International VERON 2m propagation experiment Sat. 20 July

The 2 meter propagation experiment is at:

Date: 20 july 2019
Time: 17.00 UTC tot 19.00 UTC (19.00 – 21.00 h local time)
Were: 2 meterband with respect for the IARU bandplan
Mode: all, again with respect for the IARU bandplan

From 18:00 UTC there is also CQWW-VHF contest going on. So you could encounter some contest stations as well. The exchange is just the locator, you have to ask specifically for the signal report.

VERON wants to gather as much info as possible from the logs send in. So, what are they planning to do with the info? We've seen a similair activity earlier this year on the 60m band. Actually I've not seen many participating back then and it is still a mystery what they wanted to do with the info gathered. However, I think this activity is done to occupy the 2m band and to gain interest in it since the french autorities have proposed for it to be primairy used as airband.

I remind you all that all amateurbands are primarily for experiments and propagation research. I know many amateurs are experimenting on VHF and enjoy the ES or tropo propagation when it is there. But are they still researching? Why is the 2 meter amateurradio band so important? I really want to know what arguments Johan PA3JEM has. You'll be able to watch it on a local dutch TV channel this friday 19-July (time unknown).

Just after I obtained my license in 1998 I was a avid VHF/UHF user. I played with SSTV, SSB, CW and even a early PSK31 version. I was on satellites as well. At that time HF was not yet allowed with my license and we had nothing else. After I was allowed on HF the world opened and my activities on 2m/70cm were almost nil. Besides working via sats I have no feeling with these low noise bands, it doesn't give me the "radio feeling". I need to hear noise, crackles, fading and to pull out a signal from that noise. But I respect those that are experimenting on VHF/UHF, doing EME for example. Most of the time it takes more from your equipment. You need a stable transceiver and the antennas are smaller but harder to make since the tolerance is much smaller.

Anyway, I hope the 2 meter amateurband will be primairly for the HAMradio enthousiast forever. But in the end I doubt it will be so. The HAMradio community is slowly become extinct and the commercial demand to obtain more frequencies is growing. We can probabely object successfully this time but it will be different in 10 or 20 years...

Update 20-July: For me the chosen time for this event was a bit unpleasant. Too many other things family wise took my attention. I made 14 QSOs on 2m including 3 countries. Best distance was Denmark. I was not on all the time. At 18:55 I discovered I was transmitting on my 6m beam and although I did have a Daiwa SWR meter inline it didn't show a excessive SWR so I didn't notice. When I switched to my 2m W2000 multiband vertical on top of the mast it was at the end of the event, a few more came back to me in the end. It's a miracle I made that much QSOs on my 6m beam. I did listen out several times for USB or FM transmissions but didn't hear anything. But I guess that's because of my location and the wrong antenna of course...I hope it was a success after all.