Saturday, June 8, 2019

Late opening to North America on 28 MHz - Fri 7th June 2019

After a pretty dismal start, Friday the 7th of June 2019 turned out in the end to be an interesting day for propagation on 28 MHz.

The morning was poor with just weak Sporadic-E signals being heard on the band. The afternoon was even worse with long periods of nothing but static. The late evening was different though with an opening to North America.

The map below shows the FT8 signals heard....


Notes...

1) Europe...The map shows a few stations around Europe but these were really weak. It was the kind of day where if you turned on the radio, you would say that the 28 MHz band was closed. The FT8 signals were so weak that I didn't even bother scanning for beacons.

The only exception was in the late evening when an FT8 signal from Spain sounded loud. A quick scan revealed the beacon in Gibraltar...

EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 22:20 07 Jun IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar

2) North America... The signals from North America were really weak as well and it was a suprise to see that the band had opened up to the USA when the day seemed so quiet for the most part.

A few things were unusual. I was hearing US stations at about 23:30 UTC which is about 30 minutes after midnight local time.

For many of the distant US signals, I was the only person in Europe hearing them. For example, these are the stations that heard K5TLJ in Arkansas...


The reasons for this are probably social and geographical. Social in that most people in Europe had probably turned off their radios by the late evening. Geographical in that I am probably the most westerly station listening on 28 MHz in NW Europe.

Stations heard on FT8.... USA stations in Bold



YV1SW 10m FT8 7271 km 00:02:14 (8th)
HP1MRA 10m FT8 7921 km 00:02:14 (8th)
KA3OAZ 10m FT8 5441 km 00:01:59 (8th)
EB3TC 10m FT8 1395 km 23:52:29
K2IW 10m FT8 4840 km 23:40:44
K3KSB 10m FT8 5381 km 23:37:44
K8BBE 10m FT8 5491 km 23:35:59
K3UA 10m FT8 5491 km 23:35:45
N4BIX 10m FT8 5318 km 23:35:44
AF4O 10m FT8 6391 km 23:29:59
WA4USA 10m FT8 6105 km 23:24:44
AC5Q 10m FT8 6441 km 23:23:29
W2MGF 10m FT8 4993 km 23:21:59
EA5UB 10m FT8 1593 km 23:21:44
N2PEQ 10m FT8 4870 km 23:17:14
K5TLJ 10m FT8 6469 km 23:15:14
KO2E 10m FT8 4872 km 23:12:59
KC8YJB 10m FT8 5482 km 23:11:29
WB2UBW 10m FT8 6117 km 23:10:44
AC4GW 10m FT8 5933 km 23:09:29
F5RD 10m FT8 1004 km 22:28:44
EA4CUO 10m FT8 1499 km 22:28:18
EH4MCG 10m FT8 1307 km 22:11:29
EA7JOU 10m FT8 1738 km 22:06:29
M0AIA 10m FT8 490 km 22:05:59
PA7EY 10m FT8 899 km 22:04:30
EA1VIL 10m FT8 1229 km 22:03:00
HK3JJH 10m FT8 7956 km 22:02:15
PD4P 10m FT8 877 km 21:43:44
N1BRL 10m FT8 4879 km 21:39:14
MW0ZZK 10m FT8 283 km 21:30:29
K3MRK 10m FT8 5210 km 21:29:29
WA4CEM 10m FT8 6228 km 21:28:59
OZ1LXJ 10m FT8 1351 km 21:07:44
XQ4NUA 10m FT8 11364 km 21:02:59
N4HID 10m FT8 6107 km 20:52:29
PY3CAL 10m FT8 9989 km 20:45:15
WA5AMM 10m FT8 6010 km 20:42:59
W4QK 10m FT8 6083 km 20:19:29
N4YDU 10m FT8 5644 km 20:17:31
LA9NKA 10m FT8 1253 km 19:03:18
PY2RSA 10m FT8 9073 km 17:57:15
2E0XXO 10m FT8 551 km 16:13:07
EA3HWC 10m FT8 1363 km 14:52:59
F8FSI 10m FT8 806 km 14:29:59
M0LHS 10m FT8 406 km 13:56:59
EA3HRU 10m FT8 1398 km 13:43:59
IZ0EGA 10m FT8 1930 km 13:20:44
EA3IAZ 10m FT8 1399 km 12:56:29
EC3TS 10m FT8 1389 km 12:55:14
CT1EAV 10m FT8 1235 km 11:57:29
OZ1ZD 10m FT8 1211 km 11:50:29
CT1ILT 10m FT8 1223 km 11:43:59
DL8HXP 10m FT8 1273 km 11:36:14
IW3SNW 10m FT8 1760 km 11:34:59
EC7CW 10m FT8 1710 km 11:24:59
2M0WEV 10m FT8 541 km 11:19:14
IZ8XJJ 10m FT8 2182 km 11:18:29
CT1HMN 10m FT8 1478 km 11:17:59
DH5YAX 10m FT8 1153 km 11:03:29
DO1MH 10m FT8 1506 km 11:02:29
GW7KNF 10m FT8 305 km 10:42:29
IC8XIL 10m FT8 2100 km 10:41:29
EA5GJ 10m FT8 1640 km 10:31:14
SQ6WZ 10m FT8 1737 km 10:23:44
SM3GSK 10m FT8 1942 km 10:21:59
S51CN 10m FT8 1769 km 10:20:59
S59MZ 10m FT8 1761 km 10:05:44
DB6LL 10m FT8 1235 km 10:04:44
RA2FL 10m FT8 1920 km 10:00:59
OE6GBG 10m FT8 1816 km 10:00:59
EA3NP 10m FT8 1415 km 09:57:29
SM5EPO 10m FT8 1810 km 09:48:29
DG0OFT 10m FT8 1302 km 09:43:59
DG1PS 10m FT8 1288 km 09:41:44
SP7HOV 10m FT8 1943 km 09:40:14
EA5WU 10m FT8 1477 km 09:36:29
DM2CWH 10m FT8 1398 km 09:36:14
SP9MRP 10m FT8 1891 km 09:30:59
F4FRQ 10m FT8 1183 km 09:30:14
CU3AA 10m FT8 2069 km 09:30:14
DL3VZL 10m FT8 1521 km 09:29:29
G0NGG 10m FT8 609 km 09:24:59
IK3ACI 10m FT8 1584 km 09:17:59
SP4XBZ 10m FT8 2119 km 09:13:44
IZ0GRR 10m FT8 1938 km 08:42:46
MM0HVU 10m FT8 543 km 08:22:59

2 comments:

Steve M0BKL said...

Morning John, I was watching the 6m KST Chat while monitoring 28mhz to the west and it was interesting to see the path develop on 6m and then 10m. Here in S.Devon i saw/heard nothing and gave up at about midnight.GL 73 Steve M0BKL

John, EI7GL said...

Hi Steve, it's suprising how small the footprint can be sometimes on 28 MHz, a bit more like 50 MHz than HF.

I did a rough comparison with what some of the EI 6m stations heard and the 28 MHz opening seemed to go further west.