Can You Access Australian 10m FM Repeater From India?

Sometime back VU2TUM had mentioned that it is possible to trigger 10m repeaters in Australia from our region and that VU3FWG had been successful in that. Yesterday I emailed VU3FWG and got his kind permission to share the details including a picture of the antenna which he used to trigger VK2RBH Repeater in Australia. VK2RBH Repeater  by  Broken Hill Amateur Radio Group is at a distance of 7370.8 km from my region as per QRZ.COM. It should be a bit nearer for VU3FWG as he is located 1665.3 km North East of my location. He mentioned that he could also have a few simplex QSOs as well, but reminded me that antenna gain and directivity is very important. The antenna which he used had an excellent gain and front to back ratio.

Another important factor which he mentioned is the G/T ratio of the antenna. G/T ratio is the Gain to Noise Temperature ratio of the antenna system. Antenna noise temperature quantifies all the noise that enters a radio through its antenna. G/T ratio indicates how effectively it can capture weak signals. Meanwhile VU3CDK has shared some important information about FM activity on 10m. It is found between 29.500 to 29.700 MHz. Generally 29.600 MHz is the 10m FM calling frequency. I did try a few CQ calls on that frequency yesterday, but was not lucky to receive a reply! FM channels are spaced 10 kHz and repeaters have a 100 kHz low offset. So you can listen for repeaters between 29.52-29.59 MHz and transmit 100 kHz higher. Unlike VHF/UHF repeaters, antenna polarization is unimportant for the skywave propagation of 10m and a horizontal antenna would work fine.