Opening to Africa on 28 MHz - Sun 17th March 2019

There couldn't have been a greater contrast in conditions over the last two days on 28 MHz. Saturday the 16th was practically dead while there was a nice opening on Sunday the 17th.

Saturday 16th March 2019... Just one signal heard all day on FT8 on 28 MHz. I scanned around a few times as well...nothing.
124900 -11 -0.1 1942 ~  CQ DJ5JD JO33

Sunday 17th March 2019... Nice Sporadic-E opening to Europe and it probably allowed some signals from Africa to reach this far north.

Note that this map is off the PSK Reporter website. It seems as if it only shows stations that I heard calling CQ where as I actually heard more while they were making contacts. I have shown these as Pink dots above.

This is a breakdown of the stations I heard on FT8 on 28 MHz...



103845 -11 -0.2  249 ~  A41ZZ CT1GVN IM67
104330  -7 -0.4 1338 ~  EA7HCB EA7ZY -20
104415 -18  0.2 1250 ~  CQ CT7AGZ IM57
104630  -9 -0.4 1340 ~  CQ EA7ZY IM67
104645   6 -0.2 1547 ~  EA7ZY CT2GQN IM67
105045 -15  1.2 1341 ~  EA7ZY IZ2ODN JN55
112630 -20 -0.4 2283 ~  DJ3TF ZS5LEE 73
115600  -7  0.9  806 ~  CQ EA7PY IM66
120545 -18  0.1 1239 ~  CQ ZS4JAN KG30
120745  -9 -0.0 1940 ~  CQ UW5EJX/MM
121045  -6  0.0 1384 ~  DF3PM ZS4JAN 73
121045  -5 -0.1 1456 ~  CQ DM1FL JO30
122030  -9  0.0 1147 ~  CT1GVN ZS6S -06
122230 -12  0.1 1242 ~  CQ F5BQV IN87
122615 -12 -0.1 1940 ~  GRID JI61PF
123230  12 -0.1 1348 ~  CQ MU0WLV IN89
124500 -13 -0.1 1888 ~  CQ CS7AOS IN51
124615 -10 -0.3 1529 ~  CQ EB2FJN IN83
130015 -17  0.1 1971 ~  DD5ZZ JO40
130145  -8 -0.2  589 ~  CQ 2E0XXO IO93
130845 -12 -0.0  805 ~  CQ EA1FZ IN82
131545 -19 -0.1  655 ~  CQ PD1DL JO22
132245 -10 -0.1  559 ~  CQ 2E0XXO IO93
135430 -18 -0.2  623 ~  PD1DL DO9LC JO31
135430 -12 -0.3 1515 ~  CQ DJ8QX JO31


214715 -12 -0.2  635 ~  CQ M6DHV IO84 (update... not shown on map)

One unusual signal heard was that of UW5EJX Maritime Mobile off the coast of Angola.

These are the European signals heard...

The problem with the PSK reporter map and the DX cluster is that neither show the full story. You need to use both to see what is happening on the band.

I put some of the FT8 callsigns that I heard up on the DX cluster. This is what the DX Maps website looked like around noon.

I tried listening around the band as well but heard nothing.

Solar Flux 69. The band is pretty poor at present but there are signals there if you spend the time listening.