Cloudlog Station Diary Hub

Over the weekend of 26 and 27 September, Grampian Hilltoppers set up a special amateur radio station at Dufftown station, on the Keith and Dufftown Railway, for Railways on the Air. This is a national event, held each year on the weekend closest to 27 September, when radio clubs operate from railways and railway museums and try to speak to one another. Our station used the call sign GB2KDR, issued for the Keith and Dufftown Railway. Peter (MM9SQL), Charlie (GM1TGY) and Phin (GM6PLG) operated.

We were on the air from just after 09:20 in the morning until about 5:30 p.m. on both days. In that time we made 408 contacts with 390 different stations, in 48 countries. Most were in Europe, with Germany, European Russia, Italy, Poland, France and England the busiest. The furthest reached Indonesia, Thailand and Japan, and we also worked India and the eastern side of the United States and Canada. The two maps show where those contacts were.

Conditions were on the poor side, and the solar figures agree. There was no magnetic storm while we were operating, but the Sun itself was only modestly active. The solar radio flux, a standard measure of how busy the Sun is for radio, was 101 on Saturday and 97 on Sunday, with sunspot counts of 88 and 67. That is a quiet patch rather than a busy one. It showed on the bands. Nearly all the long-distance contacts were on 20 metres, one of the shortwave bands that travels well in daylight, and nearly all of those were digital contacts, where the computer completes the exchange from a signal too weak to follow by voice. We had about an hour on 15 metres on Saturday afternoon, mostly into Europe. We made no contacts on the higher bands.

All QSOs Plotted on World Map

The railway-to-railway contacts were different. Those were ordinary spoken conversations, on 40 metres, using a simple wire aerial cut for that band. A second aerial, a Comet dipole covering 40 metres down to 10 metres, carried the longer-distance work.

We spoke to 21 other stations taking part this year.

On Saturday: Ashton Court Miniature Railway, the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway, the East Somerset Railway, Kinver Model Engineers, the Downpatrick and County Down Railway, the Somerset and Dorset Railway, and Murrow West Station.

On Sunday: the Royal Victoria Railway, the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway, the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, the Gartell Light Railway, the Audley End Enchanted Railway, Almondell Model Engineering Centre, the Foxfield Light Railway, the Watercress Line, Hythe Pier Railway, the Furness Miniature Railway, St Neots Riverside Miniature Railway, Whitrope Heritage Centre, the Southwold Railway, and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

We also spoke to the Helston Railway in Cornwall and to the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers. Both were on the air for the event, but not under the call signs on this year's published list.

Thank you to the Keith and Dufftown Railway for having us at Dufftown station. 

The conditions they are a changing!

It was noticeable in the CWT last night that 15m was open longer into North America and further west too. It was nice to have a quick chat with Jim VE7ZO just prior to the contest starting and John VE3EJ was very loud as were a number of the US stations. Nice too to work Allan VK2GR  on 20m during the contest. Just before the end of the hour, I noticed that Barry VK2BJ was on 10MHz, so I hopped over there and had a nice QSO with him. Last contact of the night before turning in was Gabe WN7JT doing a POTA activation over in Washington state. He wasn't loud, but I was very happy to work him.

And then this morning, I caught David VK3DBD on 20m for a quick chat. More VKs in 12 hours than in some time!

Two metre tropo is reasonable to the south west too. Had a very easy QSO with Keith G8IXN this morning and then mid afternoon, a few periods from CT9ACF, although he seemed to have vanished by the time I got back to the shack.

The K's shot up today - it started off at 1 today and has risen quite sharply, so I guess we're in for some disturbance.

No entries for a week? No particular reason other than rushing about a bit. Nothing major to report.

On 2m there has been a little enhancement but fairly local - mostly UK stations have been noticeably louder than usual. Nothing much doing on 6m.

HF conditions seem to have changed a little bit and are improving a bit after the summer doldrums. I can't say that I have worked any real DX. It's mostly been SOTA stations and the occasional US station in the evenings, mostly on 18 or 21MHz.

