80m longpath to OH and European Russia
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During a window around Ducie Island local sunrise (1345-1445Z), long path
contacts have been made on both 75m SSB and 80m CW with stations in Finland and
European Russia.
The furthest contact was to northern Finland, about 25,000 km from Ducie Island
and 5,000 km beyond the antipodes. The best reception at Ducie Island for most contacts is on the 195° beverage.
Some stations were heard equally well on the 225° beverage. The stations were
inaudible on any other direction. This suggests the path has very little skew
off the great circle long path route.
This long path route parallels the terminator (bearing 187° from Ducie), with
signals from Ducie traveling over Antarctica... Heard Island... Rodrigues
Island... the Persian Gulf... Iran... and western Russia.
We encourage stations in Scandinavia and western Russia to listen during these
times, and to call VP6DX if they hear our signal.
We will also be listening on 160m for contacts on this path (or some variant).
It would be a thrill to put long path contacts on top band in the log. Let's see
how far we can push propagation!
Please submit any reception reports for unusual openings, including openings on
other bands, via the VP6DX website.
