AIS Active Marine Tracking paths VK4

[VK2KRR]

Wow it looks like the VK4 coast is coming to life tonight, VK4FGB at Cairns doing brilliantly well, hearing currently out to 1400 Km!
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/statio ... eader=true

Look at his awesome past 3 hour map -

VK4FGB

[VK2KRR]

Mackay map from VK4AJL

VK4ALJ Mackay

VK2XPX Thursday Island

VK2XPX Thursday Island

Townsville

Townsville

[VK2KRR]

Mission Beach, between Carins/Townsville

Mission Beach

[VK4DU]

That is impressive. AIS is superb for tracking openings.

There is a marine ch 16 voice link on a coastal mountain here in Cairns, used by the Coast Guard.

The site has magnificent coverage - you can always hear Townsville, and Mackay is heard regularly.

It links on 460.750 MHz.

[VK2KRR]

Perhaps a slight explanation for those who may be wondering about the different coloured spots showing on the maps.

The RED spots are the low power 2 Watt transponders.

The GREEN spots are the usual 12 Watt transponders.

The YELLOW spots are from shore based stations, which are usually Lighthouses. Some Maritime Safety Bases. There 12 Watts.

[VK4DU]

I can hear Hervey Bay on VHF marine ch 67 (156.375) from the Cairns marine VHF translator mentioned in my previous post now...

That is about 1200 km....

[9A4CU]

Great reception along VK4 coast from Cape York to Brisbane and accross Coral Sea all way to the Papua.I took screen print of Townsville station at 16.42 UTC.Just amazing!

[VK2KRR]

9A4CU (cant remember ur name sorry ) tnx for the excellent 24 hr coverage map. Considering its usually probably less than 200 km, thats amazing.
I didn't see to much VK4 activity chasing the tropo up on the logger, most seemed to not be there in the evenings I did see VK4FLR make some good ones with VK4AFC, 882 km on 2 & 70, was about the best I saw posted up.

[VK2KRR]

Current tropo situation along the VK4 coast. Contacts there for the taking if your on at the right times.
To see some big paths on 2m WSPR would be interesting to see.

Mission Beach, between Carins/Townsville

VK4 coast

Also, keep in mind the red spots are only running 2 Watts. Green is 12 Watts. Yellow are usually lighthouses running 12 Watts.

[VK2KRR]

Am wondering if any stations in the area of Brisbane to Byron Bay, worked on 2m (or via the repeater) with stations on New Caledonia over the past few days?
Were you all asleep?

Byron AIS

[VK2KRR]

Here is a corresponding link to FM radio reception from Noumea in the Brisbane area, brilliant signal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3UJeRb3 ... e=youtu.be

[VK4KSY]

Nothing here Leigh. I am up early and the radio sits on 146.800. This gives me B/berg FK8 Nth/NSW (never worked from home) and NZ. Have been some rock crushing openings from B/berg but no FK8 .
Thanks for the posting.

David Vk4ksy

[VK2KRR]

There was movement at the VK4 stations for the word had passed around that a path along the coast had got away

Brisbane are rise in Tropo, graphs.

Brisbane coast guard reception 24 hr

Jacobs Well reception

Byron Bay Lighthouse reception

[VK2KRR]

Fairly easy looking path from Cairns/Townsville area at present to FK8.

Here we see VK4FGB at Cairns, reception to New Caledonia.

VK4FGB Cairns to New Caledonia

[VK2KRR]

An awesome BRIEF opening yesterday evening after sundown along the VK4 coast and ranges.
Here we see a map of where the station on Mt Tamborine, SW of Brisbane was able to hear. Right up to a vessel in Papua Gulf of around 2300 km. Brisbane coast guard station also did very well. This particular opening lasted only about 1 hour and then faded away.

2300 Km Mt Tamborine

This highlights a situation where well set up stations running 2m WSPR could have exposed this particularly long distance opening very well from Brisbane. Of course, there is no point without stations operating from each end.

[VK4DU]

Yes, marine 16 was open down the coast yesterday arvo.

[VK2KRR]

Townsville coverage, Thursday morning 26th Sept

Townsville

[VK2KRR]

This really shows how exceptional the current conditions are from VK4 across to New Caledonia. Keep in mind, if you have a look at their stats page http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/statio ... eader=true
You can see on the right hand top graph, they have hardly heard above 50nm for the past 12 months, but right now that have signals out to 1146 nm! (2122 km)
Many areas currently should be able to get to New Caledonia from VK4, even parts of VK2 with good set ups.
I have sent a couple of emails to some FK8 stations in the past 30 mins to see if I can get anyone on air or find out status of the repeaters.

FK8 Noumea AIS evening 26.09.13

[9A4CU]

Have a look at today´s reception by VK4XPX from Thursday island.Ships all the way from Cape York to Brisbane and far away from coast.

[VK2KRR]

One thing to keep in mind is that the 24 hour maps only appear to update around 0000 UTC each day, but they also have more than one days spots on them, at least 2 or 3 days worth or more, I've not fully checked this out.
But even so if you click the past 3 hour link on his stats page http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/statio ... eader=true VK4XPX is doing quite well about 1943 km in the past hour.
Thanks for the info I had not been observing VK4XPX station, might have to look more often at this one.