AmateurRadio.com

courtesy: http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/

In a QSO yesterday with Mike, VE7SKA, on Saltspring Island, he alerted me to what appears to be a possible tropo path forming between here and KL7. Mike is, as far as I know, the only VE7 to have heard the KH6HME 2m tropo beacon (on several occasions) and even had a partial two-way with KH6HME in the 1995 duct to the PNW.

Like our unprecedented early hot and stable weather pattern over the West coast, this path is fairly rare and has never really been explored ... this one appears to be forming a stable path towards Alaska. The predicted conditions can be viewed on Bill Hepburn's World Wide Tropospheric Ducting Prediction page. Select the Eastern North Pacific from the 'Region' drop-down menu and see the map for Saturday.

Perhaps there are some KL7s near the water, or not too far inland and with a clear shot towards the southeast, that would be interested in running some possible tropo tests over the next few days if the path shapes up as predicted in the Bill Hepburn maps for the weekend. Not ever having explored this possible path before might yield some interesting results ... and who knows how far south into Puget Sound a tropo signal from the north might reach? Maybe it's time to find out. Of course, any stations between here and northern KL7 (Prince Rupert?... Juneau? ... Ketchikan?) might also be interested in trying a possible 2m path.