New 40 MHz beacon in Croatia - 9A0BEZ

In late May 2025, a new 40 MHz (8m) beacon in Croatia with the callsign 9A0BEZ was switched on. The location of the beacon is at Malo Sljeme which is at 982m above sea level in a mountainous area to the north of the Croatian capital Zagreb.

The locator for the beacon is JN75XV, the frequency is 40.6675 MHz and the output power is 5-watts into a quarter wave vertical.

The antenna shown above is slightly blocked to the north-east by a mast which is just out of view. There is also some higher ground along this ridge which may reduce the signal somewhat in this direction.

The beacon gives it's callsign and locator in morse code. The message is '9A0BEZ 9A0BEZ 9A0BEZ BEACON JN75XV JN75XV JN75XV'.

Beacon reports to 9A2EY.

Coverage area... Looking at the map at the top of this post, the beacon should have a good signal under tropo conditions to most of Croatia and Slovenia. As noted already, the signal to the north-east in the direction of Budapest will be more difficult.

The main attraction of the beacon however will be its coverage during the summer Sporadic-E season.

The map above shows the suggested coverage area for Sporadic-E signals. It should have a reasonable signal into areas like the east of Spain and England during the Summer months when there are openings.

There are relatively few amateur radio beacons on the 40 MHz band so it's good to have another addition.

Links... For more info on the 8m band, see my 40 MHz page.

3700km opening on the 144 MHz band between Madeira Is and Greece - 11th June 2025

As we continue through the summer Sporadic-E season, the FT8 mode is continuing to show up more really long distance paths on the 144 MHz (2m) band. On the 11th of June 2025, there was a Sporadic-E opening on the 144 MHz band and some of the paths on FT8 from CT9ACF on the Madeira Islands to stations in Europe are shown above.

The longest distance for one Sporadic-E hop might be say 2300kms. In the map above, this is roughly a line running from the west of England to the south-east of France. Any paths beyond this to the east like say to the Netherlands (PA), Germany (DL) and Italy (I) are in the region of 2700-2900 kms and are unusual. 

The really exceptional paths were from the Madeira Islands to Greece. The longest of these to SV1NZX in Athens was just over 3700kms.

Propagation Mode?? ... It's hard to be certain what propagation mode was responsible. There was certainly a Sporadic-E opening but how was the range extended to 3000+ kms?

In the past, we've seen openings like this when there has been a Sporadic-E opening from say Germany to the the south-west of Spain and Portugal and the remaining 1000kms or so to the Madeira Islands was due to a maritime duct. 

The area to the west of Portugal and Morocco is well known for maritime tropo ducts which can last for days if not weeks.

The map above shows the tropo prediction at the time of the opening. It's worth noting that in the map at the beginning of this post, there are very few stations in say Portugal spotting CT9ACF. I would have expected more 'short' distance spots if there was a strong maritime duct.

Perhaps on this occasion, it was a case of double hop Sporadic-E? A chordal hop between two Sporadic-E clouds without hitting the ground in between?

Links... For more examples of long distance paths on the 2m band, see my 144 MHz page.

Addendum: Thanks to John, G4SWX for the following detailed comment...

G4SWX writes... "There were 3 or 4 different sporadic e events in the late afternoon/early evening of 11th June. The path to Madeira to somewhere near the Spanish/Portuguese coast was almost certainly assisted by a tropospheric duct. Hepburn and F5LEN predictions although good approximations they are not always super accurate in the actual position of ducts. I have conducted very many tropo + meteor scatter tests with EA8 and the tropo predictions produce about 60% probability of a tropo path for complex dual mode propagation. Also, Hepburn and F5LEN use slightly different modelling methods so it is wise to use both at the same time. Hepburn predictions at 18:00 utc on 11th suggests that there might be paths to Madeira particularly from SE Spain EA7.

Looking at the PSK reporter flags, many stations including myself reported stations in CT and EA7 around this time. Indeed, when those in the low countries and nearby parts of Germany were working CT9ACF I was working EA8TJ in the Canaries and being heard by several other EA8 stations at just over 3000Km. This is consistent with an ES event to possibly just off the EA7/CT coast and tropo paths to the final destinations

 During the time when stations in N Italy and surrounding countries were working CT9ACF I worked 7X2RF in Algiers JM16 and heard stations in the Balearic Islands EA6. This suggests that again the path from N Italy to Madeira was assisted by a maritime duct South of EA7.

The paths from Greece, SV to Madeira is a far more complex problem to analyse. There was a very intense tropo duct from Greece to Sicily and indeed ducts much further along the Mediterranean. I have attached the Hepburn plot covering the Mediterranean. It is unlikely that the duct extended much further that the Balearic Islands, so e layer reflection is likely to be the propagation from around Sardinia, IS0 to just beyond the EA7 coast. Whether the complete path was a combination of single hop ES plus tropo, one or two ducts or chordal ES plus tropo is hard to say without the LiveMuF maps at the time in question. Unfortunately, EA6VQ’s MuF Maps only allow an animation for the previous 1 hour.

73

John G4SWX"

Appendix...

a) Some of the paths over 2800kms on the 11th of June 2025 are shown below...

Opening on 50 MHz band between Europe and North America - 3rd June 2025

On the 3rd of June 2025, there was an extensive opening on the 50 MHz (6m) band between Europe and North America. While we can be almost certain that most of the contacts were made with the FT8 mode, it's nice to see that there was still a good bit of activity on CW (morse code) as well.

