Achieved the second activation of GM/WS-132, Sguman Coinntich today. Thanks to all of the chasers and the sun was shining.
M0BKV (Damian) asked about the triangulation station (Ref; 5888) which has an atypical appearance!
73
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Well done Colwyn! I gave you an optimistic shout on 2m at lunchtime today…
Apologies if I caused you QRM today. We may have both been on 14.285Mhz SSB at the same time. @EA2IF informed me that an HB station was on that frequency while working me and when I scrolled back through SotaWatch Spots, I saw you were on there as well!
Anyway I QSY’d up 5KHz and had a decent time of it on GM/CS-022, having had a rubbish time on 40m earlier on GM/CS-028, when seemingly 20m was open to the US…
73, Fraser
Was absolute rubbish bands for me Fraser this morning couldn’t hear either of you until 12:00 utc when I managed to get Colwyn on 40m.
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Hi, nothing at all on 2m yesterday. The VHF radio was switched on throughout. Higher hills all round?
73
If you are far enough south you will be able to get to the GM/WS-range on 40M; just had a look at PROQUEST, and the F2 critical frequency has been around 5.3 to 6 MHz on most days of late. 40M has too much of a long skip.
For inter-G (NVIS) working on HF 60M is the band to go for during day-light hours !
73
Ken GM0AXY
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Ken, I’d agree that has been the case in the past 10 days or so. However, previous to this I’ve been working into the north and Midlands of England from the Cairngorms and NW Highlands all spring and summer.
Excuse my ignorance, what is PROQUEST?
Cheers, Fraser
Yes.
Fraser, 60m will really start to come into its own now as an inter-G band as we move into Autumn(Fall).
Hi Fraser
Propquest is at http://www.propquest.co.uk/ and is run by the members of the RSGB propagation team including G3YLA. It provides a synopsis of the the various propagation data / indices.
If you go to the NVIS, you will see curves of the F2-frequencies plotted through the day.
It is well worth the time to get to know how the F2 critical frequency varies through the day.
73
Ken
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As a follow on from what I wrote; it is worth noting that the F2 critical frequencies used on http://www.propquest.co.uk/, are those measured at Chilton and/or Fairford (Oxfordshire).
The actual F2 critical frequencies decrease as one moves north, and here in Scotland they can be up 500 kHz to 1 MHz lower than those published on Propquest. So far I have not been able to find a local Scottish source of the F2 data. But extrapolating from some of the published worldwide maps of F2 frequencies, it is obvious that the F2 frequencies decline the further north one goes.
Just another factor to take into account, hi!
73
Ken
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Thanks Ken. That’s been educational. I must admit I tend to only study propogation at a generally broad level. ie by the seasons and observing SFI, Kp and A indices.
Always learning in this hobby. That’s what’s great about it.
Yes Andy, I really need to see if my W3EDP will do the job on 5MHz, or put an extension on the EFHW. Not sure I fancy an inverted V over that length. We’ll see…
Cheers, Fraser
With a 5m pole for support, the length on the ground is about 24m end to end. Not an issue to date on Scottish summits for me. But perhaps I’m being slow after a 60hr week (to get some code finished for a customer) but isn’t an EFHW effectively the same length as CFHW?
Oh, probably definitely! And I’m probably definitely being lazy and can’t be bothered to chop up my 40/20 dipole…
I think you need to add about 3.6m of wire to each end to make a 40 into a 60m dipole. You can use the dipole calculator on the maps page extras tab to quickly calculate the length.
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