Thursday 17th June 2021: Another day, another opening on 50 MHz between Australia and Europe. This one however was different as several stations from the Adelaide area (VK5) in the south of Australia were involved.
It also seems as if a small number of stations in New Zealand and the Australian states of Victoria & Western Australia managed to work Europe as well. Info further down post.
All the areas of Australia are not the same in terms of propagation, Stations on the north coast have a pipeline into Japan & China via TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) whereas stations in the south of the continent are a bit too far south.
That's why openings on 50 MHz between the south of Australia and Europe are always of interest. It raises the very real question of just how exactly does a signal at 50 MHz travel so far near the bottom of the sunspot cycle.
The maps and station list below are derived from FT8 reports on the PSK Reporter website and it may well not include everyone. I couldn't find any information on SSB or CW contacts being made but that doesn't mean they weren't.
These are the distances for the VK5 stations near Adelaide.
VK5PW
F4BKV 6m FT8 16429 km 05:25:59
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
VK5BC F4BKV 6m FT8 16403 km 05:21:59
VK5BC F5LNU 6m FT8 16293 km 05:47:59
DK8NE VK5BC 6m FT8 15566 km 05:55:44
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
F6BKI VK5PJ 6m FT8 16428 km 06:26:11
F4BKV VK5PJ 6m FT8 16420 km 05:23:41
F5LNU VK5PJ 6m FT8 16310 km 05:58:14
F4ARU VK5PJ 6m FT8 16296 km 06:37:11
F5BZB VK5PJ 6m FT8 16218 km 06:08:11
DF6PW VK5PJ 6m FT8 15741 km 06:15:12
IS0AWZ VK5PJ 6m FT8 15585 km 06:22:14
IS0GQX VK5PJ 6m FT8 15582 km 05:58:11
DK8NE VK5PJ 6m FT8 15580 km 06:15:41
IZ5IMD VK5PJ 6m FT8 15541 km 06:22:11
IZ5EKV VK5PJ 6m FT8 15479 km 06:23:41
IZ4AIK VK5PJ 6m FT8 15369 km 06:11:11
DG1VL VK5PJ 6m FT8 15311 km 06:07:11
I6WJB VK5PJ 6m FT8 15218 km 06:30:41
4O3A VK5PJ 6m FT8 14862 km 06:15:14
LZ1ZL VK5PJ 6m FT8 14361 km 05:42:11
4X4DK VK5PJ 6m FT8 13138 km 06:43:41
4Z1UF VK5PJ 6m FT8 13133 km 05:36:14
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
VK5SFA F5LNU 6m FT8 16302 km 06:18:26
VK5SFA F4ARU 6m FT8 16286 km 05:46:26
VK5SFA EA6Y 6m FT8 16104 km 06:51:00
DK8NE VK5SFA 6m FT8 15580 km 06:26:41
VK5SFA DK8NE 6m FT8 15580 km 06:03:59
IS0AWZ VK5SFA 6m FT8 15569 km 05:57:14
VK5SFA IS0GQX 6m FT8 15567 km 05:57:59
VK5SFA IZ5IMD 6m FT8 15531 km 06:18:59
VK5SFA IZ5DKJ 6m FT8 15528 km 06:18:59
VK5SFA IZ4AIK 6m FT8 15360 km 06:24:28
VK5SFA YT1Q 6m FT8 14710 km 06:23:59
VK5SFA LZ2CM 6m FT8 14510 km 06:25:59
VK5SFA UT7QF 6m FT8 13751 km 06:49:29
4X4DK VK5SFA 6m FT8 13122 km 06:51:41
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
VK5AKK F4BKV 6m FT8 16422 km 05:30:59
DK8NE VK5AKK 6m FT8 15589 km 06:28:44
IS0AWZ VK5AKK 6m FT8 15575 km 06:02:14
IS0GQX VK5AKK 6m FT8 15572 km 05:58:44
VK5AKK F4BKV 6m FT8 16422 km 05:30:59
DK8NE VK5AKK 6m FT8 15589 km 06:28:44
IS0AWZ VK5AKK 6m FT8 15575 km 06:02:14
IS0GQX VK5AKK 6m FT8 15572 km 05:58:44
State of Victoria...
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
F4ARU VK3DUT 6m FT8 17158 km 06:44:11
DF6PW VK3DUT 6m FT8 16576 km 06:09:11
DK8NE VK3DUT 6m FT8 16418 km 06:15:41
I6WJB VK3DUT 6m FT8 16080 km 06:41:44
West coast of Australia...
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
F4ARU VK6KXW 6m FT8 14383 km 05:04:14
UR7DWW VK6KXW 6m FT8 12935 km 05:19:14
LZ2NW VK6KXW 6m FT8 12471 km 05:09:44
LZ2JA VK6KXW 6m FT8 12461 km 05:10:44
4X4DK VK6KXW 6m FT8 11174 km 05:04:44
New Zealand: I found two stations in the far north of New Zealand who managed to work the SE of Europe with distances around 17,000kms.
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
SV1DH ZL1RS 6m FT8 17309 km 04:38:11
SV5DKL ZL1RS 6m FT8 16924 km 05:03:14
SV5DKL ZL1RS 6m FT8 16924 km 05:03:14
ZL1SG SV1DH 6m FT8 17281 km 04:37:56
DX-Cluster: The cluster shows some FT8 related spots.
Spotter Freq. DX Time Info Country
DG1VL 50313.0 VK5PW 06:17 17 Jun FT8 -24dB 2584Hz Australia
IS0AWZ 50313.0 VK5SFA 06:05 17 Jun JM49<FT8>PF95 TKS Australia
F4BKV-@ 50313.0 VK5PW 05:26 17 Jun Australia
LZ1ZL-@ 50313.0 VK5BC 05:17 17 Jun TKS for QSO 73! Australia
VK3DUT-@ 50313.0 EA6Y 06:26 17 Jun -17 rx only Balearic Islands
SV1DH 50313.0 ZL1SG 04:42 17 Jun CQ EU -18DB New Zealand
SV1DH 50313.0 ZL1SG 04:42 17 Jun CQ EU -18DB New Zealand
Propagation Mode: The jury is still out on this one. What is the probability of getting 8 hops of Sporadic-E at 50 MHz? We've seen so many of these openings now that Sporadic-E is not the whole answer. I suspect it's involved at the European end for a small number of hops but something else is responsible for the bulk.
2 comments:
Hi, I was involved in this opening and managed to QSO my first VK (VK5PW, already confirmed LOTW). I listened 3 more VK5 stations during about 20 minutes but my 100w didn't made it there.
It was actually by chance, I wake up around 5h15z and my antennas were still lock to the previous evening NA opening .. so I moved them back to the "usual" morning 45deg, but when the antenna was moving and pass the 90deg (glad my rotor is kind of slow motion), then i decoded VK5BC ..otherwise i would had probably continue rotating up north and missed them !
During the time of the VK opening, no strong ES and only one A7 station heard and no others DX .. only after it closed to VK I start to listen some BY stations and then EU Es start. I also struggle to understand from where they come from and why so patchy only in PF95/PF94 area, and seem from their side it was also very localised to my area. My guess is probably these openings always exist even in bottom solar cycle, but we only able to detect them now due to FT8 and everyone been on the same qrg.
Many times I notice that these very long QSOs usually have no reception reports in the middle of the path. May be that is "evidence" of TEP playing a part. Es in the first part to enter the TEP "circuit" and then Es on the last part, after exiting the TEP...
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