Nice opening GM to Japan on 6m

Most years around the summer solstice there are unpredictable morning openings to Japan from here on 50MHz. I say "most years" and "around the solstice" but the whole thing is pretty unpredictable. So too are the operations I have to engage in to actually work anybody. Stations rise above the noise and often disappear within 60 seconds, requiring some pretty sharp reactions (which I don't have any more). As for around the solstice - I have worked this path as early as 2 June and as late as 23 July.

50MHz contacts at GM4FVM on 23 June 2025

As usual click to enlarge images if you wish. I am pleased to see that "Project Logview" has appeared to fill the gap left by the Log Analyser by Mario DL4MFM. My data analysis comes from HamStats by VA2NW. I will try to cover all this in a posting soon.

After listening and calling for quite a few days, there was finally just such an opening on 23 June. Between 08:31 and 09:03 I worked seven JAs in five squares. I also answered a call from OH6KXL. It is this contact with OH which shows the path these contacts follow. There has to be a Sporadic E opening to OH or thereabouts for me to link into the path which crosses close to the North Pole. 

Best DX was JR3REX in PM74 at 9158km. I only heard stations in Japan unlike at other openings where stations from Korea and China have sometimes appeared here. I tried and failed to work a station in Asiatic Russia at around the same time. This time signals were quite strong and I completed about 50% of contacts, which is much better than previous openings.

The two new squares I worked bring my all-time total for Japan on 6m to 19 squares. It has taken me six summers to do this via 50 QSOs, though I have only managed to reach Japan in four of those years. Realistically I have about five squares left to target in Japan, leaving out watery squares. I do not view it like that though, working 9000km to Japan on VHF remains great fun for me so new squares are pretty incidental.

When this path was initially discovered it was speculated that it might be a new type of propagation. More recently it has been suggested that it is just a special version of multi-hop Sporadic E. My own opinion is that it is multi-hop Es, however unlikely that seems in terms of the number of hops involved. 

Whatever - when it happens I really enjoy exploiting it. OK, most days it does not happen, and when it does I have to scrabble to make contacts. During one QSO seven JAs called me, none of which resulted in a completed contact. However, working 9000km on VHF? What is not to like? 

73 Jim

GM4FVM

3 and 4 June 2025 - Sporadic E +++

It has been suggested that sometimes I talk nonsense. In fact Mrs FVM has suggested this and not mentioned the word "sometimes". I asked her for written evidence but this request seemed to only make things worse for some reason.

Anyway, had she gone back to 7 May on this blog, she would have found me waffling about the dearth of opportunity on 70MHz. By 3 June I can accept that this was ... well ... maybe a bit strong. Not quite nonsense but not quite correct either. Possibly incorrect by several orders of magnitude. I might describe it as "striving for the truth".

On 3 June I worked 35 stations on 70MHz. Despite my earlier gloomy predictions about Italy I added the long missing square in Piedmont and extended my coverage south to Naples by adding the next two southern squares. There is still ground to cover in Southern Italy but I have at least made some. I heard a station near Bari but failed to work him, and there was even somebody in the missing square in Northern Sardinia. So there is still hope. Jumping between 70.154 and 70.190 seems to be the order of the day on FT8, with 70.200 for everything else.

It is not just Italy. My 2025 DXCC worked on 70MHz total has risen from seven to 17 (one day later it was 21), while the 70MHz all time squares total now totters at 299, needing just a nudge to get it over that significant figure.

And that was the way I would have started this posting if it had still been about 3 June only. The K number was high on 3 June and Sporadic E was everywhere.

GM4PMK magnetometer for 3 June 2025

But then for 4 June it was also pretty active.

GM4PMK magnetometer for 4 June 2025

Now I am not about to get into a debate about whether the K number as shown on the magnetometer has got a direct relationship to the intensity of Sporadic E. All I am showing is that the two things seem to have coincided. Please draw your own conclusions. Lets just say that the next morning the magnetometer was much more stable, and there was also very little Es to interest me. 

I doubt if it is a direct relationship but I am curious as to what other relationship there might be.

So now this posting has started covering both 3 and 4 June. Over those two days I had 78 contacts all but one involving Sporadic E, either single or multi hop. The one that didn't was a tropo contact to GW on 2m (adding GW to my 2025 DXCC total).

On 2m there were Es openings on both days. On 3 June this was to  E7 and YU, while on 4 June to I (13 contacts), HB (3), DL (2) and 9A. A third opening to IS0 sadly produced no contacts for me.