My 'DX Commander Junior' (the fibreglass pole with wires taped up the side of it) has been up all summer. A couple of days back I decided to put the proper DX Commander Signature 9 back up. I'm always a little cautious about whether it's going to behave on 7 and 10MHz, although I now know that if it doesn't, it's just a question of cleaning the connectors on the driven plate and the ground plate. Anyway, after its' summer off, it was just fine and it's nice to have 7 and 10MHz available - the Signature 9 really does work well on those bands. No particular DX worked on those bands yet, but some nice QSOs nonetheless.

Some modest tropo around today. Got the occasional 2m spot from EA1UR during the afternoon and worked a few stations around Devon and the south coast.

Not too much doing on HF during the day, but nice to work Bud AA3B operating V26K on 17m in the evening. W1AW much louder on 17m this evening compared to the last few days. Mind you with the K up at 4, it might be that we're about to have another dive in conditions.

I see RI1FJZ has got to the island today, so they should be up and running soon.

Spent the morning doing the PW column, which is always fun. A bit less this month as there's been less Es and DX generally, around on 6m.

After lunch, I had a listen around on 2m FM as there was a 145 Alive event going on. Only worked a couple of '145 Alive' stations; GI3BRC/P and Keith G8IXN in Cornwall. GI3BRC/P was up and down in fading all the time and were a little hard to work, but it was good to hear them - GI on FM is fairly hard going from here. There was also an Irish Counties contest going on and it was fun to work a good number of Irish portables. Once again there was a fair bit of fading, but I was able to work over towards the west coast of Ireland which is reasonable going from here, on 2m FM at least.

No entries for a couple of days - not too much going on on the air and I've been buzzing around elsewhere.

Mostly SOTA contacts and little in the way of DX. Solar flux is low and the A index has been high.

This morning, EA1UR has been visible on 2m FT8 - no great strength on the vertical but nice to see him. Looking at the tropo map, it's a bit touch and go from here to northern Spain but good from there to the southwest towards EA8 - so. you never know.

No entries for a couple of days as I've been in Cheltenham.

Got back in time for the last few minutes of the 1300z CWT. Conditions not good - couldn't work John VE3EJ on 15m, although I did work him on 20m.

Popped out for a curry in the evening so again, only the last few minutes of the 1900z CWT but conditions poor. Nothing really doing on 15m and 20m quite poor - a struggle to work some of the usual North Americans on 20m!

No post yesterday as we were pretty busy extracting the honey from one of our beehives. We've ended up with a nice batch of honey, so that's pleasing.

Not much to report on the radio yesterday, although I did get a couple of decodes of EA8CSB on 2m last evening. Fairly weak, but interesting to see out of the blue. You can see the tropo path in a screen grab from DX Chrono. Actually, that's for today, so the path looks like it's probably still there although I haven't seen an EA8...so far!

Today I had a few tasks to do in the morning, but was pleased to work TL8GD on 15m CW for a new DXCC. Heard him the other day on 20m, but didn't work him, so that worked out well.

Over breakfast I was listening to RI1FJL on 20m CW with a very big signal. I didn't manage to work out where they were listening in between dealing with emails and so on. They were still on the frequency when we got back from Haverfordwest about 4 hours later. Fortunately, I did manage to work out where they were listening this time and managed to work them first call. I've a feeling they are finishing today, so that will probably be my last QSO with them. Not the last activity from Frans Jozef Land though as RI1FJZ are due to start up fairly soon.

Bit of a busy day and didn't make it onto the air until the early evening, following shopping and then doing a cruise ship welcome up at the harbour.

TF89IRA a nice signal and good operator on 20m CW - getting through the pileup nicely.

The Grampian Hilltoppers put GB1TMH on the air on Saturday 22 August from the grounds of Touchdown Memorial Home for Horses, near Mulben in Moray. Touchdown were running their summer fair, so we took the mobile shepherd's hut along and spent the day on HF.

Touchdown look after horses and ponies at their sanctuary near Mulben, and they run equine-assisted therapy with veterans, ex-offenders and young people with additional needs. The Countrymen Club and Blue Unicorns run from the same site. We were there to put their name on the air for a day.

