20 Years Ago.... 5th August 2003
A world record contact on PMR446, a record which I believe still stands today......
Conditions had been good all week and on the morning of 5th August 2003, I switched on my 2m/70cm radio to hear an abundance of German and Dutch stations. After making contact with several stations using as little as 1 watt I decided that this was the time to make an attempt at overseas contacts on PMR446.
I marched up to the top of our local pit heap and immediately heard several Dutch stations on channel 1.
I gave out several calls giving my location and callsign without reply but suddenly the signals from the Dutch stations rose dramatically and I heard "OK, North East England, Yes very funny" from one of the Dutch stations.
I again repeated my callsign and stressed my location. The Dutch station then said "I don't believe it, are you really in North East England?"
I confirmed my location again. The reply was "This is amazing. This is the first time I have made a contact like this on these radios."
A ten minute conversation then took place and I learned that the station was in fact Chris who was located near Amsterdam at a distance of approximately 333 MILES (535.8 Km) - Distance confirmed on 07/08/2003 (See Below)
Looking at the map you can see how this contact was possible. The radio signal has a clear path from the North East coast of England to Amsterdam and the exceptional radio conditions made the contact quite easy.
Later the same day at 20:30 hours (BST) I again went to the top of the pit heap, this time with David (M0DAD) and we were both amazed to make contact again with Chris and his friend Jaap on channel 1.
This time our conversation lasted almost an hour with excellent signals reported at both ends. I was using my Motorola T6222 and David was using his Binatone 100 (Same as Goodman's Tracker Mk1). Another local station situated about half a mile from ourselves could hear Chris and Jaap but was unable to make the trip back.
Several other Dutch stations were heard during our conversation and even a German station!!!
David and I took turns talking to our Dutch friends and also took time to make several good DX contacts on 2m FM and SSB. We both agreed that the conditions were probably the best we had ever heard all across the VHF/UHF bands. I had been listening to a German radio station all day in my car on 104.6 FM. The station is RTL-FM, located in Berlin.
Overall a fantastic day of DX contacts !
(My trusty Motorola T6222 which still works to this day)
E-mail from Jaap on 07/08/2003:
Hi Delboy, you want our exact location for the distance. We are about 20 km near Amsterdam a town called Almere. That's the newest town of the Netherlands before Almere it was a sea but now it's made into land they called it the Flevopolder. It's in between Amsterdam and Utrecht, I think exactly in the middle of our country.
At the moment here it's about 30 degrees inside our house i am sweating a lot. I never have seen it so hot here in the Netherlands. Tomorrow they say on the news its getting about 37 degrees.
I hope we can made this week another connection again. We are still waiting on the frequency.
73's and bye bye
Greetings Jaap
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