144MHz contacts at GM4FVM on 3 and 4 June 2025

Adding to the 70MHz 3 June report above, 4 June was almost as dramatic.

70MHz contacts at GM4FVM on 3 and 4 June 2025

With all this activity I had little time for 50MHz. Mike, GM3PPE, had given me a tip off about 9J2FI's operating times and I was ready for him when he came on. Zambia was new country on 6m so thanks for that Mike. Earlier I had worked ZS6NK and I guess that both of those were TEP with Es linking. I managed a couple of trans Atlantic contacts on 3 April but I had to cut the session short that day with a lot left to work. On 4 April there was an opening in the evening to South America. I failed to reach LU, and there were a lot of PYs at one stage when I could not manage to call them. There was plenty more I could have done on 6m but the other bands kept me busy. After all, contacts on each higher band count for double points. [Still don't know what that means Jim but you keep writing it].

50MHz contacts at GM4FVM on 3 and 4 June 2025

So what did I learn from making 78 contacts during those two days? 

Well, with the aurora the day before (see here), this event was long lasting. Sporadic E is probably caused by multiple factors so simple answers will probably never solve the mystery of how it arises. Whether you think that solar activity short of an aurora is a factor is up to you. However, it seems to have something to do with it. Obviously the annual increase in solar radiation is behind the basic seasonal effects, but then the dramatic day to day changes must have some other cause. Could this be linked to the K number? There is not always Es when the K number is high, but then multiple-factor events are like that. Could raised energy levels of solar particles during storm could tip the ionosphere over into Es when otherwise it is just below the threshold?

Whatever the answer to those issues, the sporadic nature of Es makes for an exciting time when it decides to arrive. 

Anyway, this is what a busy day looks like when there is 144MHz Es about:-

DX Maps on 144MHz on 4 April 2025

Who said that VHF is for local contacts?

And here is 70MHz during an Es opening. There are now 4m amateurs in many parts of Europe and there is still some OIRT broadcast reports to show us what we could do if only we had more access to the band.

DX Maps on 70MHz on 3 April 2025

And now the question is : what is next?

73 Jim

GM4FVM

2 June 2025 Aurora

I am not sure how to define DX. Obviously it depends on the band in use. As a generalisation I might define it as stations I can contact which I would not usually be able to reach. This handy definition covers those situations where the activity is low as well as places where the propagation usually prevents a contact.

During the auroral opening from here on 2 June 2025 my understanding of this was a bit stretched. Some of the closer at hand stations I might have worked on a slightly raised tropo day. On or two I might have scraped through to on flat band conditions, but the result would have been scrappy. However, yesterday they were not just workable but they were all out loud on the loudspeaker. I might add, distorted and muffled on the loudspeaker --- but definitely loud.

There was plenty of early warning of this aurora.

Solarham warning of likely auroral activity on 1 June 2025

Despite the shockwave arriving on 1 June, the main effects of this strong solar event did not produce the desired result here until 2 June. I was listening on 1 June and it seemed as if I had missed the action, but the NOAA predictions showed activity extending over three days.

NOAA predictions for 1, 2 and 3 June 2025 made on 1 June 2025

It is quite possible for there to be a high K number at one stage but for the polarity to be moving north, in which case no enhanced conditions apply, and then for the polarity to head south and the band to open later. As it turned out, the magnetometers continued to see-saw during 2 June and conditions suddenly improved.

GM4PMK magnetometer on Mull, showing 2 June (top) and early 3 June (bottom)

I first tried 50 and 70MHz after around 11:00 without result. I could see people making contacts but there was not much happening here. I sometimes look at the FT8 waterfall while beaming at about 30 degrees, and if that shows dispersed traces something is happening. I could see MM5DWW on Orkney ranging in and out of auroral propagation on 50MHz. Sometimes I could copy him on FT8, other time his signal was wide and sounded auroral.

I could not raise anyone on either 50 or 70MHz. However, I had been watching DXMaps and I saw that various Russian stations were making contacts on 144MHz via aurora. Oddly they were posted as JT65 but the text said they were Q65c. They were also appearing on PSK reporter as Q65. So, more in hope than in expectation I went to the frequency they were listed as using (144.116MHz) and tried calling. No result. 

