New Year's Eve Tropo • AmateurRadio.com

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New Year’s Eve Tropo

1 January 2011 | by Tim G4VXE | Share | | Leave a Comment (1)

New Year’s Eve dawned with some fairly localised (to me) but quite intense tropo on VHF/UHF. When I first switched on the 144MHz rig around 0815z (It *WAS* a day off!) I noticed the GB3VHF beacon in Kent was well over S9 – it’s normal strength is around S6.

Didn’t get a chance to operate, but I had the FT8900 on in the car as I was driving down to see the bees and noticed that the GB3PO repeater at Ipswich and the GB3BX repeater near Wolverhampton were coming through.

From home, literally seconds before we went off to see Mum in Cheltenham, there was a flurry of activity on 70.450MHz FM. 2E0EKF, 2E0CBP and G0AUI were all coming through. Looked them up this morning and 2E0EKF is in Chigwell, Essex and G0AUI in Haywards Heath, Sussex (can’t find 2E0CBP at the moment!). Shame there wasn’t an opportunity to call them as that would have been an excellent distance on 70Mhz FM.

Happy New Year!

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

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