Any one else take advantage of 2 meters

[N3WRH]

:DLast night i was heading to get pizza and had my 2 meter rig scanning some repeaters and 146.52 and with 50watts with a 5/8 wave antenna last night around 7pm EST made three contacts to florida, on 146.52, from around pittsburgh, just seeing if anyone else had some summer luck :)

[ne3r]

The skip was getting pretty short on 6 yesterday - which is a good sign for some rare 2 meter sporadic E. But 2 meter FM skip - not something I have never seen, I haven't even been that far with ducting.

I was near Chambersburg PA around that time on 146.52 and heard nothing but the person that I was meeting and another local :).

73 de Joseph Durnal NE3R

[N9MOQ]

. .

[KA4DPO]

I don't listen to two very often anymore but when I lived in Florida we used to get ducting up the east coast. I remember working into New York City from Melborne Florida full quieting on simplex. Those thermal ducts tend to happen in the spring and fall along the Eastern seaboard.

You can usually tell sporadic E because it tends to flutter a bit (like aurora) while ducting is almost always a solid signal.

[nz3m]

Big sporadic E opening last night on 2m. Worked alot in TN, AL etc from PA. Huge signals too, 40 over S9 on most.

6m Es were getting short indeed, and when I checked 2m it was hopping. Stations from 144.180 to 144.230. Great fun!

73
Dave

[N8CPA]

I don't listen to two very often anymore but when I lived in Florida we used to get ducting up the east coast. I remember working into New York City from Melborne Florida full quieting on simplex. Those thermal ducts tend to happen in the spring and fall along the Eastern seaboard.

You can usually tell sporadic E because it tends to flutter a bit (like aurora) while ducting is almost always a solid signal.

Bingo! Especially with intervening cold fronts, and associated unstable weather systems. Around here, they're typically E/W. OH to CO FM simplex has been documented.

[k8wpj]

Bingo! Especially with intervening cold fronts, and associated unstable weather systems. Around here, they're typically E/W. OH to CO FM simplex has been documented.

I never really got much skip on 2m when I was in Cleveland, But, when I moved farther south, I was shocked to work VE canadian calls on more than one occasion in travels south of Columbus, and now that I am in SC, 2m calls upwards of 250-500 miles on 50w arent that strange.

[n3ef]

I did make a 10 meter cw contact with S9 signals last night from MD to FL at around 9pmEDT (we're on EDT in Maryland). E skip is common from 0900-1100 and 1900-2300 local time from mid-May to mid-July and again between mid-December and January.

Eric N3EF

[w5dwh]

Summer? We don't get Summer here for a couple of months yet. And thanks to "global cooling" Summer now only lasts about 2 weeks, and then back to cold winter again. (spring and fall don't even exist anymore at all)

I will be looking forward to some tropospheric ducting for the 2 weeks in Summer, but that is a long way off yet. Still have to wear coats around here if you plan on going outside.

It's already 90 here in north Texas with high humidity. Want to trade?

[A71AN]

:DLast night i was heading to get pizza and had my 2 meter rig scanning some repeaters and 146.52 and with 50watts with a 5/8 wave antenna last night around 7pm EST made three contacts to florida, on 146.52, from around pittsburgh, just seeing if anyone else had some summer luck :)

For the last one month, I had a lot of fun with the 2 meter, not just local call with A7 group but also from the near by countries, A92,HZ, A61 and one station from real far VU land, now a days we have 144050 as a stand by frequency for the GCC hams and we do enjoy contacting and having prelonged qso's with each other.


All of the best my friend

[kc0bda]

Had a similar thing happen a couple of weeks ago in the south from Austin, TX to MS, AL, and FL over the course of a few nights. Hard to find contacts though since the openings were pretty late in the evening/early morning, but made a few.

[n3ef]

Good propagation again tonight, just worked California from MD on 10 meter cw!

Eric N3EF

[nz3m]

Good propagation again tonight, just worked California from MD on 10 meter cw!

Eric N3EF


I've been working whole west coast on 6m last 3 hrs :-)

Dave

[N9MOQ]

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[WB2WIK]

Big sporadic E opening last night on 2m. Worked alot in TN, AL etc from PA. Huge signals too, 40 over S9 on most.

6m Es were getting short indeed, and when I checked 2m it was hopping. Stations from 144.180 to 144.230. Great fun!

73
Dave

::You are very fortunate to catch 2m Es! It's very elusive, and although I've been on 2m since 1965 (pretty actively) I've only worked E-skip on 2m about 10 times in all those years. You're right: When the Es gets very short on six, that's the time to check out 2m.

I was lucky enough to catch a huge Es opening during the June VHF QSO Party in 1987, while I was operating from FM27 in VA. Worked down into central TX, etc. Very unusual condx. First time I ever heard Es on 220 MHz, and also the last time.

WB2WIK/6

[k0cmh]

Is it skip or ducting? My understanding is that 2 meters pops right through the ionoshpere. No skip there.

Yes, stirring up the waters is a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.;)

[N8CPA]

Is it skip or ducting? My understanding is that 2 meters pops right through the ionoshpere. No skip there.

Yeah, but, nowadays, CW and Morse are interchangable. Oh-oh! Now, I've done it!:o

[nz3m]

Is it skip or ducting? My understanding is that 2 meters pops right through the ionoshpere. No skip there.

Yes, stirring up the waters is a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.;)

It is Sporadic E layer propagation, same stuff that happens on 6m. When the ionization becomes dense enough, the MUF raises. And, as Steve mentioned, it even goes as high as 220mhz on very rare occasions.

It is the density of the E "cloud" that also makes the 6m hops shorter because the reflection is lower in the layer.

Dave