It was a rainy and windy autumn day, no calm high pressure weather, no fog in the valleys, no sun on the mountains. No VHF amateur would expect good propagation today. But it turned out differently …
Already on the evening of the 24th of October, first G-stations were to be heard from the British southeast coast, which happens rather seldom in my to the west sloping hillside.
In the evening mostly FT8-mode-contacts with GU, GW and GI found their way into the logbook. ODX of the day was again Mark, EI3KD from IO51 over a distance of 1.287 km.
On the 25th of October the day started with very good signals towards France, as well as on the morning of the 26th of October. A nice end to this year’s tropo saison.

Working towards the west is not so easy from this location. The terrain is steadily rising and signals on 2m from the UK are rare. Just the well-equipped contest stations on the British East Coast could be heard from time to time.

A first good band opening this autumn took place yesterday, on Monday the 08th of October. Already at noon, stations from Normandy and southern England were reported in the DX cluster. Unfortunately, there was little activity in SSB, nothing in CW, but good activity on the FT8 Mode frequency 144.174 MHz. I heard and worked some stations from southern England and France. F6DBI from IN88 called me over an distance of 1,021 km for todays ODX. As a very big surprise I got a reception report from EA1UR in IN53tf over a distance of 1,693 km via PSK reporter! Unfortunately, I did not receive any signal from him. Whether it was a duct connection or aircraft reflections remains open.

On Tuesday morning the opening continued, stations from the UK were louder as on Monday evening. Once again FT8 was the preferred mode. Surprisingly Mark, EI3KD from IO51vw popped in over a distance of 1,287 km and was logged at 08:31 UT.