Extreme Radio Alert!

Ray Higgins (w2re) and his remote station in Maine is one of the legends of N Atlantic HF. In his own words:

"I only operate remote from some of the best QTH's in the USA and the Caribbean using proprietary software from a web browser. The only time I'm physically at the transmitter site is to do upgrades or repairs."

Ray's QRZ page explains, but in a nutshell, Ray is living the ham dream, and has a series of stations that are the envy of the hobby/business.

There are some really excellent shots of the Antenna farms, including drone fly bys. Not for those who don't like heights.... watch this full screen...

Follow Ray on Twitter and Facebook

The excellent VOACAP Online shows the specific route forecast conditions....  for an average station...

And this is the plot when using the power and awesome antenna setup of this remarkable station. VOA doesn't accommodate 4/4/4, so 8ele  will have to do. But you get the idea! The difference is "substantial".

Another day commanding the heights of 20m from Maine for Ray and his fabulous remote towers - he operates from his office in NYC (and anywhere else he can plug in a laptop). (Please note all contacts can be heard from both ends due to the nature of HF)

Ray his given many European amateurs their first tastes of transatlantic DX - even under the most testing conditions.

The signal on the waterfall

A good signal, in the clear. This was early in the session, I should have captured some later examples as well.

It looks like this was a reliable forecast - agrees with VOA at around 50% for an "average" station.

http://www.infotechcomms.net/propcharts/march/