Irek, SO3X reports that he heard over a dozen US and two Canadian stations on CW during the opening while operating as M/SO3X from Milton Keynes in England. He managed to complete CW contacts with K1LT and WI2E in the USA.

What I found interesting was the fact that Irek was using 50-watts into a small HB9CV antenna on the side of a truck as can be seen in the photo above.

It just proves that you can make successful trans-Atlantic on the 50 MHz band without the need for big amplifiers or large Yagi antennas on a tower when the conditions are right

Irek sent on this short video which shows reception of K1LT on CW...

EA5/DL8JJ operating from a hanging tent on a Spanish island - EU-151

I came across this info from the DX World website today and I thought it was pretty amazing.

Emil, DL8JJ is operating as EA5/DL8JJ on the Penyeta del Moro island off the coast of Spain on the 7th to 8th of June 2025. The IOTA reference is EU-151. He's active on 10m to 40m on SSB & CW (mainly CW).

The island is tiny and it's only 2m wide and 6m long. As can be seen from the photo above, it's about 800m off the coast and it's about 20km south of Valencia.

The only feature on the island is a 5-metre high pole and DL8JJ is operating inside a tent hanging off the pole!

We often see radio amateurs operating in many different locations but this must be one of most unusual. 

For updates, see the DX World website... https://www.dx-world.net/ea5-dl8jj-penyeta-del-moro-eu-151/

3000km+ opening on 144 MHz in Europe - 28th May 2025

On the 28th of May 2025, there was a Sporadic-E opening in Europe on the 144 MHz band. While single hop Sporadic-E openings are of interest to the individuals concerned, the interesting paths are the really long distance ones that can't be so easily explained.

The maximum distance for one hop Sporadic-E is about 2300kms although this can be extended somewhat at either end by tropo. The paths shown above are for those that are over 2800kms with eight over the 3000km mark.

It's very likely that these were double hop Sporadic-E. This requires two separate areas in the E-layer of the ionosphere which support propagation at 144 MHz. One area is unusual but it's a lot rarer to get two areas at the correct distance apart at the same time.

The list of stations over 2700kms is shown below...

UTC Date/Time Spotter QRG Mode DX                                         km Text
2025-05-28 15:46:00 G4PEM (IO70IE) 144.176 FT8 RY6N (KN97VG) 3270 IO70ie KN97 FT8 +11
2025-05-28 15:47:00 RY6N (KN97VG) 144.176 FT8 G4LOH (IO70JC) 3266 KN97vg IO70 FT8 +20
2025-05-28 15:50:09 G4RRA (IO80BS) 144.174 FT8 RY6N (KN97VG) 3159 IO80BS ES KN97VG
2025-05-28 15:52:39 G4RRA (IO80BS) 144.174 FT8 UA6LJV (KN97LE) 3105 IO80BS ES KN97LE seen
2025-05-28 15:58:33 F6DBI (IN88IJ) 144.174 FT8 RN3QR (LO00BK) 3102 IN88IJ ES LO00BK TKS
2025-05-28 15:56:00 F6EGD (IN88HR) 144.175 FT8 RN3QR (LO00BK) 3095 IN88hr LO00 FT8 -12
2025-05-28 15:52:03 GW7SMV (IO81LO) 144.174 FT8 R6CS (KN95BW) 3038  ES FT8 +0 dB 2165 Hz hrd
2025-05-28 15:49:52 G4RRA (IO80BS) 144.174 FT8 R6OH (KN97CW) 3021 IO80BS ES KN97CW
2025-05-28 15:52:07 G4RRA (IO80BS) 144.174 FT8 RA6O (KN87UX) 2985 IO80BS ES KN87UX seen
2025-05-28 15:53:00 UR7IMM (KN88TR) 144.175 FT8 F6EGD (IN88HR) 2969 KN88tr IN88 FT8 -18
2025-05-28 15:46:00 RY6N (KN97VG) 144.175 FT8 M0CFO (IO90) 2961 KN97vg IO90 FT8 -02
2025-05-28 15:46:14 G4DCV (IO91OF) 144.174 FT8 RY6N (KN97VG) 2938 IO91 ES KN97 73
2025-05-28 15:54:54 F6DBI (IN88IJ) 144.174 FT8 UT7LK (KN89BW) 2836 IN88IJ ES KN89BW TKS
2025-05-28 15:56:10 G4RRA (IO80BS) 144.174 FT8 US5EII (KN78JK) 2765 IO80BS ES KN78JK seen

Propagation Mode?... While it seems likely that there were two hops involved, it's open to debate whether the signals bounced off the ground mid-path or whether there was some chordal hop as shown in the example above.

Trans-Atlantic?... The distance from Ireland to Newfoundland is about 3000kms. Looking at the distance of the East-West paths on the 28th of May, the question is if a similar path might exist at times on 144 MHz across the North Atlantic?

Link... For more examples of long distance 2m paths, see my 144 MHz page.

Addendum: 

Additional info from Tim, G4LOH (IO70JC) in the SW of England.
1kW into 4 x 16ele
Log:
15:42 RY6N KN97vg 3270km
15:45 R6OH KN97cw 3132km
15:46 RA6O KN87ux 3095km
15:46 US5EII KN78jk 2876km
15:47 RK6MF KN97rc 3253km
15:48 RK7N KN97kg 3206km
15:49 UA6LJV KN97le 3215km
15:50 UR7IMM KN88tr 3061km
16:10 SP8WW KN19fm
16:12 SP8WJW KN09sr
Comment: An interesting chordal hop opening. I saw 3 stations in Russia and 5 others in Eastern Ukraine, followed by two more in South East Poland, all FT8.  One complete QSO, the others were heard loud for ~10 minutes, pure chordal hop. The SP stations were seen a few minutes after the chordal opening ended.

