Opening to West Africa and South America on 28 Mhz... Fri 5th & Sat 6th April 2019

April can be an interesting time for conditions on 28 MHz as there can be good North-South paths via F2 from southern Europe to Africa and South America.

As we approach the start of the summer Sporadic-E season, there can be small openings that allow stations in northern Europe to link into the F2 paths further south.

Here is what was heard on Friday the 5th and Saturday the 6th of April 2019.

Fri 5th Apr...
As can be seen from the map below, this is exactly what happened on Friday the 5th of April 2019. There was a Sporadic-E opening from Ireland to the south which allowed me to hear Spain.

The opening obviously extended to the west also as I heard 6W/IK5BSC in Senegal and South America as well.

Sometimes I heard something but it doesn't appear on the PSKReporter website. I have added these in the map above as dots.

Catch of the day was probably VP8LP in the Falkland Island.

FT8 signals heard on the 5th of April 2019...
120000   0  0.1 1283 ~  CQ G8UBJ IO91
133030 -16 -0.1 2434 ~  CQ 6W/IK5BSC
133400  -4 -0.2 1152 ~  CQ EB4SM IN80
154100   5  0.2 2019 ~  CQ EA7JKH IM67
154245 -13 -0.3  992 ~  EA7JKH PY2DMZ GG56
160245 -11  0.0  538 ~  CQ 2E0XXO IO93
170215  -7 -0.0 1870 ~  GI4SNA VP8LP RR73
171745  -2 -0.1 1184 ~  WP4PRD PY2BL 73

Saturday 6th April...
This was a pretty similar day to Friday except there were more stations from Europe.

Not all stations heard on FT8 appeared on the PSKReporter website. These are added as a dot in the map above.

List of FT8 signals heard...
085230  -7 -0.1 1686 ~  CQ DO4SH JO30
094400  -4 -0.2 1922 ~  SV2CLJ EA3HCE JN01
100200 -13 -0.2 1239 ~  CQ IZ0EGA JN61
105000 -13 -0.3 1773 ~  CQ AM70S
110915 -15 -0.3  889 ~  CQ DM5BB JO62
112030 -14 -0.6  916 ~  CQ IW3RUA JN66
114415 -10  0.3 2238 ~  CQ DJ5JD JO33
14515 -18 -0.5 1411 ~  CQ EA4FJX IN80
115730  -5  0.1 1588 ~  CQ EB5JSX IM99
115830  -9  0.1 1575 ~  CQ AM70D
115900   6 -0.0  900 ~  CQ EA5KE IM99
120000   8 -0.0  900 ~  CQ EA5KE IM99
120130  -2  0.1  826 ~  CQ AM70I
120600  -7  0.5  639 ~  G1IVL EA3YE R-06
120645  -4 -0.0  364 ~  CQ EA3IAZ JN11
120815  11 -0.0 1643 ~  CQ EA5FZJ IM98
121315 -10  0.0 1466 ~  AM70D EI6IL -12
122030 -13 -0.2 1285 ~  CQ G4HZW IO83
122045 -12  0.2 2235 ~  CQ DJ5JD JO33
123515   1  0.1 2277 ~  6W/IK5BSC F5BZB +00
124215  -6  0.0 2188 ~  6W/IK5BSC EA3AID JN12
124245   2  2.0 1087 ~  CQ EA3HKA JN11
124315  10 -0.0  722 ~  6W/IK5BSC EA3HWE
131000 -14 -0.0 2402 ~  CQ 6W/IK5BSC
131015  -5  0.0 1225 ~  PE5I F4ESV JN38
131245  -6 -1.7 1685 ~  CQ DJ8QX JO31
132000 -11 -0.1  595 ~  CQ PD1DL JO22
132015  -3 -0.1 1194 ~  CQ PA9CC JO32
132415 -19 -0.1 1502 ~  PY1VOY EB5JSX IM99
133230  -6 -0.1 1076 ~  EA1JAZ M0CTP IO93
134415 -11 -0.3 2284 ~  6W/IK5BSC EA5DIC
135300 -17 -0.2  681 ~  CQ CT2IWW IN51
140945 -17 -0.2  516 ~  CQ DG1RUG JO30
151000  -5 -0.3  366 ~  CQ DG3NCZ/P JO50
170515  -7 -0.3 1012 ~  CQ PY2BL GG67

Several times during the day, I listened around the band and I heard nothing else except the beacon in Andorra.
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 12:51 06 Apr IO51TUJN02SM Andorra