Very early on 22nd of June my IC9700 let out a loud SSTV incoming signal on 144.500 – I typically monitor the 2M SSTV band in hope of some ‘local’ activity, so I was very suprised to hear something this early.
Within a few minutes several pictures had been received.
![](http://alz0r.stoatopic.net/resize/3b957fd8-26c9-435b-b596-d1be5c7de07c_500.jpg)
The first i was unable to make out the full text, but the next one provided some more useful information.
![](http://alz0r.stoatopic.net/resize/8a42c577-dd88-49f9-a781-4e5cacda1773_2048.jpg)
I had never seen this repeater before and was wondering if a new one had been setup in the locality, going to the website I found that the SSTV repeater was based in Clacton – some 232km/144 miles away ! The line-of-site rule for 2M was blown away by looking at the elevation profile between the QTH and the SSTV repeater.
![](https://hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/image-2-996x1024.png)
As the the morning went on, more signals went in and amazingly i was able to activate the repeater with the access tone and receive my own picture back. I then had an excellent QSO via the repeater with G4LVD based in Ipswich !
![](https://hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/image-3.png)
![](https://hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/image-4.png)
![](https://hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/image-5.png)
Having completed the QSO I was left wondering, how is it I could suddenly receive the SSTV repeater which is so far away. A posting to our clubs mailing list provided the insight – a temperature inversion had caused a opening on VHF between the QTH and MB7TV. Not really knowing what a temperature inversion was, I looked that up, and the met office giving a great explanation. I was just lucky to be listening at the right time and to receive the signal from so far away!
With that I wondered as these are predictable, there must be some forecast, sure enough I found a site that looked to model the inversion that was seen this morning.
![](https://hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/image-6-1024x847.png)
This means that I will be able to at least listen out at these times and try a QSO again. I’m not sure if I would ever be able to reach the SSTV repeater on mainland Europe, but with P13DFT in Delft in the Netherlands and another Germany, it will be great fun trying ! Heres to more ‘temperature inversions’ and more SSTV QSO’s on 2M!