SteppIR to stop selling antennas to the radio amateur market

The antenna company SteppIR has announced that as of the 31st of August 2025, it will no longer be selling antennas to the 'consumer market' which I think we can take to mean the amateur radio market.

Most directional antennas for the HF bands have fixed length elements made of aluminium tubing. The SteppIR by contrast uses a flexible copper tape inside a fibreglass tube.

The control module at the centre of each element uses a stepper motor to wind and unwind the copper tape into the fibreglass tubing.

The lengths of the copper tape is adjusted so that the antenna behaves like a Yagi on a particular frequency. This then gives the antenna some degree of gain and directionality.

While this type of antenna was somewhat unique say a decade ago, other manufacturers now use a similar concept.

The SteppIR antennas were certainly not cheap as this sample of three element versions shows...

They also sell vertical ground plane versions for about $3000 which again is very expensive.

In conclusion... While it's unfortunate to see any company leaving the amateur radio market, products at this price point will always be of limited interest. Anyone wishing to buy an antenna with this type of performance has plenty of other alternatives.

4000km Trans-Atlantic opening on the 88-108 MHz FM band from Spain to Newfoundland - 29th May 2025

On the 29th of May 2025, FM DXer Larry Horlick, VO1FOG in Newfoundland, Canada managed to hear FM radio stations 88 to 108 MHz band from the Azores and Spain.

Details of the opening extracted from the FMLIST website are shown below. 

UTC QRG ITU Station, location Details, remarks Distance km kW ERP Pol

1012 90.50 AZR RTP Antena 1, Serra de Santa Bárbara (tce) PI logged: 832E PS logged: ANTENA_1   2309 35 h

1108 98.20 E Oxígeno Europa Radio, Jerez de la Frontera/San Cristóbal (AND-CA) PI logged: EE26 PS logged: OXIGENO_ LATINAFM  4004 0.5

2230 90.50 AZR RTP Antena 1, Serra de Santa Bárbara (tce) PI logged: 832E 2309  35 h

2231 88.90 AZR RTP Antena 1, Horta-Cabeço Gordo (fai) // 88.9, 2218  9.1 c

The log above shows two openings on the 29th of May 2025. In the morning opening from 10:12 to 11:08 UTC, Larry logged RTP Antena 1 on the Azores (2309 kms) and Oxígeno Europa Radio near Cadiz in the south of Spain (4004 kms). In the evening, there was another opening to Azores again around 22:30 UTC.

While the Azores reception can be easily explained by one single Sporadic-E hop, the 4004 km distance from the south of Spain to Newfoundland requires two Sporadic-E hops to line up which is much rarer at these VHF frequencies.

This isn't the first time that Larry has heard trans-Atlantic FM radio stations and details of previous openings can be seen on my 88-108 MHz page.

In conclusion: There have been plenty of reports of Sporadic-E openings in Europe and North America over the last few weeks as the summer season kicks off. The vast majority of the reports are one hop Sporadic-E which are of limited interest. 

Reports of VHF signals on the FM band crossing the Atlantic however are exceptional. Signals on the VHF bands are often quoted as being 'line of sight' and yet here we have an example of a 98 MHz signal spanning two continents.

It also hints at the possibility of whether higher frequencies could span the Atlantic? Spain or Portugal to Newfoundland on 144 MHz?

FM radio stations on the Azores heard in Newfoundland - 13th May 2025

On the 13th of May 2025, FM DXer Larry Horlick, VO1FOG in Newfoundland managed to log quite a number of FM radio stations from the Azore Islands.

The stations logged were in the range of 87.6 to 103.0 MHz and the distances were in the region of 2000 to 2600 kms.

It's very likely that the propagation mode was one hop Sporadic-E with some degree of tropo at one or both ends.

Most of the stations were logged in the period from 14:01 to 14:47 UTC although there are two from 15:21 and 18:14.

The power of the transmitters ranged from an EPR of 40-kilowatts down to as low as 50-watts.

This isn't the first time that Larry has logged the Azores but it's always interesting to see reports of stations from the Azores being heard in North America. It's also relatively early in the Sporadic-E season for such signals.

This is a selection of the radio stations that Larry heard...

Links...
1) The source of the above information is FMLIST.ORG
2) For more information on long distance paths on the FM band, see my 88-108 MHz page.

36.9 MHz Doppler Radar Antenna at the White Sands Missile Range Museum

It's always interesting to read about how the low VHF band above 30 MHz was used over the years for various applications. In the United States in the decades after World War 2, they used doppler shift on the low VHF band to find the location of rockets that had been launched.

The antenna above is a helical antenna operating at 36.9 MHz which sent a radio beam up towards the rocket after launch. A series of similar receiving systems would then pick up the reflected signal which would be shifted slightly in frequency due to the motion of the rocket i.e. the reflected signals would have some doppler shift.

By examining the data afterwards, the exact position of the rocket at any particular time could be calculated. 

The antenna shown above is at the White Sands Missile Range Museum in New Mexico. If we examine it closely then we can see that it has three turns so we can estimate the gain to be roughly 8dBd, have a beamwidth of about 60 degrees and is of course using circular polarisation.

The plaque on display reads as follows...

"36.9 Megahertz Helix Antenna Doppler Velocity and Position (DOVAP)

Reference Transmitter Antenna

Developed during World War II by the Germans as part of a V-2 guidance and control system, DOVAP traced the course of a rocket using the Doppler Effect caused by a target moving relative to a ground transmitter and receiving stations.

