W8BYA |
Rain Scatter - 515 and 519 km (322 and 324 miles) |
WB0LJC |
Direct Tropo 322 km (202 miles) |
W0ZQ |
Direct Tropo 318 km (199 miles) |
We have made a bi-directional contact with W8BYA in Indiana, over 500km away on 10 GHz using Rain Scatter propagation. That's my current record on 10 GHz:
The microwave season is back. I will attend several ham radio contests as usual. Also try to make some microwave contacts outside of contests. Note that for ham radio purposes, "microwaves" are all legal ham radio bands from 900 MHz up in frequency.
We have tried for TROPO propagation on 10 GHz between St. Peters (MO) EM48qs and Ft. Wayne (IN) EM70jt this morning at 7:00am CDT. Me (Herbert) AF4JF on one site and Gedas W8BYA on the other. About 335 miles (539 km). We didn't make a radio contact. It was too late in the day, the Sun was too high. It was also too early in the season. We will keep trying as long as needed.
I am set up for all ham radio microwave bands except 76 and 240 GHz now. Currently obtained new 2.4 GHz station from SG Lab in Bulgaria (click for details). Most of my activities this year will be carried out from the location I used today. It's a St. Charles County Park called College Meadows (click for details). This park opens at 7:00am and closes 30 min after sunset, but the gate stays open. The rangers and police from nearby college campus tolerate visitors when it's not dark. I have been walking my dog there as soon as 5:30 am. However, we do not want to wear out our welcome there, so activities in the dark without permission are out of question.
Several pictures attached:
This "news" is actually not new. It happened in December 2020. I have just received the QSL card from Harry WA0CNS. We have made first ham radio contact on 122GHz between the U.S. states of Missouri and Illinois.
This contact crossed a line-of-sight distance of 7.67km (4.76mile). The atmospheric conditions were not all that great. The relative humidity was still too high:
I am not really attending contests to win, more for fun and to test the technology. However, it feels good to receive certificates like this one: