2-meter tropo ducting observation

[KB3TQO]

I live in Chambersburg PA and have been trying to make contact with a reapeter in Winchester VA, which is only 70 miles give or take using my vx8. I homebrewed a j-pole using twinlead and rg58 with a swr of 1.3. ive had my ticket since november and never even heard the repeater until last week, and when i did my s-meter was topping out full. a few things have changed slightly prior to the rx, i put up a 2meter/440 j-pole from arrow and found a better swr 1.2, nine inches from the original spot. so im in the shower listening to random freqs. as it scanning around and BOOM the winchester repeater comes through like it was next door. im thinking ok cool, moving the antenna just a little bit made the world of difference until i was walking around the house with the rubber duck and heard a net on that repeater(S-METER@4bars) so i checked into the net using only 5 watts on the rubber duck. im still not really clear on whats going on but i think its my first time noticing rf ducting. 73's

 

[RatsoW8]

Pretty cool isn't it? When I was first licensed in 1987 (KC4BCL) I lived right on the bay in Norfolk, VA. During the spring, usually in the early morning, when there was an inversion layer I could work the east coast up through Maryland with an HT or homebrew 1/4 wave gp. It was usually mess of repeaters on top of each other but it was fun.

I'm now in MI on the lakeshore so it's common to work inversions across the lake into IL and WI. Unless you're in a relatively flat area or near water or a coastline what you are experiencing may not actually be tropospheric ducting.

 

[office888]

Open nicely last night.

Talked to a fellow in Chicago, off the Bangor, MI (K8BRC) repeater.

-Richard-