Back on the 30th of October 2021, there was a nice TEP opening on the new 40 MHz band between South Africa and Spain.
Joan, EA3ERE reports that he heard the ZS6WAB beacon on 40.675 MHz using an ICOM IC-7300 and a dipole for the HF bands. The distance was almost 8000kms.
Joan kindly sent on a video of the reception and it's shown below...
Galway Radio Club have just released their Winter 2021 edition of their annual newsletter and as always, it's packed full of interesting features.
It literally covers the whole spectrum going from a 5-element beam for the 80m band to WiFi interference in the microwave bands.
You can view the PDF document HERE
For a free publication, a lot of work has obviously gone into compiling it and it a credit to what is a small radio club.
I have links to the 2019 and 2020 editions below.
The Baofeng UV-5R is a hugely popular handheld radio covering both the 144 and 432 MHz bands and is usually available for a very low price.
It is also well known for not being the cleanest of radios transmit wise with many spurs which aren't that far below the fundamental signal which can be a potential source of interference to other services.
On the 24th of November 2021, the German authorities announced a ban on sale of this radio.
Will a EU wide ban follow??
From Google translate...
For a change, I listened to the much more active FT8 frequency on 28 MHz and and the map for the day is shown above. There are some DX signals in there including Australia and Thailand but I wouldn't say conditions were particularly good.
I heard a few Sporadic-E signals from western Europe but most of the stations heard were via F2 propagation. You can clearly see the first hop F2 signals going from the south of Italy, though Greece and up to the Ukraine and Russia.
The solar flux was 84 which is low enough as the sun seems to have lost a bit of its recent sunspot activity.
Even though I don't use FT8 for making contacts, I find it to be a very useful tool in that it can give me a very good idea of what band conditions are like after listening for just a few minutes.
Hayden, VK7HH recently released this video which might be of interest to anyone new to the mode.
21st November 2021: Back in October, I had intended to publish a post about reception of a FM radio station on 93.1 MHz in Columbia by Alejandro, CE3VRT in Santiago, Chile. The distance was 5000kms and the propagation mode was TEP - Trans-Equatorial Propagation.
I was so busy, I forgot to publish it and it remained as a draft! The post is now shown below for the 20th of October 2021.
What reminded me of this was that CE3VRT heard the same radio station again on 93.1 MHz but this time the TEP signals were so strong, he was able to hear them with just the telescopic whip on his TecSun PL398.
Yesterday was a strong FMDX opening vía TEP, I picked "La mega" with a Tecsun PL398 and only it's telescopic antenna. Almost ~5000km from Barranquilla, Colombia to Santiago, Chile. pic.twitter.com/2xSKLuXaBu
— Alejandro (@NautilusCL) November 22, 2021
Back in October, Alejandro was using a log periodic directional antenna outdoors on a mast to hear the signals but to hear FM radio signals on 93.1 MHz on the VHF FM band from 5000kms away with just a telescopic whip is really amazing.
20th October 2021: Recepción FM DX via TEP (muy fuerte) "La Mega" 93.1Mhz Colombia, desde Stgo, Chile. Reception of 'La Mega' radio station in Colombia on 93.1 MHz by CE3VRT in Chile
"TEP opening (trans-equatorial propagation) very strong and somewhat short. The station tuned is "La Mega" from Barranquilla, Colombia, reception in the southern zone of Santiago de Chile (~ 5000km) using an Airspy HF + dual port and a logarithmic directional antenna for TV / FM."
Reception on Wednesday, October 20, starting at 21:30 PM local time (Oct 21 - 00:30 UTC)
The good news is that the repeater has been upgraded and is currently on test at a site near Bundoran in the south of Donegal.
It is currently running 25 watts and it is hoped to upgrade that to 50 watts in a few weeks time.
The eventual plan is to put the repeater back up on Truskmore, a 647 metre high mountain in the NE of Co Sligo sometime in 2022.
Details of the FM repeater...
Reports to EI5IMB.
The first 40 MHz permit WL2XUP near Atlanta was issued back in June of 2021. See this previous post.
The second permit WL2XZQ near Houston was issued in August. See this previous post.
As of mid November 2021, there are now seven experimental permits for the 40 MHz and these are shown on the map above and in the list below. An eight from Alabama is pending.
The permit allows for experiments in the frequency range of 40.660 to 40.700 MHz which is the 40 MHz ISM band (Industrial, Scientific, Medical).
The permits allow ERP powers in the region of 100-400 watts and the license lasts for two years.
Propagation: If you examine the map above, you'll note that the distances between the various experimenters.
For example, take WM2XCS in New Jersey. He is 950kms from WM2XAN, 1200kms from WL2XUP and 2250kms from WL2XZQ.
WL2XZQ in Houston is 1800kms from WM2XAN.
WM2XCC in California is 2100kms from WL2XZQ, 3050kms from the stations near Atlanta, 1800kms from WM2XCW.
WM2XCW is the far north-west of Washington state is 3150kms from Houston and 3900kms from New Jersey.
It is highly unlikely that tropospheric propagation will contribute much to the experiments. The distances for aircraft scatter are also likely to be too far. Some in the 500-1200km range may manage to complete contacts with digital modes like MSK144 with meteor scatter.
