Tuesday 1st June 2021: Over the last week or more, there have been openings from Europe to Japan on 50 MHz with distances in the region of 9,000kms. There was an interesting opening on the 1st of June however from Europe to the island of Guam in the Pacific.
The map above from the PSK Reporter website shows the paths that were open for KG6DX on Guam with maximum distances in the region of 12,000kms.
From a European perspective, a contact with a station out in the Pacific would be considered really good for say down on the HF bands but it's pretty amazing for 50 MHz, a VHF band.
When I checked the PSK Reporter website, I had a quick look at the last FT8 signal reports for the stations in Europe and they were generally down in the -10 to -20dB region. It looks as if maybe one or two might have possibly made a very weak CW contact while SSB would have been impossible.
That assumption is based on the available data which is limited but it does suggest that the opening was marginal.
The opening to Europe seems to have been from roughly 05:40 to 07:00 UTC.
Propagation Mode: The interesting thing about this 12,000km opening is that because everything is north of the equator, we can rule out TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation). If it was multi-hop Sporadic-E then it may have been 6 hops or so.
For something so 'sporadic', these multi-hop openings seem to be happening a lot.
The paths from stations in Europe to Guam are shown below...
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
IK0FTA KG6DX 6m FT8 12162 km 06:18:41
F5PAC KG6DX 6m FT8 12014 km 05:55:12
KG6DX IK4DRY 6m FT8 12000 km 05:55:29
I4SJZ KG6DX 6m FT8 12000 km 05:52:27
DF9TF KG6DX 6m FT8 11987 km 05:53:12
IZ7NLJ KG6DX 6m FT8 11935 km 06:49:41
IK3BNO KG6DX 6m FT8 11871 km 05:52:27
S57RR KG6DX 6m FT8 11830 km 06:15:42
S58J KG6DX 6m FT8 11769 km 05:44:11
S57TW KG6DX 6m FT8 11755 km 05:53:11
S50A KG6DX 6m FT8 11750 km 05:49:12
DK1MAX KG6DX 6m FT8 11722 km 06:39:42
KG6DX SV9CVY 6m FT8 11712 km 06:59:30
S59SV KG6DX 6m FT8 11666 km 05:55:41
S59A KG6DX 6m FT8 11614 km 06:00:11
Z37CXY KG6DX 6m FT8 11538 km 07:02:11
KG6DX 9A2DI 6m FT8 11521 km 07:00:26
YT7DX KG6DX 6m FT8 11471 km 06:22:41
YU1FW KG6DX 6m FT8 11457 km 05:44:41
YU9A KG6DX 6m FT8 11452 km 06:18:41
YT3N KG6DX 6m FT8 11436 km 06:10:14
DM5EL KG6DX 6m FT8 11401 km 05:54:14
KG6DX DL5DSM 6m FT8 11365 km 05:55:27
KG6DX HA2NP 6m FT8 11357 km 06:45:00
OK2ZAW KG6DX 6m FT8 11352 km 07:04:42
KG6DX OK2ZAW 6m FT8 11352 km 05:55:33
KG6DX HA8CE 6m FT8 11352 km 06:31:57
HA8FK KG6DX 6m FT8 11351 km 06:55:11
YO2LAM KG6DX 6m FT8 11346 km 05:39:26
HA0DU KG6DX 6m FT8 11308 km 05:52:44
SP3E KG6DX 6m FT8 11251 km 06:30:11
KG6DX SQ3RX 6m FT8 11218 km 06:19:59
SP7AWG KG6DX 6m FT8 11107 km 05:51:42
SP3RNZ KG6DX 6m FT8 11097 km 06:18:14
KG6JDX was also active and these are the stations in Europe that heard him.
S57RR 6m FT8 11825 km 04:35:30
OK2ZAW 6m FT8 11347 km 05:36:32
SP3RNZ 6m FT8 11092 km 05:49:59
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteI'm back again ... Why do you say that we can rule out TEP? I think that the TEP enhancement is probably important. TEP arises from enhanced ionisation either side of the equator (or the latitude where the sun is overhead)and is strongest around midday.We have exactly that here. The northern TEP region would be over Russia. Like Es given the right wind conditions it might propagate incoming radio waves in any direction.
Such long distances are often when midday is halfway between the two ends. So not TEP but the same enhancement (or part of it) could be significant.
73 Brian.
Hi Brian.
ReplyDeleteWhen I say it's not TEP related then it's because everything is north of the equator and the signals don't cross the geomagnetic equator in the traditional interpretation of TEP.
If we Google the word 'Trans' then in Latin it means 'across', 'beyond', 'on the other side'. Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP) is therefore defined as going across the geomagnetic equator.
Does the ionised belt in the F region to the north of the geomagnetic equator (responsible for part of the TEP path) have an impact on these signals going East-West from Guam, China, Japan to Europe? I don't know but I'm curious if it does.
I would like to know if everyone is experiencing these signals on the direct shortest path or are the paths skewed to the south.
73's de John, EI7GL