Big opening on 28 MHz - 30th Oct 2021

Saturday 30th October 2021: As can be seen from the map above, this was a really good day on the 28 MHz band with  total of 634 stations in 59 DXCC countries heard on FT8.

The signals ranged from Australia to the East to California to the West. The solar flux was at 107.

A total of 7 stations from Australia were heard.

 Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
VK3GA 10m FT8 17435 km 09:40:59
VK3AXI 10m FT8 17299 km 09:22:59
VK4CAG 10m FT8 16889 km 09:41:59
VK6RK 10m FT8 15064 km 12:17:59
VK6XN 10m FT8 15056 km 12:24:44
VK6AS 10m FT8 15053 km 12:19:29
VK6MIT 10m FT8 15043 km 07:18:29

It's worth pointing out that these signals were heard with just a vertical CB type half-wave antenna and not a beam on a tower.

Notes...

1) No sign of Japan or the NW coast of the USA. Conditions were good but not that good.

2) 634 stations heard on FT8 despite the fact that one of the largest SSB contests was going on at the same time. A lot of people don't like contests and in the past, they might have avoided using the radio this weekend because it would appear as if there was nothing but contest stations running kilowatts on the band. 

Now with FT8, they can get on the air and make contacts. Not everyone likes FT8 either but at least it's a real option for a contest weekend.

3) Big gap again down the middle of Europe showing where the shorter range Sporadic-E signals end and the longer range F2 signals start. At about 12:00 UTC, I looked at the map of what was heard in the last 6 six hours and nearly all of the Sporadic-E signals from Western Europe were missing i.e. proving that the signals from Eastern Europe are via F2 layer propagation and not some sort of double hop Sporidic-E.