We finished with 303 QSOs, 275 different calls, covering 37 DXCC entities and 140 grids. We logged it in N1MM. On the wall we had DXChrono Desktop running in Special Event mode, so the hut could see the map and whoever we had just worked.

The station was a Yaesu FT-991 at 100W, a Comet trapped dipole for 40 to 10 m, and a separate 40 m dipole, both at 20 ft on the trailer tower.

Operating Hut

We started on 40m SSB just before 09:00 BST. That was the sociable bit: mostly G, GM, GI and GW, with a few continentals in the mix. 35 phone contacts in total, 34 of them on 40, and one lonely SSB QSO on 20. After that we went to FT8 and FT4 and the rate went up.

The band split for the day:

Band QSOs

10m 82

20m 74

40m 69

15m 64

6m 14

Modes: 238 FT8, 35 SSB, 30 FT4.

Peak hour was 15:00 to 16:00 BST, 48 in the log.

10 m being the busiest band was a bit of a surprise for late August from here. It was almost all Europe, so Es rather than a magic F2 opening. Same story on 6 m: we just used the auto ATU to put the Comet on 6, nothing special, and a short lunchtime Es burst from about 13:13 BST gave us 14 FT8 contacts into Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Slovenia and Croatia, then it was gone.

From a mobile shepherd's hut we still found Asiatic Russia on 20m in the morning (R8AU, UA0AV, RV0AR). Later on 15m we had Indonesia, China (BA5AN), Laos (XW4KV), VE3MZD, and a couple of US stations. CT3MD called in on 20m FT4. Nothing from South America, VK or Africa, which is exactly what the map looks like: Europe painted red, a handful of dots further out.

Thanks to Touchdown for having us.

With the solar flux barely over 100 today, the CWTs weren't too exciting. In the 13z one, I worked K6NA on 20m which was nice, but little DX apart from that. At 19z, I could hear a few west coast stations on 15m, but no east coast - could just hear John VE3EJ, but no chance of a QSO!

Nice sked with Roger GW5NF followed by a call from Martin 2E0XBZ from Bracknell. I've heard him on 80m AM and we had a good chat about AM.

VHF seems quiet this morning. Worked a couple of SOTA portables before noticing that RI1FJL were on 15m CW. I already have them on 15, but CW would be a new slot. Initially they were quite weak, but came up well and it was an easy QSO to make.

Looks like another SOTA day on HF!

A little Es going on on 6m. Worked IW0HLE and saw a couple of other stations, but fairly weak. Nice to work Peter G8BCG this morning on 6m - some sort of scatter going on as there was a lot of 'fuzz' on the waterfall from Peter. Switched to the vertical and absolutely nothing whereas on the beam (beaming SE), Peter was +3.

Since there doesn't seem to have been much 6m DX from over the Atlantic in recent weeks, I've turned the beam from its' usual westerly heading towards the East - it'll be interesting to see if anything comes in from that direction. Probably need to be looking south really, but we'll see what happens.

HF seems fairly poor again this morning (A and K quite high), so I'm guessing it's going to be a SOTA day!

Six metres very quiet this morning, just the odd bit of scatter. HF not much better!

RI1FJL on 20 and 15, where I don't need them, so worked a couple of SOTA stations which is always enjoyable.

I've been rather quiet with my updates for a little while. I've been a bit preoccupied, to be honest!

I think I mentioned some health issues. Well, the investigations into this morphed into a MRI and then a biopsy, looking at whether I had Prostate Cancer. Following the MRI, it looked like I did and for about a month, that was the very unpleasant possibility that we were looking at. Yesterday, Julie and I met with the consultant to discuss the biopsy results. To our huge surprise and delight, only a very minor amount of cancer was detected and at such a low level, the consultant wasn't concerned. Major relief for us both, I can tell you.

The original issue that sparked the investigation remains to be solved, but a fairly simple operation can correct this, so hopefully that can be done shortly and the whole episode put behind us.

In the background, I have been on the radio! It's been a good summer for 6m and I've been pleased to work a couple of new countries; 3A (Monaco) and VP2M (Montserrat) on the band. There's been loads of Es. It's tailed off a bit now, but even today there have been stations to work.

