[NLRS] EN37 Tropo report

[Bill Davis Jr]

  Hello All

  I have seen little posted from the weekend tropo event....

  This is NOT a 10GHz report, but some is included as background of tropo conditions observed here and from eastern ND and western MN... 

  Well the BIG tropo opening for this summer (and many more summers to come?) started Friday night I guess. I was at Wally W0PHD's house in EN18 eating and sleeping in anticipation of the 10GHz rove Saturday morning. I of course was not the only NLRS op away from home by any means!!

  My first realization that maybe the anticipated tropo was real, was when I worked Mike KM0T on 144MHz SSB from the pickup (80w and 6elem cheep yagi @ 15ft) 311miles to his north at 10:43am local. Mike then went on to work both Wally and I on 10GHz weal CW... WOW, 311miles or 501Km. Something was "afoot" or Mike does indeed have a magic station and unusual powers as we have all have expected for so long. We were roving at that point near Crookston MN in fog, that was just beginning to rise. Nice Qs from my and Wally's rover pack of two on 10GHz but nothing much else special was noticed.  Barry VE4MA was better than usual on 2m and loud as always on 10GHz, but I really wasn't thinking about being a condition indicator, just focused on working everyone on 10GHz

  Wally and I split up mid afternoon Saturday as he returned home. I worked one additional location from my 10Ghz rover. Nice Qs with the guys, but most paths were the usual length or shorter and nothing seemed special. "Shut her down" about 5:30pm and met up with W0ZQ, KC0IYT, WA2VOI, N0UK, K0HAC, WB0LJC in Fargo to unwind and eat. Then headed north to Hillsboro to catch some shut eye.

  Sunday morning up at 5:30am ... got a cup of coffee and a sweet roll at the service station and headed out to a open area about 5miles NW of Hillsboro, ND (EN17od). I was QRV 2m and 10GHz by 6:30am and called and looked for activity... nil ... too early and no one expected me to be available that early. Sun rise ... beautiful .... I love ND farm land and the early morning in agriculture. Got white noise bored quickly and called CQ on 144.200   6:52am --- an old friend K9HMB, Frank EN52 (IL) came booming back 5-9+30 SSB. We had a great quick chat and I moved on... 2m was OPEN! Then worked Buzz KD9NH EN44 on 200 but he was weak, only a couple S units above the noise. He once loved in the Hillsboro area proper and that was vneat for both of us. Barry VE4MA and Mike KM0T were then caught on 144.200 at 7:05am ... that cat was out of the bag... this was SERIOUS tropo! At that point Barry was soon working N4PZ and W9ZIH down by Chicago on 10GHz over 1000Km away. Many great long Qs were made on 10GHz and below in the next few hours by many NRLS ops. I have little detail by many LONG QSOs and I worked the usual's.

  I joined the bigger rover pack about 9:30am and roved  until early Sunday afternoon and headed hope in 90deg heat and 30mph winds. 4hrs later I rush to the shack and the bands are indeed open. Several nice Qs with Mike KM0T EN13 and Dave N0KP at Buck Hill EN34ir (one with Mel KC0P there too) these were in the low to high 400Km range as well.

  

--- Back Home  EN37 Tropo ---

  Starting at 7:33pm and ending 11:38pm Sunday I had 42 QSOs. Some QSOs were multiple bands with a single station. Nothing real huge at all... 

Most south and west was N0IRS in EM29 (Kansas City) 
Most north was VE4AMU  Winnipeg EN19 
Most east K8TQK Ohio EM89

  There was nothing from here all that far south or west ... repeated calls were met with only white noise. Lots of activity down in Oklahoma etc, but just not making it into here.

  Up at 4:30am Monday and had another 15 QSOs before I had to leave for the day at 10:22am local. Immediately before shutting down I visited with Don WA9KRT EN61 532 miles away on 2 and 432 SSB ... signals 5-3 ... I'm leaving and the bands are still open. Bummer 

  Some of the longer Qs on specific bands--

      2m:  KB9KUF   EM58   650m   SSB
      2m:  K8TQK    EM89   761m   weak CW
   
 222MHz: N0IRS     EM29  553m   SSB
 222MHz: K8TQK    EM89  761m   very weak CW

 432MHz: N0IRS     EM29   553m  SSB
 432MHz: WA9KRT EN61  532m  SSB (Not a new grid, but first for Don and I on 432)

 902 MHz: K2YAZ   EN74  398m  SSB  (I heard Bob well on 1296 but he had receiver difficulties - nil 10GHz)

1296MHz: WB0TEM EN12  332m  SSB (NEW GRID -- on 222, 432 and 1296 only one I think)

  I don't ever recall seeing APRS tropo maps that looked this good, and they looked that way the better part of 2 days.  Previous big tropo events, that I have experienced, were before the APRS map site was developed.

 73  Bill  K0AWU EN37ed