Tuesday 28th April 2020. The map above shows the FT8 heard on 28 MHz, not bad for the bottom of the sunspot cycle.
The main Sporadic-E opening was to the south to Spain and Portugal with a weaker opening towards Italy and the south-east.
The main point of interest for me was the opening to the Caribbean and the northern part of South America. North-South paths to the likes of South Africa and Brazil are very common but it's the East-West paths that are more unusual.
In total, I heard 191 stations in 27 countries which actually sounds low considering how long the band was open for.
These are the stations over 3,000kms...
Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
LW4DXH 10m FT8 10791 km 19:05:29
LU3DCS 10m FT8 10788 km 19:04:15
LU7BCS 10m FT8 10776 km 19:04:59
LU2BN 10m FT8 10771 km 19:17:29
ZS1DX 10m FT8 9913 km 11:19:29
PY2KNK 10m FT8 9306 km 18:05:44
PY2PJA 10m FT8 9185 km 18:10:59
PY1SX 10m FT8 8915 km 19:44:29
HC1DAZ 10m FT8 8666 km 22:46:29
YY1ALE 10m FT8 7292 km 20:44:14
PY7ZZ 10m FT8 7130 km 20:45:14
J68HZ 10m FT8 6282 km 11:54:44
KP4JRS 10m FT8 6209 km 12:08:59
FG4SU 10m FT8 6043 km 19:40:29
RU4B 10m FT8 3686 km 11:32:59
5T5PA 10m FT8 3518 km 20:44:02
I also got decodes from Surinam and St.Helena but these didn't appear on the PSKReporter website...
165200 -12 0.2 1785 ~ 9A7JCY PZ5RA -12
165330 -5 0.1 1405 ~ IK5ZUK ZD7JC RR73
Beacons... I heard just three beacon on the band.
EI7GL 28204.8 ZS6WAB/B 16:11 28 Apr IO51TU<>KG46RB South Africa
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P 10:38 28 Apr IO51TU
EI7GL 28251.4 ED4YAK/B 10:35 28 Apr IO51TU
The unusual one here was ZS6WAB/B in South Africa. It's one thing hearing a FT8 signal buried in the noise, it's another to actually hear the CW signal by ear. At best, it was probably around 319 with a lot of fading.
I also listened for Italian beacons when it was open in that direct but to no avail. That's the thing about the beacons, you usually need to have strong FT8 signals before you can hear any of the beacons on CW.
The solar flux was 69 which is about as low as it can get. Maybe April 2020 will actually turn out to be the minimum of the sunspot cycle.
1 comment:
nice opening, i was listening late last night and there was an opening to ZL.
i heard nothing but EA stations were getting a few contacts long path.
interesting times !!
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