I spent a bit more time on 70MHz FT8 this summer too! I found that the FTDX-10 and the 40m dipole worked ok to make a few QSOs here and there and I've worked a few new squares on the band.

HF has been fairly poor over the summer. Conditions seem to be starting to change a little bit now. In the CWT session on Wednesday evening, I worked a couple of west coast NA stations on 15m for the first time in a few weeks. The RI1FJL expedition to Frans Josef Land has been very QRV and I was pleased to work them on 15m FT8 for a new DXCC from Wales, followed shortly after by a 20m FT8 QSO. As ever it will be nice to pick up a CW QSO if possible.

Well, hopefully updates will be a bit more frequent again now.

This report summarises the operations of station GM1TGY using the contest callsign GM5G during the RSGB FT8 Eclipse contest on 12 August 2026. The station was operated by MM9SQL and GM1TGY from Aberlour in Moray.

Station ConfigurationContest Callsign: GM5GOperators: MM9SQL and GM1TGYLocation: Aberlour, Moray (Locator IO87IK)Antenna: 40m dipole at 10m above groundPower: 600wMode: FT8Contest Operations and Log SummaryThe contest took place during the afternoon and early evening, operating entirely on the 40m band. The wsjtx_log.adi file confirms a total of 87 QSOs were logged over the three-hour operating window from 16:30 to 19:30 UTC. The combination of 600w and the 40m dipole provided consistent performance throughout the session.

The spatial distribution of the contacts is plotted. The map indicates a high density of regional contacts across Europe. Consistent propagation was observed into Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, and Ukraine, alongside reliable local coverage within the UK.

Solar Eclipse Propagation AnalysisThe timing of this short-duration contest was explicitly set to investigate propagation effects caused by the partial solar eclipse on 12 August 2026.

As the eclipse progressed, the reduction in solar radiation decreased F2 and E-layer illumination. Concurrently, the lack of solar energy resulted in a reduction of D-region absorption. The D-region is responsible for absorbing lower-frequency signals during daylight hours, so this sudden drop in absorption directly impacts propagation on bands like 80m and 40m. Essentially, the eclipse temporarily removes the typical daytime signal attenuation, allowing 7 MHz signals to travel much further than they normally would during the afternoon.

This physical change is evident when analysing the wsjtx_log.adi file. The reduced daytime absorption opened long-distance and intercontinental propagation earlier in the day than normally expected for mid-August. Notable DX contacts achieved during the eclipse window include:

Asia: JA8EPO in Japan at 18:09 UTC and UN6GO in Kazakhstan at 17:14 UTC.South East Asia: 8H81YK at 16:55 UTC and YC2KTO in Indonesia at 17:23 UTC.Africa: ZS2PA in South Africa at 18:35 UTC.The operations at GM5G successfully captured the propagation enhancements induced by the eclipse. The station hardware performed exactly as required, and the resulting log provides clear evidence of the ionospheric changes caused by the celestial event.

Almost a month since my last diary entry.

Actually, I've not been feeling that great! I won't go into details, but had a rather painful occurrence involving a trip to A&E at the end of May and I've been recovering since. Hopefully making some progress now. So, I haven't been as active as normal.

But this morning there was an excellent 2m Es opening when I worked around 35 stations. I was very happy about that as I missed a good opening last night!

It's been a busy few days here! We were able to collect a swarm of bees from the garden of a lovely family close by. We've now settled the bees into the hive and all is well so far.

Had a bit of fun and games with the TS-590SG. When I went to transmit, the rig reset and rebooted, even at a 5W power level. I tried two power supplies and the same thing happened. I tested the power lead and it had a low DC resistance so I was getting ready to send the rig off for repair. Somehow, though, it felt like a power related issue. Rob MW0RLJ a mile away has a TS-590SG and I asked him if I could take my TS-590SG over there and see if it worked on his power lead. Of course, he said, but have you tried re-seating the fuse? I said I hadn't, but didn't think that was the issue as the DC resistance of the lead was so low. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, I took the fuse out and re-seated it. And, that was the problem - no more rebooting rig.