Unlike radar, Dovap did not allow scientists to "see" the rocket on a screen. Instead, it sent up radio waves, which were received and rebroadcast back to earth by the rocket. The returned waves combined with the original ground broadcast and produced a musical tone which varied with the rocket's speed - the faster the rocket, the higher the pitch.

DOVAP data was extremely accurate: it could place a rocket's position at 100 miles up within 50 feet. It could collect data at the extreme altitudes of 100 to 300 miles. Dovap's disadvantage was that it took 3 to 4 weeks to reduce the data.

The antenna is a helix because of its physical and electronic characteristics. A helix is simple to construct and operate, provides necessary signal gain and directivity, and can be operated in several modes or polarizations.

The DOVAP system provided trajectory data and ground guidance for most of the early rocket systems: Corporal, Sergeant, Honest John, Little John, Redstone, and Aerobee Upper Atmosphere programs.

This particular antenna was built in the mid-1960s near C Station. Like much of the early instrumentation used here, it was designed and built at White Sands Missile Range.

Erected by White Sands Missile Range Museum. (Marker Number 06.099.)"

LongChat… The new amateur radio text chat software by TA2STO

Oguz, TA2STO in Türkiye has developed a new mode called LongChat to allow radio amateurs to communicate with each other.

It's described as follows... "LongChat is a low-power (QRP) / low bitrate text chat software application over ham radios connected to a PC. Chirp symbols with an audio bandwidth of 2400 Hz (300-2700 Hz) are generated on the PC side for encoding the messages. Baseband audio signal is then transferred from PC to ham radio for modulation at the selected mode. SSB, FM and other types of modulation modes can be used. Forward error correction codes are used to correct messaging errors

Current version is tested on ICOM-7300 and YAESU FT991A radios. Other radios are supported but not tested yet. Future improved versions will support higher data rates or lower S/N ratios. 

Since the software is continually improved and data structures may have changed, newest version needs to be used for compatibility with all users. To ensure this, software will remind you to download and use the latest version when a new version is ready.

Specifications
Usable data rate (net user data) is 7 ASCII characters per second at -12 dB signal to noise ratio.
Eb/No (Energy per Bit to the Spectral Noise Density) is 5 db 
Measurement of received message SNR.
Measurement of chirp frequency shift in SSB mode.
You may download the software, user manual and brochure at the link below.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NQwbeoHE3vPLORGN1krpSNHHI9brhDJh?usp=sharing "

***

Update May 2025: These are the recommended frequencies for the LongChat mode.

80 metre 3595 kHz

40 metre 7045 kHz (main) + 7055 kHz (backup)

20 metre 14095 kHz

17 metre 18095 kHz

15 metre 21095 kHz

10 metre 28095 kHz

 6 metre 50295 kHz

 2 metre  144.195 MHz

 70 cm     432.095 MHz

QO-100 sat 10.489,548 MHz

***

As of late 2024, this is all very new and I'm sure a lot of people will have questions as to how good is it? Will it be better than modes like JS8Call? And more critically, will it get a critical mass of users to make it worthwhile?

I'd suggest that at the moment, it should be seen as something of interest to those who like to experiment with digital modes on the HF bands and want to experiment to see how it compares to other modes.

It also seems to be a 'work in progress' project  but remember that the software for this mode is free and is being developed by one person. It'll be interesting to see how it develops.

TA2STO released the following video about it...

Update from TA2STO - 1st Dec 2024: 

- Hi, I am the author of LongChat chirp mode. I started it a few years ago as a project for low power sensor applications. Then I wanted to try it as an experimental digital ham mode.

- The link for the software is at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NQwbeoHE3vPLORGN1krpSNHHI9brhDJh

-LongChat is an encoder/ decoder. In general it should work on all modulations LSB, USB, FM, AM etc.

- I usually work with USB at lower band edges and LSB at upper band edge. It is easy to miss it when changing the modes. I guess I relied on IC7300 to disable transmission at band edges. IC 7300 does allow that though. I had no specific reason for using LSB. It works both on USB and LSB.

- I am preparing a new video to compare the power efficiencies of digital modes. I will post it when ready

- Newest version is 1.3.00 . Setup manual, version info and other things are also in the link above.

- LongChat is experimental and supports a number of radios. Untested radios are marked with * as the first character

- I am not an experience radio ham in operations and regulations. Maybe experienced radio hams can designate frequencies and protocols for test purposes.

- Since the signal is way below the noise level (-13 db) , there is yet no equivalent of a waterfall display like FT8, JS8 etc. This makes it harder to see the activity.

- You can view the waterfall in FT8 because it's minimum SNR is -4 db. and bandwidth is 50 hz . People quote -21 db as the SNR for FT8. This is the referred SNR if the bandwidth were to be widened to 2500 Hz. My next video will clarify these issues.

- Since there are no designated frequencies for LongChat, it is difficult to find some one for QSO

-There is also a criticism of LongChat not being open source . LongChat code has some new algorithms with IP value. If I open the source code to radio hams, people and companies with commercial interest will also have a free access. But I totally respect and mostly agree with the open source advocators.

- In short, LongChat is an experimental mode. My effort is to bring the SNR of LongChat to the limit dictated by the Shannon channel capacity theorem and make it the most power efficient mode.

- If people want to experiment with it, I am ready to support. I am not the best person to decide on the designated QSO frequencies, LSB or USB selection, protocols etc. If some of you want to do that , or perhaps open a group here or on google groups i.o, I would be happy to get involved.

