DX OPENING - 9 Aug 2008

[EI2IP]

What alot of fun today on 70MHz. Short Es to G and LX..

Worked 2 new DXCC, LX and IS0 and 6 new locators squares.

Also worked was S51, OZ, MW, I, DI and G.

Never heard the band open like this before, even work alot of G's on FM at 59++++, amazing.

Es were also worked on 144MHz.

Regards,

Robbie
Ei2iP

Ft-847, 40w and 5 element dk7zb at 10Mtrs above ground and 100Mtrs ASL.

[EI2IP]

You sure that was tropo, yesterday on 70MHz was Es.

[G0UWK]

Andy,
Did you manage to work any of the short distance Es ?

[GW8ASD]

I could hear SSB on my FM Ascom on 70.200 this morning, but would they respond to a quick call on FM? Would they heck...
Lots of Italian, Spanish, Arabic sounding stuff between 87.5 and about 93 at least, but no-one's hearing my calls anywhere.
What a waste of time 4m FM is for DX!

Generally you will not get a response if you use FM on 70.200 as it would block out several SSB channels. With the band being open as much as it has recently it would not be a popular move.

Also, it's possible, that anyone who did hear you just thought it was broadcast FM via ES.

4M FM is fine for DX, under the right conditions.

Although I've only had 62 FM contacts out of a total of over 1300, as I rarely use that mode, I've worked 9A, I0, OZ and S51 on several occasions as well as UK stations using FM.

It would be iteresting to know what sort of antenna you use as most FM DX is horizontally polarised, as is SSB.

Cheers

Tony