2m - a Band of Two Parts

Like the incoming tide washing away a beautifully constructed and elegant sandcastle, bit by bit, this week’s tropospheric ducting crumbled away with equal inevitability.

At its height, this radio superhighway, formed by different layers of air density and temperature, ‘hotwired’ parts of Europe together on 2m and above like they were connected with RG45 coax itself.

The opening was heralded, accurately, by William Hepburn’s tropospheric ducting forecast (see http://www.dxinfocentre.com/). This site also explains various propagation modes on VHF and above, in a clear and informative manner.

Let me tell you a little about my 2m station here in North Wales. I have a lovely Icom IC-910HX and my antenna is an HB9CV. Yes, you heard right, a peashooter. Two small elements phased together and put up on a pole on the side of the house. You see, I’m starting modestly because our national culture demands that we never do things the easy way. Added to the equation of difficulty, I have a range of 3000ft mountains not too far away from me. Did I mention the HB9CV was fixed? It points plaintively towards the south-east in cold, metallic expectation of flux. It points towards the long, golden beaches of the low countries, the rolling fields of northern France, the great cities of Western Europe and finally, the snow-capped Alps and beyond. But it also has a ‘heart’, a cardiod footprint in fact. The characteristics of the HB9CV trade-off a modest gain with quite a wide beam-width, with a sharp null behind it, giving it its heart shape.

The humble HB9'

You need good hearing. The receive gain is lacking for weak-signal work, but work it does. And this week I worked a station (OE2XRM) in Salzburg, Austria. 5,5 both ways! The pure magic of hearing a man who may be wearing lederhosen over what is normally a line-of-sight form of communication, is thrilling! A couple of stations from Bavaria followed and I was then content to listen as the chatter of stations from France and the Netherlands filled the band.

Later in the afternoon, fuelled by electromagnetic excitement, I ventured onto a local hill (178m/584ft.) with my lovely FT-817 and a 9-element 2m yagi. I also took along a 70cm yagi for fun.

A quick scan through the beacons bought in HB9HB in Switzerland! The Alps, the chocolate and cuckoo clocks! Unleashing my 5W on Europe didn’t produce much, unfortunately – just a couple of cheery calls from the UK, so I thought I’d swing the beam round to Spain. Now, the DX cluster was not showing any propagation in this direction and I wasn’t hearing any of the beacons on the north Spanish coast. But suddenly, out of nowhere, and at 5,9+, came a signal booming in. Danny, EB1LA, on the northern Spanish coast was stunned to hear me at 5,9 with my humble five Watts. What a result! I can only conclude that the beacons may have been situated too high to ‘tap in’ to the duct. How many people in the UK and Ireland must have been beaming away from Spain that day having assumed that no beacon = no path? I wonder. A quick scan on 70cm revealed no traffic, but I did receive the Netherlands beacon PI7CIS. Quite a trip for UHF.

My hilltop station

The two metre band can be sublime, but comes in two parts. The FM part of it is like an amateur ‘pub’. It seems the place where people gather in the evening to discuss their day and engage in chat (For example, one QSO I heard earlier this year was despairingly on the subject of “my favourite biscuits”). But the lower portion of the band has the elegance and sophistication of a Grand Cru. It’s as if it’s optimised in terms of antenna size, required power and number of users to give you a fighting chance of achieving glory in the aether. And I did.

Postscript 03 Oct. 2013: Just read EI3KD's excellent blog about this tropo opening. It coincidentally contains an audio capture of the end of my QSO with OE2XRM! Recommended reading (and listening).

"Armchair Copy"

When I was last active on HF, in 2003, I hadn’t experienced the transient pleasures of a strong 10m opening. The solar cycle was way down on the current crescendo.

For the second day running, I’ve been receiving strong, clear, frequency modulated signals from far afield that sound as if they’re just down the road. Using my FT-817 (5W) and a small Miracle Whip antenna I had a fantastic QSO into Greece. Only a little QSB here and there presented any challenge. I tuned lower in the band to hear a W2 station calling CQ using AM – well I just had to try! I’m actually quite staggered he heard my signal, but obviously not strong enough to discriminate any speech. That would have been expecting too much.

Today on 29.620 the New York repeater, KQ2H, was booming in at 5/9+, of course. European stations a few hundred miles or less apart, were talking to each other via a lengthy transatlantic trip. The FM capture effect ensured that my QRP signal wasn’t fully heard, though I suspect I accessed the repeater more than once.

I’ll look forward to a little more 10m FM while it lasts. Congratulations if you’ve enjoyed a DX ‘armchair copy’ this week.

The Man Who Fishes For DX

I live on Anglesey, a mystical Celtic island steeped in the legends of the Druids and lapped by the misty waters of the Irish Sea. There was whispered talk amongst the old people of an elusive man who fished for DX and caught specimens from Borneo, Antarctica and other strange lands.

Actually, it’s only Dave.

Dave, GW4JKR, has an antenna system that you can’t buy from any supplier. He uses a carbon-fibre fishing pole on a metal spike and several acres of saltmarsh. The system is blindingly simple, takes minutes to erect and is devastatingly effective.

“I set up on the 20m band and all was quiet. I put out my first call (SSB) and you know what? I worked Borneo 5/9. Because he was an English ex-pat, I thought he was local until he gave his callsign for the second time! Other local stations here couldn’t even hear him.”

In a similar vein, Dave related how he’s had a 5/9 chat with a chap with a German accent. Only turned out he was on holiday in Guadalcanal. “You’re the only station in Europe I can hear,” he said from his sunny patio.

One of Dave's many QSL cards

The DX takes the bait each time. Reports come in from the Pacific islands, China, Japan, Korea, Antarctica and New Zealand. I think Dave’s witnessed more pile-ups than the M6 motorway.

The antenna system comprises two ultra-efficient parts, making it a genuine ‘killer’ setup. For the antenna, Dave uses a carbon-fibre fishing pole, also known as a ‘roach pole’. He specifies the better quality versions that use high modulus carbon for optimum conductivity. The pole is approximately 12m in length, coming in seven sections. It is featherweight at under a kilogram. The base of the pole mates to a large ‘agricultural’ steel earth spike, which is actually a brutal pummelling device for digging holes in rocky ground. A plastic sleeve insulates the two components. Coax is easily attached by jubilee and croc clips. The second part of the antenna system is the saltmarsh on the edge of an expansive tidal sandy bay. The saltwater saturation, even at low tide, is high. Ask the shellfish.

Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey

Like a latter day St. George, Dave holds the spike aloft and plunges it deep into the salty mud where it stands at the ready. If there’s a small pool of salty water nearby, all the better – in it goes. Wet, sandy beaches work, but not nearly as well as dark, oozing mud it seems. Lovely.

Clearly the vertical radiator, wide open aspect, perfect electrical ground and ultra-low angle of radiation give the best start a radio signal could ever want in in its sinusoidal life. It’s as electrically quiet as a library down on the beach which makes for reception most of us can only dream of.

Base section of carbon fibre
vertical in situ

Follow Dave’s simple formula and you too can become a fisher of men and the stuff of legend.

SAFETY: Dave would like to warn all readers to exercise care when handling a carbon fibre pole in the open. Do NOT venture anywhere near power lines. You may render yourself permanently QRT.

More photos available on Dave’s Flickr site.