South African 8-metre beacon on 40.675 MHz heard in Greece - 6th October 2021

In a report by email, Leonidas SV2DCD in Greece informs me that he heard the ZS6WAB 8-metre beacon in South Africa on 40.675 MHz.

"Hi there John. TEP is back again on 8m band. Today me and SV8CS had copy from ZS6WAB/B 40.675mhz with peak around 16:50z best copy 539 qsb

Here is a video of my copy ZS6WAB/B @ SV2DCD via TEP 6/10/2021 16:40z 40.675mhz "

You can see a video of the reception below...

As outlined in the video title, Leonidas feels that the propagation mode was TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation). I have shown the Geomagnetic Equator in the map above and it seems to be roughly equidistant from both stations.

The distance was approximately 7,220 kms. Leonidas was using an 8-element Yagi for 50 MHz to listen to the beacon on 8m.

I also understand that the South African 40 MHz beacon has been heard in the south of Portugal in the last few days as well.

SV2DCD also reported hearing the same 40 MHz beacon in April of 2021. See previous post HERE

Now that we have concrete evidence of the 8m South African beacon being heard in Europe, hopefully others will try to have a listen and report it.

Analysis... This new 40 MHz beacon could prove very useful for serious 6-metre operators in Europe checking to see if there is a propagation path to South Africa. There is quite a jump from say 28 MHz to 50 MHz where as if the band is open at 40 MHz then 50 MHz may not be far behind.

Links...

1) My previous post about the ZS6WAB beacon

2) My 40 MHz page