I would like to inform you of
new world DX records on the amateur radio 2.3 and 3.4 GHz bands. Two
nights ago I (N6NB/KH6 in BK29hq) worked W6IT
(DM13cs) on SSB over a path of 4024 km. The old record
was 3983 km., set by N6CA and KH6HME many years ago. The
propagation mode was tropospheric ducting across the Pacific Ocean.
Here is a short description of the event as submitted to the VHF editor
of QST magazine. There is a link to a video clip of the 2.3 GHz contact.
I am attaching two jpeg photos (click
on) of my portable station used in Hawaii. The first
shows my station above the duct near the KH6HME/b beacon site.
The mountain in the background is Mauna Kea. The second photo is of the
place within the duct where the contacts actually occurred.
73, Wayne Overbeck, N6NB
________________
(submitted to the VHF editor of
QST)
I'd like to post something about my trip to Hawaii for the current tropo
duct. This trip has really turned out well so far.
Last week the Hepburn forecast suggested that a duct might form in a few
days. So I bought an airline ticket and packed a station for all bands
from 144 MHz through 10 GHz in two large suitcases plus a roll-aboard
and a backpack (total weight: 150 pounds). When I got here, I rented a
small SUV and built a station in/on it. I made
several trips to Home Depot for parts to build a rotating roof platform.
When the duct began on Tuesday, I drove all over Mauna Loa while
listening to my own 222.030 MHz beacon in Orange County, Calif. It was a
thrill just to hear it 2,500 miles away. By Thursday, the duct seemed to
be at its best. Greg, W6IT, activated my hilltop station near Orange, CA
and we worked Thursday night on six bands, including 2304 and 3456 MHz,
both for new world DX records. I heard Greg well on two more bands, 902
and 5.7 GHz, but local QRN from non-amateur users (notably Part 15 wi-fi
devices) in Orange County prevented him from hearing me on those two
additional bands.
The record QSOs happened
quickly. After W6IT and N6NB/KH6 worked on 144, 222 and 432, we quickly
moved up the bands. We completed on 1296 at 0256z, on 2304 at 0257z and
3456 at 0300z on June 19 (Thursday afternoon, June 18, Hawaiian time).
W6IT was fixed in DM13cs while N6NB/KH6 was portable in BK29hq. The
center-to-center distance is 4,024 km. According to W5LUA's database of
records, online at ARRL.org, the old record was 3982 km., set by KH6HME
and N6CA on 14 July 1994 (2304) and 28 July 1991 (3456). Those contacts
were on cw. These are apparently the first-ever SSB contacts between
Hawaii and the mainland on 2304 and 3456.
I intend to write at least a conference paper and create a PowerPoint
show about what I've seen and heard in Hawaii. I've noticed that the
KH6HME beacon site, as good as it is, sometimes seems to be above the
cloud layer that forms the top of the duct. Thursday night it was about
2,000 feet above the cloud tops. Seeing that, I drove down to 5,200'
elevation to work Greg on all those bands. (The beacon site is about
8,200 feet above sea level.) My 222 beacon was definitely louder at
lower elevations than at the beacon
site at that time. Friday night I operated at 7,300', which was near the
cloud tops and where my beacon seemed loudest then. The size and
elevation of the duct seems to vary a lot, perhaps explaining the way
the KH6HME beacons vary in relative signal strength, with 432 being
louder at certain times while the 144 beacon is louder at other times.
There are some very interesting natural phenomena at work here.
If anyone would like to watch a video of the record-setting 2304 QSO
with W6IT, it's online on my website:
www.n6nb.com/2304rcrd.mp4
Thanks to Greg, W6IT, for his able operating on the other end of these
QSOs.
-Wayne, N6NB/KH6
OK2KKW note: the very first
tropo record - 144MHz QSO almost in the same path was registered already
in 1957 - more abt. it
read here!
