2m FT8

Last night I was on 2m FT8 using 10W to the big-wheel omni antenna. In a few hours I was spotted by 31 stations in 5 countries.

Best DX was again GI and GD. These were spots of my 10W, not two-way QSOs. It proves that my signal seems to always get this far. 2 QSOs had, 1 station called me (although we did not complete a QSO) and 1 PA0 spotted me. The map shows where I was spotted to 2030z.

These sort of spots are possible every evening on 2m FT8 from here with just 10W to the omni antenna, whatever conditions are like.  As I have mentioned before, I think aircraft reflection is unlikely, but that some sort of scatter is involved. Polarisation seems to make little difference. When I use the V2000 vertical I get similar results to the big-wheel.

Certainly, FT8 shows that 2m is far from dead!