Nice TROPO Propagation on 10GHz

We have experienced nice Tropospheric radio propagation here in the Midwest of the United States of America. Many stations made unusually long contacts on HAM Radio bands from VHF to SHF frequencies. I was lucky too .. made my longest 10GHz contact so far (842km - 526 miles):

Mike MK0T confirmed our contact by sending his QSL card

Back side of Mike's QSL card

Mike finished setting up antennas on his tower just days before the event

I have made contacts with others too, this card is from Gedas,
contact was over 509 km (318 miles)

More details about our activities with more pictures can be found here and here.

Even more 10GHz DX

Worked Gedas W8BYA using Rain Cell mover Iowa. The distance of 576km (360 miles) is currently my 10GHz record.

More success on 10GHz

I am happy to show several more QSL cards for QSOs on 10GHz:

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)

Rain Scatter on 10 GHz

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:

Microwave season again

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:

View in direction of 60 deg. (NE)

My dog Darcey watching the equipment

My 10 GHz station set up

My car in the parking lot (empty this early in the day)

More 122 GHz success

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:

• temperature 3.6 deg. C

• dew point -5.2 deg. C

• pressure 1005.2 mBar

• humidity 51.1 %

• wind speed 2.4 m/s

Signal from Harry was S9 with QSB to S5. Herbert's signal was much weaker on Harry's side (Herbert uses a 21 dB horn antenna while Harry has a dish).

Another achievement - Geocaching