(Blog posted retrospectively from my old website, NE Ham Radio).

VHF can work in wonderful ways! I was sitting listening to my radio when I heard a station (signal 5,9) calling CQ. I asked them to repeat the callsign, and I heard “ES8TJM”. They were calling CQ on 145.500FM, and I worked them (receiving a 5 and 9 signal in return).

The usual range of VHF is “just beyond line of sight”. If you can make a 30 mile contact line of sight, you can expect somewhere in the range of 40 miles radio range. This contact occurred due to an atmospheric condition called “Sporadic-E”. You just have to be in the right place and the right time to benefit from VHF propagation, and I was very lucky to have such a clear contact so far away! I have never worked Estonia on HF either, so a totally new country in the log for me.

I firstly thought that this might be a “troll” station, but the station I spoke to happily confirmed the contact via email. Definitely worth me sending a QSL card!

Moral of the story – keep calling CQ! You never know who might respond…