Addendum: Matt, M0DQW released the following video which shows LongChat in operation...

Unusual 5560km TEP opening on 144 MHz from St Helena to Madeira Is - Apr 2025

In a previous post from October of 2024, I reported how ZD7GWM on St Helena Island in the South Atlantic had managed to make contact with stations in Spain and Portugal on the 144 MHz (2m) band via Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP). During the spring of 2025, there have been similar openings from St Helena to Spain and Portugal.

On the 27th of April 2025, there was an unusual opening from ZD7GWM on St Helena to CT9ACF on the Madeira Islands. The distance was approximately 5,560kms and the transmission mode used was Q65D (60 seconds).

There are two unusual things about this 144 MHz contact...

1) It is as far as I know the very first contact ever between St Helena and the Madeira Islands on the 2m band.

2) At 144 MHz, TEP signals usually cross the geomagnetic equator at right angles i.e. 90-degrees. This means that the usual path is from St Helena to the southern regions of Spain and Portugal.

What's unusual here is that the geomagnetic equator begins to bend near the west coast of Africa allowing another TEP path to the Madeira Island region.

I'm just wondering why there aren't any contacts from the Canary Islands (EA8) to St Helena? Is anyone trying?

Lasse, SM0KAK sent on the very detailed report below...

***********

Unexpected QSO on 144MHz - ZD7GWM (St Helena Island) in IH74DB worked CT9ACF (Madeira Island) in IM12JU on 2025-04-27

Notes by SM0KAK 

ZD7GWM has previously mainly made many QSOs with the South Western part of the Iberian Peninsula (the mainland of CT+EA) on 144MHz via TEP. 

The QSO with CT9ACF was very unexpected! 

The QRB 5561 km is normal for TEP on 144MHz. The time of day 22:00UTC is also expected for these longitudes, and the “normal” paths from ZD7GWM to EA4, EA7 and CT mainland were open.

This QSO was very unexpected because of 

1) The wide footprint (CT9ACF is located very far from previous QSO partners)

2) The very bad takeoff at CT9ACF (in the direction towards ZD7GWM)

WIDE FOOTPRINT

Footprints of TEP on 144 MHz are normally less than 1000 km wide, and the possible directions is usually up to 10 degrees wide.

Stations located furthest from CT9ACF that have been worked previously worked by ZD7GWM are  EA7KBX in IM87VK (1454 km from CT9ACF) and a single out layer QSO with EA3CJ last year in JN01SE (1899 km from CT9ACF). This makes the footprint much bigger than the expected 1000 km.

The QTF from ZD7GWM to CT9ACF is 347 degrees, the QTF to EA7KBX is 3 degrees, and to EA3CJ 6 degrees. Hence the difference in QTF is 16 degrees, which is much more than the expected 10 degrees.

This wide footprint could probably be explained by the very curved shape of the magnetic dip equator on these longitudes. The more curved it is, the wider footprint should is expected to be (assuming that you are located so that your signal can cross it with a 90 degree angle).

 

BAD TAKEOFF AT CT9ACF

CT9ACF has a very bad takeoff towards ZD7GWM. The elevation required to clear local mountains is about 7 degrees! The beacon ED8ZAA is in the same general direction as ZD7GWM. QRB is 498km and the beacon is located at 1000 masl. This beacon is rarely heard at CT9ACF. When it is heard it is usually via reflection off a minor island close to CT9ACF, or reflection off mountains in Morocco. But on this evening ED8ZAA was 599+ via the direct path! Good tropo propagation was forecasted, so the beacon was definitely heard via tropo. The strong beacon signal was the reason why CT9ACF wanted to try TEP with ZD7GWM for the first time. It is likely that the strong tropo was required to pass the local mountains. Elevation for TEP signals is normally low, in the order of 1 degree. 

(There is a good example of mountains blocking a TEP path: FR5DN is very active on 144MHz TEP. His local mountain is at elevation of 4 to 5 degrees, and it limits his success quite a lot. He gets about 10% of the openings compared to FR4OO who has sea takeoff and is located about 38 km away. The openings at FR5DN are also shorter and weaker.)

Tropo forecast around CT9ACF at the time of the QSO

 

PROPAGATION

The QSO occurred while ZD7GWM had TEP to CT/EA, and while CT9ACF had tropo to ED8ZAA. The signals had very slow QSB, but faded 22:20 UTC. This is typical behaviour of TEP on 144MHz. 

My conclusion is that propagation was TEP, plus tropo near CT9ACF. There was also tropo in the forecast at ZD7GWM that might have had an influence. However it seems very unlikely that this was a pure tropo QSO. 

EQUIPMENT USED

Garry ZD7GWM has a good takeoff and is using 50W to a long vertically polarized omni directional antenna. He has been running TEP skeds on 100-150 evenings since September 2024!

Steve CT9ACF is using 2x9 element LFA yagis (horizontal polarization, vertically stacked). He is running 900W on EME, but less for terrestrial QSOs.

***********

Thanks to Lasse, SM0KAK for the above report. For more info on other long distance 2m openings, see my 144 MHz page.

Italian radio amateurs can use the 70 MHz (4m) band until the end of 2025

In a previous post, I had information about how radio amateurs in Italy had permission to use the 40 MHz (8m) band in 2025. See post HERE

What may have been missed was that the permission from the Italian authorities also applied to the 70 MHz (4m) band. 

From the 8th of April to the end of December 2025, radio amateurs in Italy can use three 25kHz segments of the 70 MHz band centred on 70.100 MHz, 70.200 MHz & 70.300 MHz. These are shown in the graphic above.

