VHF Anomaly !

[WQ2H]

Don't really know if this is considered a "skip" - but it sure surprised me.



73
Jim, WQ2H / WK2XAH

 

[nd5y]

It's either an error or fake. It's easy to spoof APRS.

 

[WQ2H]

Probably.

The only reason I question it, is because coincidentally I had the APRS on an 8-element Yagi (pointed east) while I was doing some antenna work on the verticals mast for a few days. Aside that, I found out that SP8NCG at times uses a 500W APRS beacon from a 100' tower located at about 1000 ' ASL. Stranger things have happened I guess.......

73
Jim, WQ2H / WK2XAH

 

[kc4jgc]

…. coincidentally I had the APRS on an 8-element Yagi (pointed east) while I was doing some antenna work on the verticals mast for a few days. Aside that, I found out that SP8NCG at times uses a 500W APRS beacon from a 100' tower located at about 1000 ' ASL. Stranger things have happened I guess.......

If those stats are correct that Poland>your QTH could be a 2m APRS record!

 

[vagrant]

With the setup on RX and TX it could be legit. RF is interesting. A friend has contacted Hawaii from California on 2m phone before.

Additionally, I've got someone local to me who is a regular using 2m phone. I'll ask about his furthest contact and regular distant contacts and then tell you who it is. You may get a laugh and at least understand why I asked him.

 

[prcguy]

A friend of mine has talked from Kalifornia to Hawaii on 900MHz, 1296MHz, 2.3GHz, 3.4GHz and 5.7GHz via tropospheric ducting. These were two way contacts. A Kalifornia 2m repeater on Catalina Island occasionally gets some people from Hawaii checking in.

Poland to the US east coast is believable.

 

[prcguy]

duplicate post

 

[zz0468]

A friend of mine has talked from Kalifornia to Hawaii on 900MHz, 1296MHz, 2.3GHz, 3.4GHz and 5.7GHz via tropospheric ducting. These were two way contacts. A Kalifornia 2m repeater on Catalina Island occasionally gets some people from Hawaii checking in.

There's a 10 GHz beacon on the Hawaii end pointed towards California in the hopes that band can someday make the hop. I'm not aware that it's ever been heard yet.

 

[prcguy]

The guy I referred to in my last post built the 10GHz beacon for Hawaii. Chip Angle N6CA, used to own Angle Linear. I seem to remember its been heard but I don't believe there has been a two way 10GHz contact yet.

There's a 10 GHz beacon on the Hawaii end pointed towards California in the hopes that band can someday make the hop. I'm not aware that it's ever been heard yet.

 

[prcguy]

Duplicate post. Again!!!!! Oops.

 

[WQ2H]

Not too much experience with VHF/UHF. Put up the UHF repeater and VHF ARPS systems for local folk in our town, and people passing through the Monadnock Mountain region. They're always buzzing with something.

Downright crazy if it's true - although if they're really using 500W, that might do it.

 

[vagrant]

I finally got around to looking at the numbers for SP8NCG on APRS.fi today. If you look at this month and others, you can see that there are some far reaching stations that directly heard their packets. It is too many to spoof in various locations around the earth to be a false hit. Now I wonder what antenna they're using in order to estimate their ERP.

 

[prcguy]

When I go hiking at a local park on a hill in coastal Los Angeles with a 1W APRS beacon and 1/4 wave whip, I usually get picked up by a station in Mexico about 170mi away. Seems APRS beacons will decode well below levels where voice would be usable.

 

[WQ2H]

I see he's getting pings from RS0ISS at 6,479 km and PSAT (KJ4ERJ) at 15,188 km - so I assume some sort of stacked Yagi for satcom.

That would probably do it.

 

[vagrant]

Interesting - 5 minutes ago I connected up an M2 eggbeater to IGate packets from the ISS and PSAT 2 via 145.825 MHz. I wonder what it will catch.

I've got about 40 minutes until the PSAT 2 swings about, so I'm fishing for some FLTSATCOM traffic until then.