Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Opening on 28 MHz - Mon 27th Apr 2020

Monday 27th April 2020. A pretty modest day on 28 MHz with a hint of more to come.

The main Sporadic-E opening was to the south to Spain and Portugal.

There was a weak Sp-E opening to Germany but I was unable to hear any of the German beacons. This suggests that the band in that direction was just about open on 28 MHz and the Sp-E footprint was probably small and patchy.

In line with the conditions, just two beacons were heard...

EI7GL 28292.2 SK0CT/B 13:18 27 Apr IO51TUJO89XK Sweden 
EI7GL 28251.4 ED4YAK/B 11:30 27 Apr IO51TUIN80FK Spain

The most notable signal of the day for me was actually hearing MW0ZZK in the NW of Wales. I could actually hear his FT8 signal by ear even though he is some 280 kms away. This signal was direct and not via Sporadic-E, backscatter or the like.

That kind of distance might be common enough on say 144 MHz with tropo and beams but it's unusual enough on 28 MHz.

I also noticed that MW0ZZK had heard Indonesia and the Caribbean on 28 MHz during the day so there was some decent DX buried in the noise.

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