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Tower 1

Tower 1
Tower 1: Main tower supporting 50MHz 6M2WLC yagi, 14MHz 5 element yagi and 75m full wave loop.
Please note that all times are in UTC. As such comments relate to the next morning/day AEST unless otherwise stated.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

TEC maps showed great potential this morning, but as yet nothing has eventuated... will wait and see what the day brings.

Very strong ionisation at 2200z
Weakening of the ionisation at 2230z
And building again at 2300z

Condx earlier today started to look promising towards Central America, FK8CP was reported RST599 in TI7/N5BEK and YS1AG, but nothing eventuated here. However as I type we have a very strong TEP opening to JA... many very strong RS59 signals across the band as shown in the following:
Supported by:

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Been out of the shack for a few days attending to family matters.. but this morning was a nice 'welcome' home!

TI7/N5BEK heard working E51CG, he immediately replied to my call and we completed the contact!

Supported by the following conditions:

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Another good start to the morning. TI7/N5BEK heard here RST519, and worked by VK4WTN and VK4WM (also completed on SSB).

TEC map looks promising:

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Today's starting off well... Bob ZL1RS has just completed with N3LL in EL86tx!
 
Supported by:

Friday, February 10, 2012

After the opening to TX and FL earlier this week, the only excitement has been the opportunity to work ZK2C on Feb 8, 2012 at 2244z.
 Not quite like working Ws, but still nice to work a country not that active. Remi FK8CP has continued to work Ws this week, but the path hasn't extended the extra 1,500km to QG62lp.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Wow... 6m is open across the Pacific... just worked N5DG, K5RK, & K4RX. And, almost made it with AC4TO! I'm stoked.. but still TXing on 50.096!


Supported by:

Friday, February 3, 2012

It's been a day shy of a week since my last post... this is telling, it shows that there's not much to report propagation wise!

Besides the consistent occurrence a few DX indicators (both ZL 45 and 55MHz videos, and the usual R1 and CCTV 1 videos, and JS2IR trunk link), the occasional beacon (either ZL2WHO/B or ZL3SIX), and odd JA station, the 6m band has been quiet this week.

And whilst during the last few years this would have been seen as a great result, it's been obvious by the cluster rants and posts that there's a general level of 'withdrawal' from the highs of early January.

If it wasn't for a 'stuck' keyer that seemed to have emanated from a location to the south west of Brisbane (believed to close to QG62ei) last Sunday, the band wouldn't have been too interesting at all.

With the resulting condx I've tried to focus some attention to the few DXpeditions operational at present. And this has been with some success. However with the relatively poor propagation it has been below expectations. HK0NA has been completed in 8 slots (SSB/CW) - unfortunately 6m hasn't been one of them. The VP6 and C21 operations have been focusing towards EU and the opportunities have been few and far between resulting in few completed Qs.

Today also marked the end of the E51EME operation. Bob's attention to 6m DXing from the South Cook Islands during his 'holiday' over the last month has provided some great insight into what is possible on Es, a lot like the last couple of summers with Paul A35A activity from Tonga... we missed Paul's activity this summer and will do so even more now he's returned to the USA.

Local conditions continue to be consistent, with the past images taken from the IC-7600 Spectrum Scope remaining very consistent (I still don't understand the need to 'drop' carriers every 25KHz daily). This influx of 'new' stations over this summer has shown that they continue to focus on the 'allure' of domestic Es propagation paths and seem to not be aware of the longer haul openings. Let's hope this continues into the coming equinox!