553 stations heard on 28 MHz - Fri 8th Oct 2021

Friday 8th Oct 2021: This was a really good day on the 28 MHz band with a total of 553 stations in 52 DXCC countries heard on the band.

The high number of stations was due mainly to two factors...

1) An extensive Sporadic-E opening to Europe which shows that even though we are in early October, there can still be Sp-E openings. It's not confined totally to the Summer months.

2) Good F2 layer opening especially to the eastern part of the USA. 

As always, it's the East-West propagation that it the most interesting rather than what rare stations popped up. If the maximum usable frequency (MUF) was struggling to reach 28 MHz then all of the propagation would be North-South. The fact that I'm hearing stations in the USA and Russia on 28 MHz probably means that the MUF to the south for me was up above 30 MHz and into the low VHF spectrum.

It's interesting to note the sharp cut-off of the stations in the USA at about 6500 kms. This was likely due to the limit of two F2 hops and there wasn't a third hop to go further.

For me, the most interesting station was AB6A in Oregon. Not so much because of the distance but because of the northerly path.

The solar flux on the day was at 93 which is on the way back up again.

FT8 / SSB... I know all of these reports are for FT8 signals but it just happens to be the easiest way to monitor band conditions. If you operate on SSB only then get ready for the CQWW SSB contest at the end of the month. I expect the 28 MHz band then to be excellent.