Breakfast Radio

While my wife was having fun working the tropo last night I was stuck in work and it is the same tonight. I had a text earlier from one of my buddies to tell me 2m, 70cm and 23cm are wide open to the continent, thanks mate. I am not sure if he thinks I am off or if he is just winding me up, but Helen tells me 2m is busy again with EU stations.

I got in from work just after 7am (0600 GMT) this morning and I was determined to see if the tropo was still there. I was fairly sure it was as the sky had been cloudless and the temperature inversion could still be seen all night from some of the higher structures around the plant. The opening was still lively and I filled a page in the log in the hour before I headed to bed. Most of the stations were Germans or Dutch but that was due to my beam pointing roughly south west, which is where Helen left it last night. I did however also grab some SOTA points from Gerald G4OIG on 2m SSB and Paul G4MD on both 80 and 60m in the Lake District.

I should probably have gone straight to bed as I could not sleep with the sunlight from a stunning day streaming through the windows. I was up and down every half hour or so and eventually came downstairs at 1pm (1200 GMT) to grab a drink. In the next hour I filled another page in the log including Gerald and Paul on G/LD-003 Helvellyn for a nice 10 SOTA points and Steve G1INK who was on G/SP-004 Shining Tor 70cms SSB. I topped it off with some 17m DX before collapsing in to bed and going out like a light. Nothing to amazing on 17m but I did get one new DXCC on the band.

All in all probably more in the log in two hours than I would expect in a whole day so I cannot be too upset about missing the action. I hope the high pressure lasts for a while longer and I can catch some more tropo, but to be honest I would settle for a good sleep and waking up feeling refressed instead of like I have been ten rounds with Mike Tyson. I will give it a try in the morning and who knows I might get something new on 2m. Poland keeps evading me, I have heard them on 2m SSB numerous times going back to other stations but although I have bagged most of the EU on that band I still have to work one. So if there is anyone from Poland reading this please beam towards me at about 0630 GMT and shout CQ on 144.300