The 70.200 MHz segment coincides with the SSB centre of activity. There is no overlap with the usual FT8 frequency of 70.154 MHz so Italian stations have in the past used frequencies around 70.190 MHz.

The maximum power output is 10-watts.

Italian radio amateurs get permission to use the 40 MHz band in 2025

The Italian regulator has just given permission for radio amateurs to use the 40 MHz band (8m) until the end of 2025. The approval is dated the 18th of April 2025 and is for a period of just over eight months. This is just over double the previous period which was from late August 2024 to the end of December 2024.

For the remainder of 2025, Italian radio amateurs can use 40.660 MHz to 40.700 MHz. This 40 kHz wide segment is the same of the 40 MHz ISM band (ISM - Industrial, Scientific, Medical). The maximum power allowed is 10-watts. 

The full announcement via Google Translate is as follows...

SUBJECT: Renewal of authorization for amateur radio experiments in the 40.660-40.700 MHz, 70-70.400 MHz and 1810-1830 KHz bands. Year 2025.

Reference is made to the request for renewal for the year 2025 (prot. E n. 107953 of 11.15.2024) of the authorization for radiopropagation experiments throughout the national territory presented by this Association, representing all the members who will participate, in relation to the use of the frequency bands specified in the subject matter.

In this regard, taking into account the authorization of specific competence expressed by the General Directorate for Digital and Telecommunications of this Ministry with note prot. n. 12452 of 8 April 2025, deemed necessary to meet the needs of experimentation and given the successful outcome of the previous temporary authorizations issued as well as the relevance of the multi-year research activity carried out, amateur radio experiments are authorized (under the conditions indicated below) throughout the national territory in the bands 40.660-40.700 MHz, 70-70.400 MHz and 1810-1830 KHz, on a general and temporary basis, until 31 December 2025, in which all radio amateurs with a valid general authorization for the installation and operation of a radio amateur station are allowed to participate. 

Without prejudice to the right to revoke the authorization in question upon request of the Ministry of Defense or for failure to comply with the provisions of the current legislation on the matter, the experiments must observe the following parameters and the following technical operational conditions:

- on a non-interference basis and immediate revocation in the event that phenomena of harmful interference are detected and without the right to any protection;

- in the location and with the technical characteristics indicated in the request;

- maximum transmission power equal to 10 W; 

- limited to the 70-70.400 MHz band, the Ministry of Defense points out the impossibility of assigning the entire band, but only the following individual frequencies, at 25 KHz max: 70.100 MHz – 70.200 MHz – 70.300 MHz.

- ARI must make available to MIMIT an appropriate system for tracking the experimental activities carried out by the participants, also in order to allow the timely interruption of transmissions in the event of harmful interference;

Finally, it is recalled that it is mandatory to report to the undersigned General Directorate and to the Dgtel of this Ministry on the results of the experimentation at the end of the same.

Analysis ... This is really good news for those using the 40 MHz band. The previous test period of Sept to Dec 2025 was mostly after the Sporadic-E season. The new eight month period in 2025 will cover the months of May, June & July which is the peak of the summer Sporadic-E season.

It's likely that 40.680 MHz will be the centre of activity for all activity.

For more information the 8m band, see my 40 MHz page.

Review of the new SG Lab 5.6 GHz Transverter...

SG Laboratory (SG Lab) is a small company in Bulgaria which makes a number of microwave products including transverters for the 1.3 GHz (23cms) and 2.3 GHz (13cms) amateur radio bands. In the Spring of 2025, they released a new transverter for the 5.7 GHz (6cms) band.

The new transverter allows anyone with a low power 432 MHz (70cms) transceiver to gain access to the 5.7 GHz band. It's ideal for say someone who has a Yaesu FT-817 / FT-818 or the Icom IC-705 radio.

The output power on 5.7 GHz is 2-watts which when fed into a dish or phased array will produce a reasonable signal. The receive performance seems to be good as well.

Andrew VK3FS in Australia recently did a review of the new SG Lab 5.6 GHz transverter and it can be viewed below...

Andrew also has a more comprehensive review on his website... https://3fs.net.au/sg-lab-5700-mhz-transverter-version-1-4/

He concludes the review with the following... "The long-awaited SG Lab 5.7 GHz transverter would have to be the most cost-effective way to get on the 5.7 GHz band when compared to most other offerings on the market."

Irish VHF beacon cluster is operational again - Apr 2025

Back in February of 2025, I had a post up about how the Irish VHF beacon cluster near Dublin was off air for the foreseeable future. In March, a new site had been found. The good news is that all the beacons are now operational from the new site.

The four beacons have an output power of roughly 20-30 watts and they all share the same directional antenna. The antenna is beaming at about 60 degrees (east-north-east). On any particular band, only 2-3 elements are active so the beamwidth is quite large.

Over a 10-minute period, this is the sequence...

Min    Callsign      Freq (MHz)   
0        EI0SIX        50.004 
1        EI1MMH    40.013   
2        EI0SIX        50.004   
3        EI1MMH    60.013   
4        EI4RF        70.013 
5        EI1MMH    40.013  
6        EI0SIX        50.004    
7        EI1MMH    60.013   
8        EI4RF        70.013  
9        EI1MMH    40.013 

The transmission sequence for each one of the minutes is a short carrier, then THREE x FT8 15 second transmissions and then the callsign and locator of the beacon in CW (morse code).

New beacon location... The new location is about 4kms to the south of the old site and it's a bit lower in altitude. It's certainly not as good as the old site but the challenge for any amateur radio beacon is to find any site where a beacon can operate.