So, that's great. I'd missed the ability to monitor 2m and 6m simultaneously! Not much doing on 6m over the last few days, but this afternoon, I was pleased to work several VO and VE1 stations as well as HI3T.

Pete MM9SQL's Oscarwatch program continues to develop and it's been fun to make a few satellite QSOs again. No real DX worked, but it all seems to be working well. I've been on RS-44, JO-97 as well as the ISS so far, with CW and SSB on RS-44, CW on JO-97 and of course, FM on the ISS crossband repeater.

Not much in the way of Es today on 6m and certainly not on 2m. Just the occasional decode.

Pete MM9SQL has written some new satellite tracking software and he's kindly allowed me to test it. I've got it hooked up to the FT-847 and although I only have a poor antenna for satellites (ie the dual band vertical) I've had some fun today on RS-44 with a few QSOs. Pete's software sorts out doppler control, so for the first time in a very long time, I can actually tune around on the transponder and have a fairly reliable sense of where I need to transmit!

Missed both the CWTs today - the band was very noisy with static crashes this afternoon and then we went out to Abercastell in the evening.

First things first! I was completely wrong about the opening to JA on 6m. No sign of anything. Although, in my defence I did see mention of some people having heard XW on 6m this morning. Certainly not here! It was a good Es day though and had just under 50 QSOs. Nothing really unusual, but just a nice day of waiting for signals to build and calling them. Quite intense Es this morning on 6m and I'd guess that 4m opened up. I didn't see anything on 2m.

Why, oh why, do people use these filters like 'hide stations I've worked before' on VHF? This morning, there was a station calling CQ on 2m FT8. Tried calling him and I know he heard me because I could see it on PSK Reporter. He didn't reply to me. He'd even gone out portable and I didn't see him work a soul. Was it finger trouble having left the filter on? Or some other reason. On FT8, a QSO takes little over a minute to complete. Is your life so busy that you can't spare a minute to work a station you've worked before? Are you too important to be bothered by people calling you for repeat QSOs? Perhaps you are only interested in QSOs for an award and not VHF propagation and how it varies from day to day. Well, of course, we're all entitled to operate as we wish, but I. JUST. DON'T. SEE. THE. POINT. OF. THIS.

Sigh! Rant over :-)

The Es seemed to fade in the late afternoon.

With 6m quiet, when we got back from a nice evening at the harbour, I went on 15m and was pleased to find the band open quite nicely into the USA.

I'm typing this up at the end of the day as it's been a busy one. Two cruise ships in today, so we were at the port for most of the afternoon.

6m seems to have been open all day! It was open when I got to the shack and it's still going at 23:!5 as I write this.

I saw EA5MY on 2m Es as well, around 1815-1830 UTC. Not too strong here most of the time and I couldn't get him to hear me. Having said that, I just checked PSK Reporter and EA5QA heard me at -6, so that's great.

Spoke to Allan GM4ZUK this afternoon who said that HF had been good this afternoon with west coast US on 15m. I listened to 3G0Z (Robinson Crusoe Island - is that really a name for an island...) on 10m this afternoon while looking at VHF. Will have to try and work it over the next few days.

Just as I was about to switch off, I noticed a couple of SM2s on 6m FT8. Now that's interesting. Sometimes that path late at night suggests that it will extend to JA in the morning. Probably not for me - but maybe for others. Let's see!

I read that last night, 6m was open to South America. I had the vertical on at the time and didn't see anything, so presumably it wasn't that strong here. People worked CE, PY, LU etc - the. usual suspects!

6m was open with Es quite early this morning into OK and it's been open most of the morning on and off.

Pleased to work G4LBJ (JO02) on 2m FT8 around lunchtime. I see Len quite often. He's a fair distance from here and like me just using a vertical. I should call him more often and see how easily we are able to complete.

At 1009z I had a weak decode of IK3VZO (JN55) on 2m. I'd have normally put it down to meteors, which it might be, but at that same time, G3YDY in JO01 reported 2m Es to Italy.

A few OK, DL, SP stations around on 6m with the odd extended decode from 4X.