Due to the rotation of the Earth relative to the Sun, the effect of the aurora varies over time. This produces the "auroral oval" which is like a collar around the poles which varies in thickness. Usually the oval is thinnest in the mornings and as the Earth rotates the thicker sections appear to the north of me. In this case due to the high level of solar activity the ovals were predicted to be thicker than usual and therefore strong, but I still needed to wait for the widest portion to approach my part of the world.

Prediction for auroral oval for 1 and 2 June 2025

Note that these predictions made at around 05:00 show the aurora extending well down into the United States, while GM is at the back of the globe where a thin to non-existent thickness of aurora exists. In such situations there is nothing for it but to wait for the Earth to turn and bring a thicker part of the oval into my area of operations. This often happens in the early afternoon. Note also that the oval is very large, so this was clearly a major event.

It is often possible to wait of a thicker part of the oval to arrive, only to discover that the polarisation has gone against me by then. On 2 June, though, it went well.

I was listening on 144.116. This seemed an odd choice, but that was where the Russian activity was. Having said that I decoded nothing to start with. About to give up I heard something on the loudspeaker. Pursuing this, I had to turn the beam from my usual 30 degrees to 54 degrees before I found PD1BHZ calling CQ. After that contact I worked 16 stations on Q65-30C, all with the characteristic distorted auroral sound. These were 5 x PA, 4 x G, 4 x DL, and one each of EI, OZ and ON. Best DX was to Ronny DL1RNW in JO62, at 1039km. The event ended here at 17:15.

144MHz auroral contacts at GM4FVM on 2 June 2025 

Map made using  K2DSL mapping. As usual click images to enlarge if necessary.

Whilst none of this involved excessive distances, it was still very interesting. Most contacts were between east and south suggesting that the oval was indeed wide. Usually in smaller events the oval is further north and contacts tend to be more northerly. Also for the same reason the azimuth was further south than usual, between 40 and 54 degrees,whereas usually 30 degrees or less is what I find best. The benefit of reaching this area is that there are a lot more stations than to the north where I more often work.

DX, to me, is not solely determined by distance. These were stations I could not have expected to work so that is good enough for me. 

All in all an interesting opening. Although the predictions suggest the chance of another event today, I am not sure. It is that type of uncertainty which makes VHF DX-ing interesting. 

 73 Jim

 GM4FVM

Multi-hop Sporadic E opens up again this year

I follow Sporadic E not just to have many interesting QSOs, but also to lead me to some meaty DX. Unlike some others, I do not claim to have ever worked F-layer DX on 6m. They have done well to do that, but it has never turned up at GM4FVM. At least, not anything that I can feel confident to claim as F-layer propagation. So I rely on Es to link into something else (like Trans Equatorial Propagation TEP) or allow some Multi-hop Es.

And so on 17 May I was on 50MHz having a good time working a few European stations. Around noon I worked a couple of French stations and it was notable that the "searchlight" area was very small and I could only hear one station at a time before the propagation moved on elsewhere. 

After 19:00 I had some nice QSOs into Spain. At 19:32 while trying to work Fidel, EA1HRR, who faded out, I noticed that I could hear ZD7BG. This was a fairly remarkable step up in distance, from 1387km into IN83 in Northern Spain to 7922km to reach IH74 in St Helena. And yet I still believe that this was Sporadic E and all that had changed was that I had tapped into multiple hops.

50MHz contacts at GM4FVM on 17 May 2025

I have used K2DSL's mapping above and you click to enlarge if needed. 

So why do I think that this was multi-hop Es rather than the other possibilities? Well, the solar activity at the time did not suggest that F-layer propagation was possible on 50MHz. It could have been TEP but as I am at 55.8 degrees north this would need Es linking. Possibly it was TEP, but the sudden arrival and departure of ZD7BG is more typical of multi-hop Es. A path of almost 8000km means most likely there would have been four hops. The distance is much the same as other long distance multi-hop Es contacts which I have had, for example XE2JS, definitely not F-layer in 2018, at 8200km.

ZD7 was a new DXCC for me on 6m, number 127. I had tried before but this was my first success. Some other GMs did work him that evening before he quickly faded out. That was it for me on 17 May - five European contacts, this one, and then silence.

