15,000km opening on 50 MHz between the Canary Islands & Guam in the Pacific - 3rd June 2021

Thursday 3rd June 2021: Another day, another 15,000km opening on the 50 MHz band.... well almost. This time the longest opening seen on the PSK Reporter website was the 14,966km path between KG6DX on the island of Guam in the Pacific and EA8DBM on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

EA8/DF4UE on the neighbouring island of Lanzarote was just 150kms behind.

I checked the PSK Reporter site and there were paths open for both to multiple stations in Japan as well. IF the signals took the direct path then they crossed over the north of Russia.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

EA8DBM KG6DX 6m FT8 14966 km 08:44:11
KG6DX EA8/DF4UE 6m FT8 14803 km 07:35:29
OE3EMC KG6DX 6m FT8 11545 km 07:37:11
DF5KB KG6DX 6m FT8 11327 km 07:41:44
DK3WG KG6DX 6m FT8 11289 km 07:21:12
SO3OT KG6DX 6m FT8 11255 km 07:41:11
SO3RR KG6DX 6m FT8 11255 km 07:28:42
SP3QDM KG6DX 6m FT8 11202 km 07:22:14
SP3EPK KG6DX 6m FT8 11121 km 08:08:44
SP3RNZ KG6DX 6m FT8 11097 km 07:47:44
SP1FJZ KG6DX 6m FT8 11065 km 07:29:11
KG6DX SQ1OD 6m FT8 11036 km 07:36:30
KG6DX SP2ERZ 6m FT8 10939 km 07:35:57
SP2QBQ KG6DX 6m FT8 10933 km 08:10:12
SQ2HEB KG6DX 6m FT8 10920 km 07:22:42
KG6DX SQ2HEB 6m FT8 10920 km 06:54:57
SP4K KG6DX 6m FT8 10877 km 07:50:11
SP4MPB KG6DX 6m FT8 10870 km 08:11:11
KG6DX LY1G 6m FT8 10705 km 07:36:27
KG6DX YL80IV 6m FT8 10667 km 06:37:59
KG6DX UT2XQ 6m FT8 10596 km 06:37:59
KG6DX LY2IJ 6m FT8 10514 km 06:38:00
UT7UJ KG6DX 6m FT8 10512 km 06:36:42
UX1UA KG6DX 6m FT8 10501 km 06:12:42
UT5UGR KG6DX 6m FT8 10492 km 07:15:42
KG6DX YL3CT 6m FT8 10466 km 07:35:57
YL3ES KG6DX 6m FT8 10426 km 07:42:44
YL2QV KG6DX 6m FT8 10426 km 07:11:11
KG6DX YL2QV 6m FT8 10426 km 06:37:57
ES6RQ KG6DX 6m FT8 10338 km 07:27:12
UR5QU KG6DX 6m FT8 10331 km 06:15:45
ES2SF KG6DX 6m FT8 10319 km 06:16:41
US4EX KG6DX 6m FT8 10317 km 06:18:44
UT7QF KG6DX 6m FT8 10315 km 06:32:42
ES5QA KG6DX 6m FT8 10314 km 06:12:44
YL2FZ KG6DX 6m FT8 10300 km 07:31:42
KG6DX ES5PC 6m FT8 10279 km 06:37:59
UR0MC KG6DX 6m FT8 10046 km 06:30:41
UT4MF KG6DX 6m FT8 10018 km 06:15:44

KG6JDX on Guam was also heard in Latvia.

Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
YL2QV 6m FT8 10421 km 07:17:00

* * *

VK4ABW in Darwin was in the mix again with several 12,000km+ paths to Europe.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
VK4ABW SM7CAD 6m FT8 12650 km 06:31:29
VK4ABW OG3G 6m FT8 12228 km 06:34:59
VK4ABW OH1MN 6m FT8 12199 km 06:14:12
VK4ABW OG2A 6m FT8 12147 km 06:14:14
VK4ABW OH7KM 6m FT8 12113 km 06:14:15
VK4ABW OH2BU 6m FT8 12102 km 06:31:29
VK4ABW OH3SR 6m FT8 12091 km 06:14:11
VK4ABW OH2XO 6m FT8 12074 km 06:20:26
VK4ABW OH4SS 6m FT8 12017 km 06:14:14
ES5PC VK4ABW 6m FT8 11999 km 06:14:59
VK4ABW ES5PC 6m FT8 11999 km 06:14:14
VK4ABW UT7UJ 6m FT8 11812 km 05:05:29
UT7UJ VK4ABW 6m FT8 11812 km 05:02:14
UR0MC VK4ABW 6m FT8 11224 km 05:46:44
VK4ABW UR0MC 6m FT8 11224 km 05:14:30
VK4ABW UA4CC 6m FT8 10707 km 04:58:29

***

There was also a 50 MHz path from VK4MA to the Ukraine.

Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
UT2XQ 6m FT8 14524 km 04:36:59
UT7UJ 6m FT8 14439 km 04:36:59
UT7QF 6m FT8 14112 km 04:07:29
UX3IW 6m FT8 13900 km 04:19:00
UR0MC 6m FT8 13870 km 04:02:27

* * *

Propagation Mode: At this stage, I suspect that we are looking at a combination of different propagation modes. We have almost daily paths from Europe to Japan on 50 MHz at almost the same time as Noctilucent Clouds are making an appearance in the north of Europe and this may be a factor.

Chris, SP4K in Poland tells me that he is using a 7-element YU7EF Yagi on 50 MHz and he is working Japan on the direct beam heading of about 54 degrees. He also mentions that he noticed that the path to Australia is skewed about 15 degrees to the North! In other words, he was getting VK3 and VK4 on the same beam heading as Japan. He also mentions that the path to KG6 (Guam) and DU (Philippines) was on the direct beam heading.

Are the signals from Australia traveling north via TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) to Japan and then skewed onwards to Europe via another propagation mode?

It would be very interesting to hear about about other skewed paths on 50 MHz that people are experiencing.