Sea ducting DX this week
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2018 8:26 am
Looking at the weather forecast, there is a large High pressure sitting right over the UK for the next week.
Whilst the main tropo enhancement is likely to happen once the system starts to move away, given there will be high air temperatures over the sea and very little wind, it is highly likely that there will be sea temperature ducting on most days next week. This is a great opportunity to work long distances on the higher bands as the Norfolk / Northern team proved last month on 5.6GHz.
Those living by the sea will be able to confirm this by looking out for a dark band (maybe brownish) forming so you can no longer see the Horizon as seen to the right of the line in the picture:
This effect mainly appears later in the day (from around 3pm in to evening although Norfolk to Bridlington was from around 11am) and you don't need to be on a cliff top as it is probably best to be at sea level to launch in to the duct directly, but any line of sight path to the sea will probably work.
I've no particular plans yet but will probably go out on at least one day and would encourage everyone to get out and try to work some long paths on any band above 1GHz. BTW, you will probably find 144.750 does not work as well as the higher bands so be prepared to use text or whatsapp for talkback.
Please post any plans here so others can join in.
73
Noel
Whilst the main tropo enhancement is likely to happen once the system starts to move away, given there will be high air temperatures over the sea and very little wind, it is highly likely that there will be sea temperature ducting on most days next week. This is a great opportunity to work long distances on the higher bands as the Norfolk / Northern team proved last month on 5.6GHz.
Those living by the sea will be able to confirm this by looking out for a dark band (maybe brownish) forming so you can no longer see the Horizon as seen to the right of the line in the picture:
- Sheringham 2 (Medium).JPG (341.64 KiB) Viewed 4703 times
This effect mainly appears later in the day (from around 3pm in to evening although Norfolk to Bridlington was from around 11am) and you don't need to be on a cliff top as it is probably best to be at sea level to launch in to the duct directly, but any line of sight path to the sea will probably work.
I've no particular plans yet but will probably go out on at least one day and would encourage everyone to get out and try to work some long paths on any band above 1GHz. BTW, you will probably find 144.750 does not work as well as the higher bands so be prepared to use text or whatsapp for talkback.
Please post any plans here so others can join in.
73
Noel