There have been other remarkable contacts I have had over the years which defy categorisation. A notable example is the propagation to Japan and China, mostly in June each year.  Although this was initially taken to be a newly discovered mode of propagation, most sources these days suggest that it is another, unique, form of Multi-hop Es. Then there was the remarkable DX which many of us worked last October and November. This covered a large area from India, across the Indian Ocean and as far as Australia. What that was I have no idea, but it did not have the characteristics of F-layer, nor did it seem to fit the normal pattern of TEP. Now, will that happen again this year?

73 Jim

GM4FVM

Summer Es begins, but where to go on 70MHz?

I just increased my country score on the 4 metre band for this year by one. The new country for 2025 was Scotland. Although I worked my home country on 6m, 2m, 70cm and 23cm much earlier this year, it has taken me until May to work it on 4m. This was a tropo contact, as Dale, MM0INH, is 44km away.

Over on 50MHz the summer Sporadic E season has started and I added to countries to my annual list today, Lebanon and Algeria. That brings it to 40. No Es yet on 4m, so  the total there so far this year is now ... seven.

GM, G, EI, HB, DL, OZ and S5.

Of course working Es on 6m is easier than on 4m because the season is longer. Also, not so many DXCCs have the use of the 70MHz band. But even taking this into account, I have struggled in recent years to work much exciting stuff on 4m.

I guess that one of the reasons why I have liked 4m is that the going is hard. For about 50 years I have avoided bands like 20m because it all seems too easy. On 4m you have to use your wits to get anywhere.

And yet, having chosen this bed-of-nails path for decades, I am now getting a bit disillusioned with 4m. Possibly because I have achieved most of my goals ... I have reached 55 DXCC enities, as far flung as Western Sahara, Kazakhstan, Kuwait and Cape Verde. This would have been unthinkable when I started on 4m when six DXCC was exceptionally good and eight was the maximum possible.

There is still plenty to do, with possibilities in the Caribbean and the long sought after Greenland. Possible, certainly, but very unlikely to happen.

If I have reached a fair number of countries what about squares?

Squares worked at GM4FVM on 70MHz up to 7 May 2025

I am closing in on the final squares left for me to find. For this purpose I tend to exclude the watery squares which rarely appear - if I work them, great, if not then I will press on with the likely candidates.   There is still one on the Scottish mainland to reach, plus the one covering Shetland. There is one in Ireland that looks like a reasonable possibility, plus one in Cornwall. Then there is the elusive square in Portugal and four more in Spain - these are places with low populations. Likewise, there are many in Norway, Sweden and Finland to reach, and hopefully Mek, SP7VC, will activate some of these this summer. Italy south of Milan is undone, as are Northern Sardinia and Eastern Sicily. 

Of course France and Austria are not done as they do not grant access to 70MHz, though in Austria's case I have worked all the squares except one thanks to contacts with surrounding countries. What are the chances of these and other countries will appear soon? Not much I think. I have been surprised in the past when other DXCCs arrived on the band, so maybe. I could be surprised again. But Turkey, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia? Not a hope really.

If I was to set a target for all-time new squares for 2025, I would think perhaps 5 or 6 to add to my current total of 296. Why so glum an outlook? Well, activity on 4m seems to have declined in recent years. During the last meteor shower I heard nobody on 70MHz. On the last aurora opening activity was very low. FM locally is now dead, shutting off the chance of the odd DX contact there too.

Is it just me? Have others lost interest in 4m resulting in fewer contacts? This is hard to prove but I think so. Most of us have lost the personal touch which 4m had when we used SSB and CW. Data modes are effective but rather soul-less. There was a sense of camaraderie when we had to either build our own gear, convert commercial equipment, or rig up transverters. 

There is not much scope for technical improvement. I am still using much the same outfit as I was ten years ago - Icom IC-7100, Gemini 4 amp running 150W and a five element yagi. This has much the same performance as the gear in use during the previous five years too. I cannot see any point trying to improve on it. It is not that I am unwilling to improve it, it is just that there is not much further to go, technically or in distance.

I am not about to give up on 4m. I will try to concentrate on my improving annual DXCC list rather than my all-time one. It should be easy to get beyond seven (!). All-time new countries would be very nice, but I cannot count on any turning up. I will continue to use 70MHz as a warning sign that Es may be rising up from 50MHz towards 144MHz.

However, for me somehow the recent silence has taken the edge off this interesting part of the spectrum.

I hope that the radio gods soon dispel my lack of enthusiasm.

73 Jim

GM4FVM

A long lasting tropo event and then an aurora

After 3 April 2025 and the noticeable tropo duct mentioned in my last posting, there was a long lasting tropospheric event caused by a stable high pressure moist air system over the North Sea.

