Image: Hepburn Charts
The West Coast Radio Amateurs are once again actively involved in experimenting with Tropo Ducting on 2 Meters. Last night the following radio amateurs were involved:
- Chris ZS1FC Jacobsbaai
- Thys ZS1TBP Mosselbaai
- Pieter ZL1PDT New Zealand
- Deon ZS6DDM Nelspruit
- Wikus ZS1WLM Saldanha
As can be seen the group of radio amateurs were not all from the West Coast. It is necessary to provide information on how these radio amateurs communicated with each other. Chris ZS1FC was on Echolink as ZS1FC-L with a linked 2 meter RF radio and a 10 element Yagi pointing towards Kleinsee. More on this later. Thys ZS1TBP was using the 2 meter RF radio of the AllStar/Echolink GRHub Network that was connected to ZS1FC-L. Pieter ZL1PDT was on Echolink connected to ZS1FC-L. Deon ZS6DDM was on Echolink connected to ZS1FC-L. Wikus ZS1WLM was using the 2 meter RF radio link of ZS1FC-L.
The stations were all interlinked and each station had a short over before Chris ZS1FC announced that the conditions for Tropospheric Ducting according to the Hepburn Tropo Index along the West Coast was looking good. He advised all stations to listen out for stations from the Kleinsee area. Stations in the Kleinsee area will be heard via the 2 meter RF radio of ZS1FC-L and then relayed on AllStar and Echolink. Earlier in the evening Chris ZS1FC (Jacobsbaai) talked to Koos ZS3JPY (Kleinsee) on 2 meters via Tropo Ducting using his 10 element Yagi. The QSO amongst the mentioned radio amateurs continued leaving large enough openings between overs should the Kleinsee radio amateurs break in. Unfortunately Koos ZS3JPY from Kleinsee notified Chris ZS1FC later in the evening, that due to work commitments he unfortunately could not join the group.
The group continued to enjoy a good old chat via all the linked systems until well after 10 pm. Now this is surely not the end of the experiment. Although not successful for the group, tropo ducting is still good and I am sure that the group will again get together tonight to see if they could talk to Koos ZS3JPY in the Kleinsee area.
The activity created by the mentioned radio amateurs is most welcome and I am looking forward to a rather unusual tropospheric ducting contact via RF and VOIP, I would like to encourage the mentioned radio amateurs to continue with their aim/experiment while conditions are still good. Hopefully I can soon report that contact was made with Koos ZS3JPY via Tropo Ducting using RF and VOIP at the same time. Stay tuned!!
Images: Google Maps
