Opening to South Africa on 28 MHz - Fri 1st March 2019

After a dismal three weeks, the 10-metre band finally opened up to South Africa on the 1st of March.

These were the stations heard...
110100 -13 -0.6 1264 ~  CQ DJ8QX JO31
114415   1  0.1  899 ~  CQ ZS5PD KF59
114615 -15 -0.2  441 ~  CQ EA5AMC IM98
120715 -16 -0.1  664 ~  CQ G7ODN IO92
123545 -17 -1.2  942 ~  CQ G0OYQ IO93

Some points of interest...

1) South Africa... There seems to have been a Sporadic-E cloud over the Bay of Biscay allowing me to hear an EA5 station near Valencia. This then coupled into some F2 propagation to South Africa.

2) Low Activity... The map on the right above shows who heard ZS5PD on 28 MHz. PSK Reporter shows only four stations hearing him which suggests a distinct lack of stations monitoring on 28 MHz.

3) Sporadic-E Propagation... I noticed from G3XBM's blog that he was hearing an EA7 station near Gibraltar about the same time I was hearing an EA5 near Valencia. We were both probably getting signals from the same Sporadic-E cloud over the Bay of Biscay.

It's likely that I was just in the right location as the path to EA5 lined up with South Africa. For G3XBM 500kms or so to the east, the extended path beyond EA7 probably was just down into the South Atlantic.

Slim pickings but hopefully things might pick up as the equinox approaches.