Long lasting stable high pressure systems are not always my favourite events, as it is normally alterations in pressure (usually downwards) which tend to produce openings. This was actually two systems, as when the first started to fill the second one moved in and merged. It appeared to be one high pressure system the whole time. 

I worked 53 stations on 144 and 432MHz between 1 and 11 April. This despite being absent at the GMDX convention on 5 and 6 April. The pressure was raised but not very high, peaking here at at 1026hpa on 10 April, but it had maintained a steady level above 1015hpa all the time since 30 March. In an area much given to storms arriving from the South West this long period of high pressure is unusual.

What constitutes "DX" for this purpose is debatable. Let us not have that debate here right now.

I have tried to plot contacts against barometric pressure as this event progressed over two weeks.

Week One - 

Barometric pressure at GM4FVM 31 March to 5 April 2025

As usual, click to enlarge images as required.

Where only a prefix is shown, just one station there was worked. Where a number is shown, e.g. 3xSM, this means three stations were reached in that prefix. A dotted line under the prefixes indicates that a contest was scheduled for one of the bands for a time during this period.

The barograph chart at GM4FVM shows the raised pressure during the week. Please have patience with me while I use up imperial measurement charts - I will properly calibrate the instrument once I have changed over to charts in hpa units.

The gentle rise in pressure up to the afternoon of 1 April produced no improved propagation. Then a very slight levelling out of the rise brought two OZ stations and a G who were all involved in the 144MHz NAC contest. The rise returned on the morning of 2 April but levelled out again in the evening. That level stretch brought a good opening to OZ during the 144MHz UKAC FT8 contest. Another slight dip in pressure coincided with the SM duct on 3 April (see last posting) and continued into an opening across the North Sea on the morning of 4 April. This ended with an short but steep rise in pressure, while the usual evening enhancement brought in mostly Gs and PAs towards the end of the day. On 4 April I worked 2 x LA, 3 x OZ and 3 x GM and one SM in the morning to afternoon period, plus 4xLA, 5 x G, 6 x PA and an OZ in the evening.

I was absent from the shack as I was away at GMDX on 5 April and almost all of 6 April. Actually I was home around lunchtime on the 6th but I then fell asleep - which must have shown the quality of the contributions I heard at the GM convention.

Week Two - 

Barometric pressure at GM4FVM 6 to 12 April 2025

During Week 2 the pressure gradually rose to a peak on 10 April and then fell steadily until 12 April. It was possible to work OZ on many days, and during the 432MHz NAC contest on 8 April I worked 6 OZ and 2 SMs. The 432MHz FT8 UKAC on 9 April produced a better than usual number of contacts. Once the steep decline set in at around 10:00 on 10 April I only worked one more DX station when the fall levelled up slightly.

Looking at these charts I would suggest that things depend on three factors for maximum DX for me on 144 and 432MHz (and probably 1296 too) 

EITHER

1) High pressure with moist air (ideally with gently declining pressure)

OR 

2) Evening cooling after a day of moist air high pressure

OR  Both

PLUS

3) A contest

It looks very much to me that either 1 or 2 or both is very desirable, but adding a contest really raises my DX performance. Not that I enter contests, but I do give away points. Mornings generally are not so good, and there are few morning contests except poorly supported ones at the weekends.

Basically, if the same opening had occurred at the end of the month when there are no contests on 2m and 70cm I think I would have fared much worse.

The fact that a contest makes so much difference was something I must have been aware of but I had never put into context. It seems to be a bigger influence than I would have expected.

By the way, the rather wobbly barometer trace is not due to the apparatus but due to my shaky hands. I went over the trace with a pen as the barometer leaves quite a faint mark. I am using a modern felt-tip pen on the barograph, but the line gets lost amongst the chart lines. Charts used to be in red ink so that you could see the trace more clearly ....

Dickson and Cargill Barograph at GM4FVM

Mind you, the barograph is 100 years old. It came to me via my father and it had not worked for at least 60 years. Although of no value I restored it recently. It is a useful thing to have for a VHF-er. I do have a modern weather station with a pressure readout but that will never be the same.

And then on 16 April came an impressive aurora. The K number at GM4PMK's magnetometer briefly reached a rather impressive K=9 and the VHF bands sounded amazing.

