[amsat-bb] Must have been tropo this morning

[J. Boyd (JR2TTS)]

I got unexpectedly good results on both FUNCube-1 and UKube-1 this
morning here in JA during three separate passes between 0000 and 0400
UTC, that I suspect was helped out by tropospheric ducting.

My QTH (PM85jl) is on the side of a mountain overlooking a valley, so
there is no direction I can look where I can see the horizon other than
a small sliver to the SSW. The mountain to the north wipes out the sky
up to 40° elevation, and the hills east and west cover up to at least
20°. Despite this, I received 10 packets from AO-73 with my Diamond
D-150 discone at 10m height, despite the bird being only being 11° 
maximum el, and a fantastic 70 packets during its next higher pass,
where I heard the beacon loud and clear almost immediately after AOS,
despite it being far down behind the mountain.

I later got 26 packets from UKube-1 as it passed far to the west, with
the last one having been received *after* LOS, something that had not
happened to me before. With all of the terrestrial obstructions between
me and the bird at that moment, I can only think that tropo had given it
a boost.

At 739th place in the rankings and rising fast, watch out world...

-- 
J. Boyd, JR2TTS/NI3B
the2belo at msd.biglobe.ne.jp
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the2belo/
http://www.qrz.com/db/JR2TTS
Twitter: @Minus2_C