An enjoyable contest this year with above average tropo conditions across the North Sea, mainly to PA and ON, but with just enough enhancement to work OZ on 23cm to the North East. On the other hand, tropo conditions inland on the Sunday were quite poor, with several attempts on the higher bands failing that should normally work.

Particular mention has to go to DL0GTH who did some very slick handoffs between bands to allow us to complete AS contacts on 5 bands from 23cm to 3cm on a pair of planes that travelled exactly down the line between us.

OL3Z (JN79FX) was heard for some minutes on 432MHz on Sunday, longer than would be possible by pure AS, so there must have been some tropo helping. QSB prevented completion of a 2 way QSO. However tropo tests with OK1KUO (JO80) and OE5VRL/5 (JN78) on 23cm resulted in no signals heard.

F1AZJ/P provided new squares (JN28) on both 13cm and 3cm on Sunday, with excellent signals over the 494km path

73

John G3XDY

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