GM4PMK's magnetometer chart for 16 April 2025

I did a lot of listening. I did not work many stations compared to some others. I stuck to Q65 and contacted 12 stations, 7 on 50MHz, 1 on 70MHz and 4 on 144MHz. It would seem that the trend is continuing for Q65-15C to be common on 6m while Q65-30B is gaining ground on 2m where the going is rather more difficult.

Based on the present stage of the sunspot cycle many crystal-ball gazers are predicting more aurora activity for the coming months.

73 Jim

GM4FVM

A classic tropospheric duct

I really enjoy working tropo enhancements on VHF and UHF. Usually though they move around with the weather and can be quite wide, which makes them hard to identify against a complex background of other contacts.

However, on 3 April I stumbled across a long lasting and quite narrow duct on 70cm. The background is that a high pressure system had developed to the north of Scotland and was destined to affect our weather for ten days or more. Seeing the opportunity of the good weather, I had scheduled some antenna work. As barometric pressure was moderately high but not declining I though nothing much would emerge on the tropo front. Usually good conditions emerge only on the trailing edge of high pressure systems, when pressure is falling. However, even during long lasting highs it is possible to find good conditions.

With all this in mind, and while working on my 2m antenna, I passed the shack door on the way to collect some tools. I noticed a very strong station calling CQ. This was SM6VTZ in JO58.  I have worked Chris a dozen times on 23cm, 70cm and 2 metres over the past four years, but only during good conditions. The striking thing about seeing him on the waterfall this time was not only how strong he was, but that nobody else was to be seen. Apart from one station, conditions were normal.

Although he had finished calling CQ, I called Chris at 12:49 and gave him a +20 report, and he replied with +23dB. The path length is 879km. These are not unusual reports, the previous time we worked on 70cm was in September 2024 when the reports were +14/+29dB. It is worth bearing in mind that during normal conditions I cannot hear Chris at all and on a flat band I can usually work only about 300km with much lower reports.

What was different about this contact was the almost complete absence of any other station, not just on 70cm, but also on 23cm and 2m. Chris came on to KST chat room where other SM stations reported hearing nothing from me.

On KST Chris and I exchanged reports as the duct built over time, later reaching +24/+34dB. Having started before 12:49 this went on until after 16:50. I heard SM6CEN in JO57 at 15:19. I guess that Hakan is on the southern edge of the duct as signals to him were much lower at  -19/-16dB at a time when VTZ was reporting my signal via KST at 50dB higher than Hakan.

I also worked MM0INH who I think worked VTZ too, but at lower signal strengths than I did. Dale is 43km to the west of me. I was not aware of any other stations working Chris though he may have worked another station in North East England. It is clear that this duct was narrow.

Extract from station log at GM4FVM covering 3 April 2025

Click to enlarge images if you need to.

So how do I know that this was a narrow duct? Because it follows the general pattern for ducts:-

1) I did not work anybody else on 2m, 70cm or 23cm that day, and I would have expected to if this had been a general enhancement or a moving or wide duct.

2) It was extremely stable over a long time - several hours

3) Stations outside the duct did not get into it 

4) Signals were extremely strong as ducts pass signals very efficiently 

More usually ducts move with the weather. On this occasion, with a very stable weather pattern, it stayed in one place. I have experienced this before, but it is unusual.

Here is the best map I can do at the moment. In the absence of Log Analyser I have used K2DSL's "ADIF to Map" site. Once I had the map by this method I went back to the way I made maps years ago - passing the image through two pieces of software to add text and crop to size. I am still seeking a better solution.

Contacts at GM4FVM during 3 April 2025

Ducts are common. What was uncommon this time was finding such a narrow long lasting duct, with no other DX possible for the whole day. I like ducts, and after all it was a duct which allowed me to work EA8TJ on 5 August 2018, a distance of 3260km. But others in various parts of Scotland could access that duct, whereas this time it was very much narrower.

I shall look more carefully for such things in future. And next time I will try to remember to ask Chris to try 1296MHz too.

[EDIT. I should have mentioned that in contrast to this narrow duct, the next day I also worked SM6VTZ, this time on 144MHz. Unlike 3 April, contacts on 4 April were all round the compass and nothing like as strong. I worked 15 on 144MHz and 9 on 70cm, spread almost evenly around the North Sea. 5 x G, 4 x OZ, 5 x LA, 3 x GM, 6 x PA and one SM. That could hardly have been more different]

73 Jim

GM4FVM