W1ET since 8/2003 - 6m: 7el M2, 2m: 17el M2, 5WL, mast preamplifiers
DX means distance, and indeed, at first sight these bands may not seem very interesting. Compared to intercontinental QSOs you might be used to if you operate on HF bands, these bands do not seem to offer much. Typically, the line of sight limits the range of contacts. And if you switch your radio to the SSB DX calling frequencies as 144.200 MHz and 50.110 MHZ, there is often nothing to hear.
There are a lot of ways to increase distance. I don't mean satellites or repeaters here, but tropospheric and ionosperic reflections that help increase the range a lot. You need good antennas for DXing however, a good preamplifier and some skills; most contacts are done in CW (morse) or SSB.
Well, this propagation is known from HF bands; and indeed, during the maximum of the solar cycle 6m sometimes works like the HF band. During the winter of 2001/2002 it was easy to reach Europe or Japan from within the U.S. with modest antennas. These golden times however are over, for the rest of this decade.
This means that the signal travels up to the ionospheric E-layer and back to earth. The "s" in the subscript means "sporadic", namely that this propagation is not feasible all the time. Openings of this kind may last for up to some hours, but are typically short (a few minutes for up to 1-2 hours) on 144 MHz and longer on 50 MHz. Its "fun", you don't need a lot of specialized equipment, the signal is not "distorted" as after an aurora reflection; moreover there are several Es contacts reported every year on 50 and 144 MHz done in FM, but SSB is of advantage. The typical distance you can cover during an Es opening is up to 1500 miles. It's rare, however, and you need some skills to be successful, as well as being patient. On 6m, some "double-hop" Es openings permit amateurs in New England to reach stations in Europe (see K1SIX's page)
Many of you have seen the great event of this October. There is also a nice documentation with a pic of an earlier event on a Dartmouth page. You can use the vertical aurora "curtains" in the ionosphere as a reflector for VHF waves, as we did at W1ET this past October and November. Here are our map and log:
W1ET's aurora QSOs on 6m (green) and 2m (red)
Oct 29, 2003 W1ET wkd:
UTC Station QRG Mode RX TX LOC
23:20 K3TV 144.210 CW
55A 55A FN20
23:21 W3EP 144.187 CW 53A 55A EN91
23:35 K1WY 144.228 CW 55A 55A FN31
23:41 N3IQ 144.187 CW 57A 59A FM19
23:43 KU2A 144.218 CW 56A 59A FN41
23:46 WZ1V 144.193 CW 55A 59A FN31
23:54 K2ERG 144.213 CW 52A 59A FN13
On Oct 30, 2003
00:22 K2GAL 144.183 CW
57A 59A FM29
00:59 K1GX 144.176 CW 54A 55A FN31
01:09 K1EM 50.109 CW 55A 59A FN31
01:14 N3DB 50.092 CW 59A 55A FM18
On Oct 31, 2003
00:01 W4MYA 144.198 CW
58A 55A FM07
00:05 K4QY 144.182 CW 55A 55A FM06
00:09 K1GUP 144.177 CW 55A 59A FN54
00:17 VE3VHB 144.204 CW 52A 51A FN24
00:23 VE3FGU 144.175 CW 55A 59A FN54
00:31 NG4C 144.195 CW 55A 59A FM16
00:34 N2NT 144.231 CW 55A 59A FN20
00:42 K0KP/B 50.072 CW 599
EN26 Heard this beacon with a clear T9 tone (Aurora E)
00:47 N0UR 50.100 CW 539 319 EN34
Aurora E
00:52 W0PHD 50.096 CW 529 559 EN18 distance
abt 2000km
On Nov 22, 2003
22:40 K0KP 50.125 CW 59A 59A EN36 OP: W3TWX.
This part is in preparation, together with a section on tropospheric DXing and a report on how we mounted our new antenna system at W1ET. Meteor Scatter is one of the most thrilling and interesting propagation modes on VHF, together with moonbounce or earth-moon-earth (EME). The distances are comparable to those of Es and Aurora (up to 2000 km and more).
Check out some pages that other specialists have written: N1BUG's aurora page, there is also www.meteorscatter.net with a collection of links to related topics.
Dec 22, 2003
w3twx@dartmouth.edu
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