The new site is nestled in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountain just to the south of Dublin and then local mountains and hills will certainly have a major impact in certain directions.

This is the approximate horizon of the new site...

To the north-east and on a heading of about 40 degrees, the Irish Sea is visible and there is a very good path to the Isle of Man and Scotland.

As we move further south, the local terrain starts to become more of an issue. The take off to the north of England is reasonable but once we go below a line say running from Liverpool to Leeds, it gets to be more challenging.

For example, the horizon in the direction of London and the south-east of England is about 6-degrees which will make reception difficult especially on tropo. 

To the south-west of Ireland which is in my direction here in Cork, the horizon is about 14 degrees which effectively kills all signals.

This map shows where tropo signals might be heard and the maximum range for one-hop Sporadic-E.

The range for single hop Sporadic-E to northern Europe is pretty good but the maximum range to Spain and Italy is shorter due to the mountains near the beacon site.

If you live in say England then be sure to check for the beacons during auroral conditions. There are also a lot of planes going in and out of Dublin airport so getting a FT8 decode from aircraft scatter is a distinct possibility if you live in the UK or Ireland.

ARDC award grant of roughly €51,000 to develop a 'New Packet Radio' network in the UK & Ireland

The Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is a private foundation which makes annual grants and scholarships to projects that promote and support amateur radio and digital communications science. The funding for this comes from the sale of a block of of IP4 internet addresses in 2019 which were originally allocated to the amateur radio service way back in 1981. See https://www.ardc.net/about/faq/

As part of their year end 2024 report, they listed one grant of about €51,000 / £43,000 to fund the expansion of 'New Packet Radio capabilities in the UK and Ireland'.

This is the grant in more detail...

Grant: New Packet Radio Version 3.0 / Seeding UK and Ireland Usage

The Online Amateur Radio Community (OARC), predominately based in the UK and Ireland, comprises about 2000 members, with the core of this group having an interest in developing, innovating, and advancing digital communications via packet radio. One of OARC’s interests involves New Packet Radio (NPR), first emerging in 2019 and operating on 70cm, followed by the second generation (NPR-H), which was developed and deployed in 2021 by Steffen DO5DSH of Localino. Building on NPR-H, OARC seeks to develop an NPR with both upgraded 70cm capabilities and the ability operate on 2m and 23cm.

This grant will provide funding for OARC to collaborate with Localino to develop, create, and test the next version of New Packet Radio (NPR) software and hardware; implement it throughout Ireland and the UK; and make these resultant NPR devices available globally for use in both emergency communications and amateur data networks.

We are also using some of that money to pay professionals to provide a more consistent level of service to 44Net/AMPRNet users. Previously, this work had been done by volunteers.

Let's have a look at the details...

Q. Who are the Online Amateur Radio Community (OARC)? The OARC is an online group on the Discord platform and they describe themselves as "the largest online amateur radio club in the UK and Ireland." 

To be honest, I never heard of this group prior to hearing about the grant. They would probably be better described as an online community with about 2000 'members' rather than a club. They would seem to be not much different than say many of the large amateur radio related groups on Facebook.

As for Ireland, their presence is tiny compared to the usual amateur radio club structure or groups.

Their website is https://www.oarc.uk/

Q. Who are Localino? Localino is a German company which sells 'New Packet Radio' products for the 70cms amateur radio band.

Q. What is 'New Packet Radio'? I guess the first thing to say is what old packet radio was or is. The traditional form of packet radio uses FM on the amateur radio 2m band (144 MHz) and the speeds are about 1200bps.

This reached its peak back in the 1990's before people had internet access at home and the packet radio network was used to access a local BBS, send messages across the network or to access the DX-cluster.

While the packet radio was based on the AX25 protocol and with limited speeds, 'New Packet Radio' is a completely different system and operates on 70cms. It offers speeds of between 100 Kbps and 500 Kbps which is a game changer from the old packet speeds. 

The chart above shows the speed difference and frequencies between the traditional form of packet radio, 'New Packet Radio' and the Hamnet system which is used mainly in countries like Germany.

Links and more information... If you want more information on 'New Packet Radio' then I suggest you first look at the links and videos that I have included below.

1) This PDF titled 'New Packet Radio on 70cm band' by  Guillaume F4HDK gives an overview of what NPR is all about... https://cdn.hackaday.io/files/1640927020512128/NPR70_introduction_EN_v3.6.pdf

2) This article on Hackaday shows another compatible project called the NPR-H... https://hackaday.io/project/175907-npr-h-new-packet-radio-modem/details

3) Article by M0AHN about New Packet Radio... https://www.m0ahn.co.uk/nprabout.html

4) NPR products sold by Localino... https://localino.net/shop/public/Ham-Radio/

5) 70cms NPR modem sold by Elekitsorparts... https://elekitsorparts.com/product/npr-70-modem-by-f4hdk-new-packet-radio-over-70cm-band-amateur-radio-packet-radio/

Video links...

1) In September of 2024, Dave MM0RFN gave a talk titled 'Building a Modern Packet Radio Network' at the EuroBSDCon in Dublin. He gives an overview of the current state of the packet network in the UK and touches on NPR as well.

2) In this video, Matt M0DQW looks at the NPR-70 modem on his popular Tech Minds Youtube channel.

In conclusion... The purpose of this post is to give anyone interested a selection of links and videos so that they can get a better idea of what 'New Packet Radio' is about.

It'll be interesting to see how this project develops and how many people decide to take it up. I have no doubt that sending some form of data over amateur radio will always be of interest to some people and it's not hard to see it being the only source of interest in amateur radio for a lot of newer entrants.

