHzFT81303
09/02/2023 02:49 W9EWZEN52-8-2470 cm. FT8910+-
09/02/2023 02:52 W7JWEN82-870 cm. FT8609+-
09/02/2023 02:53 KC0CFEN32CG-4-270 cm. FT81156
09/02/2023 02:57 VA3MWFN03-15-1970 cm. FT8401+-
09/02/2023 03:26 W9DEYEN52RP-11-0170 cm. FT8888
09/02/2023 03:28 N9LBEN52-19-1670 cm. FT8910+-
09/02/2023 03:33 WE9REN63-16-1070 cm. FT8801+-
09/02/2023 03:33 WA4YAFN42-19-2370 cm. FT860+-
09/02/2023 03:35 N2OAFN03-14-1470 cm. FT8401+-
09/02/2023 03:51 K9MRIEN70IU-14-1270 cm. FT8754
09/02/2023 04:03 K2DRHEN41VR-11-0370 cm. FT8984
09/02/2023 04:17 N9UMEN52WG-20-1270 cm. FT8871
09/02/2023 04:19 K2DRHEN41VR-20+04220 MHzFT8984
09/02/2023 10:13 W9FFEM48RK-14-1370 cm. FT81075
09/02/2023 10:19 N2WKFN03XE-14220 MHzFT8356
09/02/2023 10:27 N2JQRFN13CE-14220 MHzFT8344
09/02/2023 10:42 K0TPPEM48TK-14220 MHzFT81067
09/02/2023 10:49 W9VHFEN71-1370 cm. FT8724+-
09/02/2023 10:56 AA4ZZEM96+14+ 1670 cm. FT8710+-
09/02/2023 11:05 KF0MEM17HO-16-13220 MHzFT81437
09/02/2023 11:06 K8ZREN91-16220 MHzFT8525 +-
09/02/2023 11:13 K4WMSFM17KS-16+2870 cm. FT8505
09/02/2023 11:15 VA3IKEEN82QB-3070 cm. FT8600
09/02/2023 11:17 KA9CFDEN40-70070 cm. FT81044+-
09/02/2023 11:28 K9MRIEN70IU 0220 MHzFT8754
09/02/2023 11:41 KE8FDEN80TJ+2+ 4220 MHzFT8622
09/02/2023 11:42 N9AKREN61-5-4220 MHzFT8824+-
09/02/2023 11:44 VE3DSFN03FQ270 cm. FT8430
09/02/2023 12:13 N0PBEM39WO-14-0870 cm. FT81123
09/02/2023 12:18 KU8YEN61+9+1570 cm. FT8824+-
09/02/2023 12:23 K0TPPEM48TK-18-0970 cm. FT81067
09/02/2023 12:28 WB8ARTEM79-12-2070 cm. FT8771+-
09/02/2023 12:37 KE8FDEN80TJ+23+13220 MHz FT8622
09/02/2023 12:49 VE3CIQFN15-19-1570 cm.FT8330+-
I was late for a family get together on Saturday at our camp, so pulled
the plug after 12:30 UT and headed out. I was sure happy that I finally
caught a decent tropo opening. They sure seem rare up here in Northern
New England, so I was especially glad to have caught something at all. I
was very fortunate to squeeze out 43 QSOs on 222 and 432 during the opening.
I was back home on Sunday night, and saw that the Midwest and Great
Lakes were having another fantastic tropo session. I Tried for awhile,
but never heard any DX as I was about 150 miles too far East of the
action. I did work W8PAT at 590 miles and K8TQK in EM89 on 222, but they
are just out beyond my normal distances covered on 222 MHz, so I did not
get too excited and after about 2 hours of no more signals, I called it
a night. On Monday morning, I had the same conditions. No weather
patterns had moved into northern New England and conditions were just
average with no DX detected in any direction.
For the record, my antennas for 222 and 432 at at an elevation of about
960 ft above sea level. To the west I can see a ridge line about 15
miles away. I suspect that the quantity of signals heard might be
dependent on antenna elevation. It would be interesting to compare notes
with other stations nearby. Unfortunately, I do not have any 144
antennas at the moment.
73
Dave K1WHS
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