Jerome LeCoyer, F4DXV, has been busy setting
satellite distance records. The AMSAT News Service reports that on October 19,
he contacted Casey Tucker, KI7UNJ, in Idaho via RS-44 at a distance of 8402
kilometers, or 5221 miles, 8 miles farther than the previous record. Switching to
AO-27, LeCoyer then contacted Michael Styne, K2MTS, in upstate New York grid
FN22, a record-setting distance for that satellite of 3661 miles, breaking the
previous record by more than 100 miles
RS-44 satellite (Photo via AMSAT-UK)
But you don't necessarily need a satellite to work DX on VHF and UHF. Sometimes a tropospheric duct will do just fine … such as the contact on October 16 reported by the South African Radio League between Tom Ambrose, ZS1TA, in Plumstead, South Africa, and Garry Mercury, ZD7GWM, on St. Helena island in the South Atlantic. Those two stations are 1960 miles apart … and their contact was on 70 centimeters FM! Keep that in mind the next time someone tells you that UHF is only good for line-of-sight contacts.