Dutch radio amateurs bounce 1299 MHz microwave signals off the planet Venus

On the 22nd of March 2025, a group of Dutch radio amateurs managed to successfully bounce a 23cms microwave signal off the planet Venus using the 25-metre Dwingeloo telescope.

At the time, Venus at the time was at its closest point to Earth with a distance of 42-million kilmetres. This happens approximately every 580 days which is about a year and seven months.

For the test, they used a 278 second long tone at a frequency of 1299.5 MHz. The return path from the Earth to Venus and back was about 280 seconds which is 4 minutes and 40 seconds. They repeated this cycle four times and a sample of the returned signal is shown below.

The test transmissions were also heard by another group using the 25m Stockert radio telescope in Germany.

They hope to resume their Earth-Venus-Earth (EVE) at the next closest approach in October of 2026.

Link... https://www.camras.nl/en/blog/2025/first-venus-bounce-with-the-dwingeloo-telescope/

Opening on the 40 MHz band between New Zealand and the UK - 16th March 2025

On the 16th of March 2025, there was an interesting opening on the 40 MHz (8m) band between New Zealand and the UK.

ZL28M is an 8m beacon on 40.680 MHz and is located on a hilltop on the North Island of New Zealand. It is operated by Mark, ZL2WHO and is running 10-watts into a 3-element Yagi beaming at the north of Australia which also the direction for the south of Europe. The beacon uses an RF ZERO controller and operates on FT8 and CW.

The beacon was received by Paul, G9PUV who is located in the south-east of England. The screenshot by Paul of the FT8 decodes is shown below.

Paul reports that he only got 3 decodes and that he was beaming in the general path of short path to New Zealand over the hills of the South Downs which have a 3-degree elevation.

The signals were in the region of -15dB to -19dB which means that they were weaker than what can be heard by the human ear. The time of 08:25 UTC is consistent with it being a short path opening.

Direct or skewed path??? As can be seen from map above, the direct short path from the UK to New Zealand goes well into the Arctic region. Did it really go that far north or was it skewed to a more southerly path where propagation on the low VHF bands might be more likely?

Whichever it was, it's always interesting to see such a long path like this on the 40 MHz band. At about 18810 kms, it's only about 1200 kms shy of the maximum of 20,000 before it changes to long path.

It also worth mentioning that there were some openings from New Zealand to Spain in the previous few weeks. On the 20th of February and the 12th of March 2025, Joan EA3ERE reported reception of the ZL28M FT8 beacon. The path to the south of Europe is a lot more favourable but is still a considerable distance at 19,467 kms.

Addendum: Rik, ON7YD reports that S57TW in Slovenia was recently copied by ZL2005SWL in New Zealand (RE68) on 40.680 MHz FT8 in the late afternoon. 8m was open to PY (Brazil) and CE (Chile) at that time, so it was most likely long path.

Additional info... Back on the 13th of March 2023, G9PUV and EI2IP in Ireland were heard by Bob, ZL1RS in New Zealand via long path. See previous post HERE

Also see my 40 MHz page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

VIDEO : Understanding VHF Propagation by Rohde & Schwarz

I recently came across a video on YouTube titled 'Understanding VHF Propagation' by Rohde & Schwarz, a company synonymous with high end RF and electronic test equipment.

It covers the myth of “line of sight” at VHF, tropo refraction, ducting, diffraction & scattering, Sporadic-E, meteor scatter and moonbounce.

It's a good primer on VHF propagation and covers in 43 minutes what might take a few hours to read in a book. It would be appropriate for anyone studying to get an amateur radio licence or just wants to get a basic understanding of how radio signals behave on the VHF bands. i.e. 50 MHz and above.

Video below...

New site found for Irish beacon network - March 2025

A few weeks back, I had a post up about how the EI1KNH, EI0SIX and EI4RF beacons in Ireland had to shut down due to a change of ownership of the beacon site. The good news is that a new site has now been found!

The new location is about 4kms to the south of the old site and it's a bit lower in altitude. It's certainly not as good as the old site but the challenge for any amateur radio beacon is to find any site where a beacon can operate.

The new site is nestled in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountain just to the south of Dublin and then local mountains and hills will certainly have a major impact in certain directions.

This is the approximate horizon of the new site...

To the north-east and on a heading of about 40 degrees, the Irish Sea is visible and there is a very good path to the Isle of Man and Scotland.

As we move further south, the local terrain starts to become more of an issue. The take off to the north of England is reasonable but once we go below a line say running from Liverpool to Leeds, it gets to be more challenging.

For example, the horizon in the direction of London and the south-east of England is about 6-degrees which will make reception difficult especially on tropo. 

To the south-west of Ireland which is in my direction here in Cork, the horizon is about 14 degrees which effectively kills all signals.

This map shows where tropo signals might be heard and the maximum range for one-hop Sporadic-E.

The range for single hop Sporadic-E to northern Europe is pretty good but the maximum range to Spain and Italy is shorter due to the mountains near the beacon site.

As of early March 2025, work in now progressing on the beacon and it is hoped that the beacons will be up and running in time for the start of the Sporadic-E season in mid to late April.

Due to the change in location, the EI1KNH beacons on 40.013 MHz and 60.013 MHz will be getting a new callsign. EI0SIX will return on 50.004 MHz while EI4RF will return on 70.013 MHz.

It is hoped that all four beacons will use FT8 as part of their transmission sequence which should help identification under weak signal conditions.

I'll put up another post once the beacons are operational.