4 December 144MHz good tropo opening OH

December 4 very good SM OZ OH signals all afternoon evening at 144.174

The Dual PA 144-XPOL-18-5a 2x 9ele X yagi 5m boom was for a test in the mast.
Far better f/b and good signals / reception needs a glasfiber spar in the rotor for the vertical part
Compared to my light diy homemade 7el 5el 2m/4m combi.
Had to remove HF and 23cm dish/x-verter because of the glasfiber pole.
Could switch H/V from down in the shack. I tested this antenna for the VRZA QSO party
Used the club call sign PI4GN
A vertical polarized beam of this size was never used before here.
Got it working just in time it was already in the dark when the antenna work was ready.
But cool east wind blowing all day had to wait to Sunday morning to raise the mast at 22m a.g.
In the dark it was too risky wires got struck in the trees and jammed te mast to move.
Also the weight balance was changed the top load was too low had to place an extra weight.
Als always this takes more time then foreseen ..
20 local QSO's resulted in FM and FT8 only .. okay it was an experiment i could hear many more but i was not heard well with my 150W strange enough.
Heard a G from Hull S9 but i was hardly heard got S4 strange 150W plus here

Repeaters normally not heard where copied Amsterdam Nijmegen Breda
or was it that the tropo propagation was a few days above normal with cooling down in the evenings.

Anyway 4 December had exceptional tropo at 144MHz the FT8 window was humming hardly free space in the 3kHz window.
The normal (old?) DX part of 144 MHz that used to be so busy during this kind of rare tropo conditions was mostly quiet...1 CW 1 USB chat but i must confess i did pay more attention to
FT8 where the display showed OH SM3 4 5 0 1 6 7 UA2FZ was heard YL2CZ
signals from OH southwest KP00 10 02 20 11 sometimes where stong enoug for USB /CW
Pity i had to remove the 23cm antenna for this x-yagi,
sure i would copy SK4BX again and maybe ES0SHF....

Next day 5 December tropo inversions gone, rain and wind expected
replaced the x beam again with home made 4m5ele/2m7ele combi beam.