This last night, I had occasion to come down to Merrilville IN, where I was staying for the night before some shows in Crown Point the next day (today now, I guess). Anyway, It was about 9pm, and as I was making the turn off I-80/94 onto I-65, I decided to flip over to 146.52 to see if anyone was around.
I found two guys talking, one who ID'd as Eric, KC9???, and another gentleman (didn't get the name, hopefully he will be sending his contact info via email). Anyway, they were wrapping up and planning to go to 2m AM, when I threw out my call. Both of them came back to me, and were good strong signals. Now I figured they were from the area, but was I in for a surprise...as one said his QTH was Marengo, IL, and the other was from Woodstock, IL. Yup, you are not mis-reading that. After I got the van back on the road, I asked again just to be sure. It was confirmed.
That is nearly 80 miles...and I was on a mobile! Needless to say, that was the hit of my night. If this can happen at the BOTTOM of the sunspot cycle, imagine what it will be like when the sunspots come back... :-)
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1 comment:
Eric,
Sunspots have little or no impact on 2 meters. What you experienced was maybe Tropospheric ducting. Look that up...very interesting. 80 miles on 2 meters FM is not that impressive easily done with height and antenna gain.
73,
N4TZH - Don
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