There was a nice tropo opening throughout the eastern US on August 20-24, 2023. Good conditions reappeared on Sept 2-3, 2023. While there was some tropospheric ducting along fronts, it really seems to be more wide-area stagnation that led to the good conditions.
Janice, KA9VVQ and I (W9FZ) will be making a presentation about VHF+ at the MN State Convention on October 14, 2023. I wanted to give evidence of how much fun a tropo opening can be for a VHF+ weak-signal operator. I put out a call on the Northern Lights Radio Society email reflector asking for log extracts covering the time of the openings. Eight operators responded to my request. There is variety in location, bands exercised, modes employed, and station capabilities. What is common is that all had fun!
The graphics are in callsign alphabetical order.
Wyatt sent along information about an amazing 10 GHz contact with KB8VAO at EN91kt (Perry Park) on the shore of Lake Erie. You can view the QSO from KB8VAO's end on You Tube . Wyatt also worked W9IP in FM19bb on 432. "
Bill, K0AWU, sent along the following: "This was the longest continuous enhancement that I have ever experienced. The best of the enhancement was to my south a couple hundred miles, but I had enhancement for part of four days! Conditions being better to the south were first noticed by the fact that I was seeing many WSJT signal reports to the south being in excess of a positive 20db. Mostly the best I saw was several at positive 7db. Overall I worked 86 stations on FT8, on mostly 2 meters, five 432 QSOs were worked with the longest out about 504miles with Roger W9FF. On 222 I worked Greg WQ0P in EN19 for a new grid squire for both of us.The best 2m QSO was with Allan KV4T EM63 at 1,019miles followed closely by Torsten N4OGW EM53, my only new 2meter grid at 978miles. These two were within the first few hours of the opening. No other stations were anywhere near this distance.
States worked included :: AL, MS, WI, IA, MO, IL, TN, OH, IN, KS, KY and ND. The tropo map supplied by vhf.dxview was insane! For the first 2 days a huge purple blob hanging over the central and eastern states gradually becoming and intense red blob. The area of enhancement was generally unchanged over the entire period.The reports on this event will be astounding. I suspect a considerable number of new VHF UHF and Microwave records. Long haul 10GHz QSOs will be of most interest to me. During this period, I so no enhancement on 10GHz at all."
Will, KC0UDO, in Superior, WI got in on the action.
Rich, N0HJZ, sent along the following: ". All with an FT991, 300 watt brick and a 12 element yagi at 20 feet. All SSB/CW.
8/21 - EN10, EM27, EM29. Great signals from NE and KS.
8/22 (1000-1400z) - EM15, EM28, EN00, EM56, EM74, EM85 (843 miles into NC), EM59, EM47, EM77, EM57, EM95 (913 miles into NC). Good signals and easy copy.
8/23 (0000 - 0400z) - 0000Z opening is mostly west - EM56, EM39, EM48. 0200 things move east and south - EM53, EM49, EM77, EM89, EM86. 0212Z I work WA3GWK in EM60 on SSB at 1,019 miles. He is in until 0400z. I call CQ in the morning and work WA3GWK in EM60 again. He is in from 1000-1130z.
I worked WA3GWK and I'm not sure too many others caught him. We talked off and on for a long time. No one else from his area was heard. I suspect that I had a bit of a pipeline to him. I also suspect that others near him were on FT8 and didn't try the traditional modes.
All QSO's on SSB/CW. "
Duane, N9DG, sent along the following: "Though I am outside of the NLRS focus area, I do have the kind of data that you are looking for. Attached is a log extraction sorted by distance for the late August tropo. It was definitely the best that I had gotten into in quite a few years, and how it persisted for a better part of 6 days. Phenomenal. In my case there was very little into TX, but OK and KS were well represented. The best distance I worked was EL98 near Tampa, FL ~1140 miles. WE7L in DM79 was another nice catch despite being "only" ~824 miles because long-haul tropo doesn't usually get that far west.
Most QSO's were on 2M and FT8, but I did take the time to patch in the 432 transverter for a few stretches of time during parts of that 6 ish days to do FT8 there too. Made a fair number of first time ever new grids on that band. However I couldn't quickly switch between bands like I used to.
Also attached is a screen shot of the Flex-6500 actually showing for a brief period of time during the Friday evening when I first picked up on the opening where there were more 2M SSB stations on than FT8. That was in the KS/OK direction. Needless to say that didn't persist through the days of the opening, but it was a bit surprising to see. So I made sure to grab that screenshot.
Unlike many long-haul tropo openings where there isn't any "local enhancement" to be heard at all, this one had a mix of local and long-haul most of the time that it was in there those 6 ish days.
I also want to point out that during the entire opening that I could quickly bounce between FT8 and SSB based on what I was seeing/hearing at any given moment. So it wasn't ever a matter of being focused on FT8 to the exclusion of SSB, I was effectively doing, or being present on both modes throughout the entire opening. And even a bit of FM thrown in there too, and all with just one radio. And I did maintain an analog availability on 222 and 432 too with the gear powered up pretty much all of the time that I was on 2M. Sadly 222 was definitely lacking in activity on any mode.
I only watched pskreporter to see where I was being heard, and dxmaps for a general sense of paths being worked. However I didn't use a single QSO scheduling web page like ON4KST (or similar) or a single phone call, text, or email to schedule any QSO's whatsoever. It was all just watching the radio, WSJT-X, and calling CQ a lot, primarily FT8 - because that is where its real strength lies, calling CQ a lot and watching/listening a lot. That has always been, and continues to be, the key to success on the bottom 4, not the specific mode, not schedules. The dxview.org APRS map also shows the importance TX'ing a lot, and listening near continuously. It catches a lot of opening paths that are never noticed or used by human ops. I think there is a lesson in there somewhere that is being completely missed by so many in the VHF+ weak signal community. \rant off..
Hope this is useful.
73,
Duane
"
Mary, W0AAT, sent along the following: " I am in EN24, run 750 watts at the antennas, all SSB. On 1.2m, I am running 100 watts to a small 10 element beam. On 903, I'm running 3 watts. Working EM19, EN13, and EN53 with 3 watts on 903 shows how good tropo openings are.
Was a fun few days! Looked at FT8 a few times, people working locals (to me 350 miles is local on 2m!) but never bothered working it, SSB is way more fun connecting to old friends and making new ones! And way easier for the other stations to get their friends on to work me. EN24 is still wanted by many!
Mary
W0AAT
EN24ho
Gary, W0GHZ, sent along his log and he worked both SSB and FT8. Additionally, Gary enjoyed the opening on 222 and 432 MHz in addition to 2 meters.
Ed, W0OHU's situation is unique. You can view his QRZ page to learn more but he is using 90watts to a 5-element yagi in the attic of his townhome fixed to the southeast. Look what he worked! Amazing!
