From 
The last two weeks have been very interesting for amateurs who also work on 144 MHz. Due to the influence of the solar activity of spot 486, the aurora borealis - the aurora - also occurred several times here in the middle latitudes. Since I was very interested in how it would look on the 2m band, I turned on Sněžka in the evening of October 29. Before that, of course, I followed the Internet and the development of the Kp index and the aurora borealis. After Risa OM2TW recommended not to use the SSB calling frequency, I decided to listen around 144.100 MHz.
Dlho bolo pásmo tiché, sem-tam sa objavila nejaká vzdialenejšia OM stanica s výzvou. Ale žiadne DX-y. Neskôr v noci to ale začalo. Začul som signály, ktoré nemali zaznieť, ale miesto neho šiel len kľúčovaný šum. Bolo to pre mňa nové, nevedel som, o čo ide. Samozrejme som mal tušáka, že to asi bude ono – odraz od aurory. Sledoval som DX Cluster and I noticed that the stations that said it was an aurora connection were reporting 59A, 55A, etc. So the place of the tone there was A.
And hooray. The reports are 55A here as well, I'm listening for signals reflected from the aurora, I told myself. I listened to the signals and recognized the brands of PA, OZ, SM, DJ, DL stations.
My equipment was not at all commendable. I only had a 10 W Sněžka transceiver and an "antenna - non-antenna" OK1KRC on the roof. I know that it is completely impossible to equip for VHF, but at least it was enough for listening. I hardly slept the first night. All night I listened to our stations links with various DX stations. Only reports were exchanged in connections, e.g. 55A and locators. According to the locators, I immediately checked the distance of the stations. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to film with the antenna, so I listened to stations mostly around 300 degrees.
The next day I barely got up for work, but the night before there was another strong eruption, which heralded the arrival of the aurora again. So in the evening I sat down again to the Internet and the radio and listened. When the aurora appeared, the signals were much stronger than the previous day. When I heard the station that went 59+A, I couldn't help it, and even with my poor sea experience, I decided to call. I won't give anything to try. When DJ3LE answered me and I heard my tag, I was almost petrified 🙂 With a shaking hand, I pulled out the report and locator, accepted my report and locator.
Beautiful, 865 km connection via aurora! I know it will seem funny to some. But this was my second telegraph connection in my life. The conditions then changed during the night, but around 01.00 UTC I still decided on SP2OFW, which was 500 km from me.
On the first day, I also connected the computer to the radio and recorded something. If anyone would like to hear what the station signal sounds like through the aurora, send me an email and I'll send you a short sample in mp3.
This article was written for those who have never made a connection via aurora, I know that the pros who cut 10's of connections via A may laugh at my little attempt. But it was the first attempt and certainly not the last! :-))
Good luck!
I advise OM2AMR