It’s been some months since we’ve seen any sort of decent tropo opening on VHF/UHF, in this part of Europe at least. However, there really was no excuse for being unaware of this one in advance because the forecasting websites (F5LEN and Hepburn) had been predicting something nice for the end of September for at least week prior. It turned out to be exceptional!

The Hepburn maps looked like this:

Tropo forecast, period 28th September to 3rd October 2015

28th September 2015	29th September 2015	30th September 2015
1st October 2015	2nd October 2015	3rd October 2015

Tropo forecast maps for north-western Europe, copyright 2015 William R Hepburn.

 

Previous experience in interpreting these maps told me it was no “sure thing”. There were enough “blotches” (discontinuities) showing to add some doubt about how far the paths would go; but there was no doubt it was going to be worth paying attention!

With hindsight I would say the maps were pretty much spot-on: The opening from southern Ireland was right on the edge with signals, especially over the longest distances, generally appearing for minutes at a time, sometimes never to be heard again. An extreme example was when, once or twice, a signal would go from S9 to not audible between overs. The propagation was generally extremely selective, with “chalk-and-cheese” differences noted even between stations just a few kilometres apart. All-in-all, it was somewhat similar to Sporadic E. Now just imagine an Es opening lasting several days, where the band appears dead but you know something could appear at any time – it amounted to pretty hard work finding the dx!

Notable contacts from my log are in the maps and table below. I had problems with my 70cms setup beforehand (albeit just 30W to a 19el F9FT @4m agl), but luckily managed to get it repaired before the propagation started, so the log includes a few nice (and very nice!) 432MHz contacts too:

EI3KD tropo QSO maps 28/09/15 to 03/10/15

2m tropo map, 28/09/15 to 03/10/15

70cm tropo map, 28/09/15 to 03/10/15

EI3KD tropo log, 28/09/15 to 03/10/15

Date	UTC	Call	Loc	Band	Mode	Distance (km)
28/09/2015	15:18	F0FEK/P	JO00TE	2m	SSB	713
28/09/2015	15:39	PD1AHM	JO21WF	2m	SSB	974
28/09/2015	16:25	DL6YBF	JO31OX	2m	CW	1054
28/09/2015	18:26	DJ2TX	JO33SA	2m	CW	1071
28/09/2015	18:28	PA1BVM	JO21RO	2m	SSB	939
28/09/2015	18:34	F8GGD	IN95UQ	2m	CW	904
28/09/2015	19:17	EA2XR	IN83KI	2m	SSB	1027
28/09/2015	19:29	F2YT	JO10GK	2m	SSB	767
28/09/2015	20:51	F4HBY	IN97AT	2m	SSB	640
28/09/2015	20:54	F6FGQ	IN78QJ	2m	SSB	469
28/09/2015	20:56	F6FGQ	IN78QJ	70cm	SSB	469
29/09/2015	18:25	SM6VTZ	JO58WI	2m	SSB	1454
01/10/2015	09:53	PA3C	JO33FD	2m	CW	999
01/10/2015	10:01	SP1JNY	JO73GL	2m	CW	1535
01/10/2015	10:40	LY2WR	KO24FO	2m	CW	2172
01/10/2015	10:54	DL3BQA	JO73CF	2m	CW	1515
01/10/2015	16:50	SK7MW	JO65MJ	2m	SSB	1445
01/10/2015	19:28	SP1JNY	JO73GL	2m	SSB	1535
01/10/2015	19:37	SM7GVF	JO77GA	2m	CW	1565
01/10/2015	19:50	SM1FMT	JO96BW	2m	CW	1778
01/10/2015	19:54	OV3T	JO46RG	2m	SSB	1244
01/10/2015	20:00	DL6AA	JO43JH	70cm	SSB	1154
01/10/2015	20:04	DL6AA	JO43JH	70cm	SSB	1154
01/10/2015	20:22	DL7APV	JO62JR	70cm	JT65A	1424
01/10/2015	21:23	SP1JNY	JO73GL	70cm	CW	1535
01/10/2015	21:36	PA5MS	JO21RQ	2m	CW	938
01/10/2015	21:41	PA5Y	JO21VO	2m	CW	966
01/10/2015	22:23	SM7GVF	JO77GA	70cm	CW	1565
01/10/2015	22:33	OK1SKY	JO56DG	70cm	CW	1293
02/10/2015	04:44	OZ1BEF	JO46OE	2m	SSB	1226
02/10/2015	04:53	OZ1BEF	JO46OE	70cm	CW	1226
02/10/2015	07:24	DM4EE	JO64KE	2m	CW	1425
02/10/2015	07:25	PA5MS	JO21RQ	2m	CW	938
02/10/2015	07:38	DG3XA	JO43WJ	2m	SSB	1226
02/10/2015	07:51	DO3BST	JO51KW	2m	SSB	1304
02/10/2015	08:01	SP1FJZ	JO84EE	2m	SSB	1652
02/10/2015	08:02	PA0T	JO33JC	2m	SSB	1024
02/10/2015	08:58	DF1AN	JO63SX	2m	SSB	1468
02/10/2015	09:21	DL4KUG	JO64PB	2m	SSB	1452
02/10/2015	09:43	SP1NQN	JO84ML	2m	CW	1695
02/10/2015	09:51	SP1MVG	JO73GL	2m	SSB	1535
02/10/2015	10:06	SP2CNW	JO93AI	2m	SSB	1767
02/10/2015	10:13	DK0HAT	JO53AP	2m	SSB	1238
02/10/2015	10:15	DJ9YE	JO43HV	2m	SSB	1146
02/10/2015	11:09	DF0MU	JO32PC	2m	CW	1058
02/10/2015	11:11	DL6BF	JO32QI	2m	CW	1062
02/10/2015	11:13	SP1FJZ	JO84EE	2m	CW	1652
02/10/2015	11:18	PA0KVA	JO33KC	2m	CW	1026
02/10/2015	11:37	PD0ME	JO32KX	2m	CW	1026
02/10/2015	11:42	DO7ES	JO64PJ	2m	CW	1453
02/10/2015	12:07	OZ6TY	JO55XE	2m	SSB	1374
02/10/2015	12:15	SP1JNY	JO73GL	70cm	CW	1535
02/10/2015	12:27	OZ6OL	JO65DJ	2m	CW	1398
02/10/2015	12:30	DL7UN	JO44LO	2m	CW	1176
02/10/2015	12:55	SK7MW	JO65MJ	2m	CW	1445
02/10/2015	13:45	PE1OPK	JO23UE	2m	SSB	949
02/10/2015	15:27	SP4MPB	KO03HT	2m	CW	1932
02/10/2015	16:29	SQ1FYB	JO73MI	2m	SSB	1569
02/10/2015	19:20	OZ5NM	JO55GJ	2m	SSB	1293
03/10/2015	07:13	OZ6TY	JO55XE	2m	CW	1374
03/10/2015	07:34	SP2HMT	JO94FQ	2m	CW	1786
03/10/2015	07:38	LY2WR	KO24FO	2m	SSB	2172
03/10/2015	07:43	LY2WR	KO24FO	70cm	CW	2172
03/10/2015	07:56	PA0SJE	JO23VH	2m	CW	955
03/10/2015	08:08	PA1MP	JO22IP	2m	CW	881
03/10/2015	08:48	SM7ECM	JO65NQ	70cm	CW	1454
03/10/2015	08:50	SM7NR	JO76GC	70cm	CW	1548
03/10/2015	09:09	SK7MW	JO65MJ	2m	CW	1445
03/10/2015	09:12	OZ1BNN	JO55PM	2m	SSB	1338
03/10/2015	09:28	SM7IPB	JO65QS	2m	CW	1471
03/10/2015	11:10	SK7MW	JO65MJ	2m	SSB	1445
03/10/2015	11:49	OZ6TY	JO55XE	2m	SSB	1374

I didn’t have the audio recorder running much of the time but I did record my highlight, which was a very unexpected SSB QSO with LY2WR (KO24fo, 2172km) on October 3rd, when I thought conditions had faded…

I started tuning around the band again after that 2m QSO and then realised I’d seen that LY2WR was also active on 70cms. I quickly went back and asked him to try on 432MHz and an exceptional contact was the result!

Of course I was very happy with what I’d heard or worked during this tropo opening but I have a niggling feeling I didn’t quite get the full potential out of it, simply by not being at the right place at the right time with another station at the far end… I spent many, many hours constantly listening for YL3AG in KO06, with a sum total of an extremely weak signal heard for probably no more than a minute; the duct just didn’t favour that particular path.

Finally, it must be noted that there were some fabulous results from the U.K., with stations that were probably more favourably placed for this particular opening. One example was Paul, G4RRA’s amazing 2m contact with RA3LBW at over 2400km. I know there were many more great contacts not just from G, but also GI, GM, etc. Hopefully we’ll get to hear more about those too!

73, Mark