UHF on Sakhalin

My UHF gear are TM-441 (FM only) and TR-9500G (FM/SSB) plus 50W amplifier HL-63U (tnx JH8IMF/JH8QIO) with 2x15 elements yagi.

This page photo: me and my friend Masami Miya R0/JH8IMF, VHF/UHF Field Day.

Summer 1993 I had first UHF contacts, FM mode with JA8 stations, from mountain Kolkhoznaya near Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk: JG8FXP (op. Kudo, Esashi), JI8IXK (op. Ohno, Wakkanai) and JR8ORC (op. Hide, Wakkanai).
Usually when we have propagation between Hokkaido and Sakhalin, signals on 430 MHz are extremely strong - RS up to 50+20dB. Usually it is very easy to check propagation conditions: there are a lot of truck-drivers on the air, operate on certain frequencies, who use amateur radio band to communicate within working teams. They have HAM callsigns, but they can''t imagine that it is possible to communicate with somebody else except Japanese stations. There is no any dependence between propagation conditions on 2 meters and 70 cm bands: no signals at all on 2 meters and strong JA8 on 70 cm! I do not have so many UHF QSOs as on 2 meters (now probably about 100), but before summer 2001 my best results were JA8 from Otaru, Sapporo and Chitose on FM/SSB mode and JR7ICP, Aomori prefecture, SSB mode.

August, 20, 2001. It was the strongest tropo on 430 MHz band I ever catched! I had 10 QSO with differend JA8, Hokkaido, 5 QSO with JA7 (JG7QNG, JR7ICP, JG7MXZ, JM7BML, JH7HGK), 1 QSO with JA0 (JI0MZB from Niigata prefecture) and even QSO with JK1KTY, Mobara-city, Chiba! I also heard JH0HMT and called him, but no QSO. Some DX stations were 59 on my S-meter. I was very much surprised how distant QSO on this band may be - distance between me and JK1KTY (QM05dk) is 1297 km. This night I used 430.490 SSB and 433.06 FM

Usually on UHF I monitor 433.00 FM mode and for SSB scedule prefer 430.430 MHz. If you would like to try 70 cm band, let''s arrange schedule - just send me e-mail - even direct to my mobile!