Friday, September 24, 2021

Extensive opening on 28 MHz - 23rd Sept 2021


Thursday 23rd September 2021: There was a reasonably extensive opening on the 28 MHz band with FT8 signals heard from Indonesia to South Africa to Puerto Rico. There have been hints of various openings in the last week or so but this is the first time this season that it has been so extensive.

A total of 139 stations were heard with a combination of some Sporadic-E from around Europe and F2 propagation further afield.

The most unusual signal was D60AC on the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean.

DX Stations over 4000kms...

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
YB1TQL 10m FT8 12255 km 15:18:44
PY5JO 10m FT8 9472 km 15:00:14
ZS6AF 10m FT8 9411 km 10:27:29
PY2THO 10m FT8 9100 km 14:54:44
PY2EBD 10m FT8 9084 km 14:55:14
PY2RSA 10m FT8 9073 km 14:46:59
PY4EV 10m FT8 8682 km 14:49:29
D60AC 10m FT8 8621 km 11:45:44
5Z4VJ 10m FT8 7260 km 12:43:44
WP4G 10m FT8 6211 km 16:45:44
9G5FI 10m FT8 5197 km 17:59:59
4Z5ML 10m FT8 4107 km 11:16:29

All of these were heard with a simple CB vertical half-wave antenna.

The solar flux was 90 which is on the way back up again, it had dropped down to 73 a week earlier.

As it's only the end of September, it is still very early in terms of real DX. I suspect once we get to November, we might see some really interesting openings on the 10m band.

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