I suspected that something might happen last evening after a quick look
at the hepburn map (https://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html) It showed
a slight enhancement over most of New England but with some unsettled
areas near the southern coast of New England. These unsettled areas have
disturbances that can wreck any air layering process. Those are
thunderstorms. What got my attention was that there was some strong
layering over the two eastern Great Lakes, specifically Lake Erie. I was
hoping that such a condition would enhance some East_West paths from
Northern New England. The slight enhancement in New England would help
that along. That was my thinking.
I checked 222 MHZ in the afternoon and found that the few beacons I
could hear were weaker than a normal night time level. I figured that
things might improve. I was heading out the door at 22:30 UT to get on
222, when the phone rang. It was a towing service and they said they
were calling for my brother. Well, I knew this didn't sound good. They
wanted me to drive there and bring him back to his house. They were
towing the car in the opposite direction. Turns out he had an accident.
It was all caused by having his hula dancer that was mounted on his
dashboard suddenly let go and fall off. Naturally, you cannot drive
properly without a bobbing hula dancer, so he leaned down to retrieve
the driving aid, and managed to cross over the road and hit a stone
wall. Not good. He is OK and i believe that the hula dancer survived as
well. The car...not so much. I was a bit late for 222 night as a
result, but I did get on at about 23:30 UT.
Some highlights of the evening included a huge meteor with doppler from
K3SK. He was on FT8 and I heard a tone way out of the passband and it
built up and drifted down into the passband and went out the other side!
It was loud. I was hearing lots of pings all evening, but never ran an
MS try. There were many long distance QSOs: W8ZN FM09 at 776 km, KA2ENE
FN13 (50w) 533 km, WA3EOQ FM09 805 km, K3WHC FN10 607 km, K3SK FM07
915 km, and VA3IKE EN82 963 km, and VE3DS FN03 692 km. The VA3IKE
contact was very gratifying as it bolstered my opinion on Great Lake
prop from Northern New England. Any big enhancement on the lakes can
assist in working stations beyond your normal range. Looking at the
Hepburn map convinced me to try and, holy smokes, VA3IKE came through
very loud. I sent a -8 on Q65B, but he peaked at -5 and his signal had
red highlights on it looking at the waterfall. I tried to get him to go
on SSB, but he ran off for another Q65 sked. I think Ike was very
successful last night. He only runs 25 watts so his signal here was
nuts! I could not believe it. So I tried a tropo sked wit K9MRI in
EN70, two grids to the South and we had no luck. The enhancement was
definitely Lake Erie related!! Here is my log for the evening.
DATE TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE
PRO.REMARKS QRB (km)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
07/15/2025 23:22 WB2VVV FN41 -12 220 MHzQ65 TR
208
07/15/2025 23:24 WW1Z FN42ET 59 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 84
07/15/2025 23:26 WB2SIH FN31DD 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 337
07/15/2025 23:30 W8ZN FMØ9TE 549 549 220 MHzCW
TR 776
07/15/2025 23:32 W1AUV FN32II 59 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 223
07/15/2025 23:35 K1PXE FN31 fn43 fn31 220 MHzSSB
TR 265+-
07/15/2025 23:38 WZ1V FN31RH fn43 220 MHzSSB
TR 266
07/15/2025 23:39 WA3NUF FN2ØKE 55 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 496
07/15/2025 23:44 KA2ENE FN13FE 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 533
07/15/2025 23:50 W1GHZ FN34 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 203+-
07/15/2025 23:53 K2AEP FN32OW 57 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 157
07/15/2025 23:59 W1AIM FN34 59 59 220 MHzCW
TR 203+-
07/16/2025 00:02 WA3EOQ FMØ9JO 449 449 220 MHzCW
TR 805
07/16/2025 00:02 W1AIM FN34 57 59 220 MHzCW TR
203+-
07/16/2025 00:12 W9KXI FN12NE 55 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 501
07/16/2025 00:25 K3WHC FN1ØPA +9 -02 220 MHzFT8
TR 607
07/16/2025 00:28 K3SK FMØ7TJ -25 -26 220 MHz Q65
TR 915
07/16/2025 00:31 KB2KIR FN22EN 57 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 391
07/16/2025 00:40 KC2KAE FN2ØXX 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 370
07/16/2025 00:41 KA3FQS FN2ØJF 57 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 498
07/16/2025 00:48 W1XIV FN34JJ 57 220 MHzFT8
TR 212
07/16/2025 00:52 VA3IKE EN82QB -8 -8 220 MHz Q65B
TR 963
07/16/2025 01:19 VE3DS FNØ3FQ 559 559 220 MHzCW
TR 692
07/16/2025 01:33 K3WHC FN1ØPA 55 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 607
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of QSO listed: 24
73
Dave k1whs
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