Greece on 2m, and a VHF lift.

I have been away for ten days or so. We went to the Netherlands. There should be a photo at this point of me sitting in a Dutch garden playing radio with my dongle and laptop computer. Sadly it turned out that we did not take that photograph.

So this is the only suitable photo there is, which is of me soaking up the culture in the Netherlands.

GM4FVM at De Rosier in Vught, Netherlands (photo Mrs FVM)

Well, it is in fact Belgian culture I am soaking up, but close enough.

Yes I did listen on my dongles, but obviously the performance was limited by using portable antennas. Anyway, it passed the time in what was not meant to be a radio holiday.

Before I left GM-land a reasonable tropo opening arrived, and this came alongside the annual Sporadic E increase.

6 metre band

50MHz contacts at GM4FVM 29 May to 6 June 2023

Although there was not a lot of very distant DX on 6m, I did work an all-time new DXCC in the shape of Lebanon. OD5VB was also the best DX at 3770km.

As usual, click on the images if you need more resolution. 

4 metre band

70MHz contacts at GM4FVM 29 May to 6 June 2023

Meanwhile, on 4m there were some nice openings which brought the 2023 DXCC list up to 22 countries. There was one new entry on the all-time DXCC list, Ceuta and Melilla (at last). I finally managed to work EA9IB on 50W after several years of trying to reach that territory on 70MHz.

2 metre band

144MHz contacts at GM4FVM 29 May to 6 June 2023

High pressure over the North Sea for most of this period helped a lot on 2m, but it was Sporadic E which brought the best results. My contact with Tom, SV8PEX, took two years to achieve. Back in July 2021, here, I posted this ...

"Later Thomas emailed me. He is as keen to work me as I am to work him. He confirmed what I had thought, that there was a large tropo duct in the Adriatic Sea, and that must have connected to the Es event. He said that he was hearing me for a long time, but he could not get through the pileup (!!!).

Maybe another duct, at either end, may make this possible eventually. My best 2m Es DX is still 2333km so it is not totally inconceivable. However, earlier in July I had emailed G0JCC with my view that working SV from here was "not practical". Clearly, once again, I don't know what I am talking about. Or maybe all those factors have changed my mind.

Still, SV8PEX heard me, and I heard him. That is good, but not a QSO. Next time, maybe."

Now I have made the QSO. Two QSOs actually.

I have been in touch with Tom again. In fact I worked him twice, with about 40 minutes between the contacts. Initially I was unsure if the first QSO had been completed, so when I saw him calling again with no reply I risked calling him a second time. He confirmed later that both QSOs were complete.

Once again, I suspect that this was tropo linking into Sporadic E. Double hop Es on 2m is pretty rare and the distance to SV8PEX is 2408km is too far for single hop. Whilst I have worked 3260km on tropo that was fairly unusual too. That contact with EA8 was mostly over a sea path, whereas here to Greece involves crossing Europe and the Alps along the way. Not being mostly a sea path and with high mountains in the way makes me doubt that this could be tropo all the way.

It seems to me that as the ends of the contact were over the sea (the North Sea at one end and the Adriatic Sea at the other) then probably tropo over one or both extended the Es far enough to make the contact. I did work some other stations around this time, S5 and 9A, but nothing further than SV8PEX. New DXCCs do not appear on 2m so often any more, so that was much appreciated.

Incidentally S51AT appears on my map in the wrong place. I must have entered the wrong locator. I have now corrected that in my log. I must be more careful ...  

70 centimetre band

432MHz contacts at GM4FVM 29 May to 6 June 2023

Activity on 70cm was pretty low by comparison. However, I always enjoy UHF DX, and 31 QSOs in 8 countries is certainly not to be sniffed at.

 23 centimetre band

On 23cm I worked OV3T and OZ2ND. Not worth a map, maybe, but I still reckon that a couple of contacts over 650km at 1295MHz is a pretty good outcome.

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The weather in Netherlands was pretty good and the high pressure has continued until my return, so there may be some more high VHF contacts to list shortly. 

I am sitting here listening to South Norway Coastguards, and I just worked LA on 1296MHz.

"Nae bad" as they say round here. "Pas mal", as I might say in some other setting.

73 

Jim GM4FVM