What's your farthest VHF contact?

[AgentCOPP1]

About a month ago, I got my new Diamond SRH320A antenna and hooked it up on my HT. From the glowing reviews, I expected its performance to be superb, so I started scanning around the NOAA WX frequencies just to see what I could hear. I was completely astonished. I heard stations from all around, and one of them was over 200 miles away (I looked up the call sign). There must have been some sporadic E propagation, but nonetheless I was absolutely amazed that VHF could travel that far. I didn't really make a contact, but it just surprised me that I could hear an FM VHF signal from so far away.

So, what's your experience with DX VHF? Anything but IRLP or Echolink is fair game.

 

[acyddrop]

The most distant VHF contact on medium power (~35 watts) was around 80 miles. That is terrestrial.

The most distant contact ever was 5 watts via satellite using an arrow antenna and a TH-f6a HT. I believe they were about 300 odd miles from my QTH.

 

[Thunderknight]

6 meters, 2-el yagi at 20 feet. Over 1000 miles on SSB at 80 watts.
2 meters, similar setup (3-el) several hundred miles.

 

[AK9R]

I'll bet Landon wasn't thinking of 6m being VHF. I once made a 6m FM contact that was about 600 miles.

 

[gregg22]

Michigan to Iowa about 480 miles
2meter ssb 4 element home brew quad 160 watts

 

[KR4BD]

I have made and confirmed 2-Way SSB contacts on the 6 meter VHF band (50 MHz) to many foreign countries from my home in Lexington, KY. I use a maximum of 100 watts and have NOT used satellites or any other means of getting a signal out except by bouncing it off the ionosphere. And, believe it or not, my antenna for 6 meters is an old Cushcraft AR-6 Ringo (vertical) purchased in the mid-1980's up a whopping 20 feet in the air!

Here are the countries I have QSL'ed:

Barbados
Bahamas
Cuba
France
Guadeloupe
Ecuador
Puerto Rico (counts as a country by ARRL)
Greenland
Curacao
Costa Rica
Canada
Anguilla
Montserrat
Mexico
Venezuala
Cayman Islands
Plus....All of the lower 48 states.

 

[Spankymedic7]

I can't find my logbook, but from SE Wisconsin (using a Yaesu FT-817 and a home brew 6m dipole up ~15 feet AGL), I've made contacts in Colorado, Nova Scotia, Texas, and a few more states scattered throughout the east coast. I can't remember my farthest QSO on 2m; however, I've regularly made APRS contacts via the ISS on 2m, and have made a handful on 2m via SO-50.

 

[AgentCOPP1]

I'll bet Landon wasn't thinking of 6m being VHF. I once made a 6m FM contact that was about 600 miles.

Oh no, absolutely. I don't have much experience with DX VHF on much of anything, but I was just giving the 2 meter experience as an example.

 

[kj3n]

So, what's your experience with DX VHF? Anything but IRLP or Echolink is fair game.

6m SSB - Delaware to Alaska (3350 mi), Spain (3755 mi), Poland (4288 mi), and Slovak Republic (4411 mi)
2m SSB - Delaware to South Dakota (1200 mi)

 

[elk2370bruce]

Central NJ to Oregon! I was running about 90-95 watts into Icom 756 PRO II. He was on top of a mountain running stacked beams with about 600 watts. Obviously, the skip was in! The fade set in after about five minutes. Got a great QSL from this 6m DZX'er

 

[Token]

Leaving out 6 meters, so VHF above 54 MHz, leaving out EME (kind of the ultimate simplex DX), leaving out any kind of repeater, including AMSATs.

Why do I leave out 6 meters? Multi thousand mile contacts are simply a matter of time on that band. Play through a few cycles with a decent antenna and you will get them. Even on dead years California to Florida is not impossible, just uncommon. I leave out EME because it is kind of a niche thing, and one EME record is pretty close to the next And I leave out AMSATs because I view them as repeaters in the sky, and line-of-sight repeater operation is nice, but not DX in my opinion.

My best 2M FM would have been some Sporadic E in 1998, California to Oklahoma, about 1030 miles. This was a complete fluke, my next best 2M FM simplex contact is not within 600 miles of this. Because of the nature of the contact (accidental), the equipment used (one end was mobile) and the pure oddity of FM, really long, VHF DX, I call this one of my “best” DX contacts, even if not my furthest.

My best 2M SSB would be California to Texas, roughly 1280 miles.

T!

 

[profiledescent]

2m, about 110 miles from a 9,700 mountain. Skip, 146.52 North of Austin, Texas to Gainesville, Florida. I was also picking up Florida FM braodcast stations at the time. 900-1,000 miles

 

[kayn1n32008]

On VHF, I have worked 2m repeaters more than 400KM away, during ducting. Same event I also worked a UHF repeater about 300km away.


Sent from an unknown place...

 

[box23]

2m FM, 530mi from Northern Wisconsin into a repeater just outside Kansas City, Kansas earlier this summer.

 

[W3DMV]

Best 2 Meter Pennsylvania-Wyoming (SSB E-Skip) 1998
Pennsylvania-Bermuda (SSB E-Skip) 1996 I was mobile with 50W and turnstile ant
Confirmed states on 2M SSB/CW = 42

Best UHF Pennsylvania-Texas (CW E-Skip) 1982
Confirmed states on UHF SSB/CW = 34

Best 50Mhz 163 Countries confirmed (SSB/CW)

Lot's of fun. Just need lots of patience to keep listening. E-Skip, Aurora, Meteor scatter and
tropo ducting can produce many wild moments.....

 

[k9rzz]

Best 50Mhz 163 Countries confirmed (SSB/CW)

You should send in your cards! That puts you, what, top 100 in the world??? (figuring that not everyone is on this database) Certainly top 10 USA. Here in the Midwest, 100 is a hard number to crack even with big towers.

Club Log: DXCC League Tables

Here's the OFFICIAL list. Top local guy to me has 102 and he's pretty hard core: http://www.arrl.org/system/dxcc/view/DXCC-6M-20130820-USLetter.pdf

I think I have 6 countries worked on 6m.

Best 2m DX was either via Aurora at 1,000 miles or so or E skip to Florida. I've worked west coast on 6 meters a few times.

 

[krokus]

During a contest, I was the opeator when we made a SSB 2m contact into eastern New York, from Ann Arbor, MI. (The contact was to a unversity radio club's contest site, which I am not certain of the distance to.)

 

[AC2OY]

About a month ago, I got my new Diamond SRH320A antenna and hooked it up on my HT. From the glowing reviews, I expected its performance to be superb, so I started scanning around the NOAA WX frequencies just to see what I could hear. I was completely astonished. I heard stations from all around, and one of them was over 200 miles away (I looked up the call sign). There must have been some sporadic E propagation, but nonetheless I was absolutely amazed that VHF could travel that far. I didn't really make a contact, but it just surprised me that I could hear an FM VHF signal from so far away.

So, what's your experience with DX VHF? Anything but IRLP or Echolink is fair game.

Wow pretty nifty Agent I have that antenna on my f6a on 5 watts I don't think I hit any repeaters any further than 10 or 12 miles away?! I used to get upset that I couldn't hit KQ2H (70cm one) from my porch, but hit one NYC repeater on the Chrysler building no problem. I suppose I have experiment further!!!

 

[tommytimbertoes]

Mine was to Mir and the ISS. I miss Mir!

Tom

 

[N4JKD]

I live in southern middle Tennessee and worked a station on 147.420 in Birmingham, AL last winter.

Jason, N4JKD