The real workhorse on the 40 MHz band is going to be Sporadic-E. There may be a few openings over the next few months but things will really get going at the end of April 2022. At that stage, the experimental stations will have had time to get their radios and antennas ready for the band and I'd expect that contacts in the range of 800 to about 2200 kms will be common with something in the region of 1700kms being the most common distance.
In the second half of May 2022, double hop Sporadic-E openings will become more common and at that stage, contacts from the west coast to the eastern half of the USA should be possible.
Crossband: Just like in Europe, there are likely to be crossband contacts from 40 MHz to 28 MHz and from 40 MHz to 50 MHz with those who cannot transmit on the 8m band.
Someone doesn't need an special 40 MHz permit to take part in the experiments. The experimental stations are likely to be using SSB, CW, FT8 and WSPR and I'm sure they would like to make as many crossband contacts as possible as well as receiving any reports of their transmissions.
Analysis: It's great to to this surge in interest in the 40 MHz band in the USA. The 8m band is NOT just another band. It is halfway between the 28 MHz and 50 MHz bands and it can be useful for exploring just how high the maximum usable frequency (MUF) goes as the solar activity increases as we head towards the sunspot maximum.
For example, it would be interesting to know what kind of solar flux/sunspot number is required before there are east-west openings between say California and the eastern part of the United States.
It would be really nice if some stations in South America were able to listen on the 40 MHz band and then try to complete some crossband TEP contacts with experimental stations in the southern states of the USA.
Wednesday 17th November 2021: I noticed some tropo signals on Band 2 (88-108 MHz) this afternoon and I spent a while doing a scan of the band.
The biggest problem is that I can hear around 75 signals on the band under flat conditions and that doesn't leave many gaps on the band for distant signals to come through.
I did hear four stations that were certainly via tropo propagation with distances ranging from 167 to 281 kms.
Wednesday 10th November 2021: There are so many signals on FT8 on the 28 MHz band at the moment, it's almost got too easy. It seems I'm happiest when the band is barely open at sunspot minimum! 😂
I really don't have much interest in making any DX contacts so I like to have the occasional trawl through the beacon band to see what's coming through.
It was nice to hear the CW beacon from Hong Kong (VR2B) this morning on 28.200 MHz. As the image above shows, this is part of the IARU International Beacon Project.
I spotted the beacon on the DX Cluster as did F4CXO in France.
Tuesday 9th November 2021: I did a scan of the 28 MHz band this morning and I heard all of the five Greek beacons on the band.
My DX Cluster spots from the morning...
Sunday 7th November 2021: Over the last two weeks or so, I have 'heard' plenty of signals from Australia on the 28 MHz band... 'heard' as in my PC decoded FT8 and WSPR signals that may well have been buried in the noise.
I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I did a scan of the beacon portion of the 10m band and came across the VK8VF beacon near Darwin in the north of Australia.
As you can see from the image above, it is on 28.268 MHz and the signal was 419 at max with me.
There is something special about listening to a CW signal from Australia on 28 MHz and knowing that my antenna is just a simple vertical half-wave.
The map above shows some of the stations that have spotted the VK8VF 10m beacon on the DX Cluster in the last 30 days using the proper locator format.
As can be seen, the distance is in the region of 14,000kms.
The map above shows the reports from the PSK Reporter website...
TEP Reports: Paul, G7PUV on the SE coast of England (JO00AU) writes... "Willem ZS6WAB has been on 40.675MHz today using FT8 but I was surprised to get some decodes from him around 1500UTC. The path length is around 8800KM and his peak signal was -10dB although I've listened back to my IQ recording and it was strong enough to hear quite clearly.
I think it's the first FT8 reception from South Africa in the UK on 40MHz, and presumably all TEP as I had no reception towards EA/CT/I on 10 or 6 to suggest mixed mode."
 |
| Reception of ZS6WAB by G7PUV |
Thomas, DF6HT in the NE of Germany (JO63BT) writes... "Hi all, today received for the first time a signal on 40.675, around 8minutes long was the call from ZS6WAB who called there CQ, received here on a 15m sw vertical For me a sign to check sometimes this qrg for some action, and also a sign that North DL also have a chance to work on that interesting band! 73s from Thomas, DF6HT"
TEP Analysis: Paul is using a log periodic antenna for the low VHF bands. I suspect that there may have been one Sporadic-E hop from G7PUV to the north of Africa where the signals were coupled into the TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) path to ZS6WAB.
It was probably the same for Thomas in Germany with one Sporadic-E opening to the south.
The problem in Europe is that there can be an excellent Sporadic-E opening to the south but as there are no stations in the north of Africa ,we hear nothing and think the band is closed.
Sporadic-E in Europe: There was also a very good Sporadic-E opening in Europe on the day as can be seen from the report below and the report from
DX-Cluster Spots for the day...
5th Nov 2021: Back at the end of August 2021, the OZ7IGY 8m beacon on 40.071 MHz had to be turned off due to a faulty trimmer in the power amplifier stage.
At the end of October 2021, it was turned back on after the faulty part was replaced.
It has since been reported on the DX Cluster...
Spotter Freq. DX Time Info Country
As can be seen from the reports, EA3ERE near Barcelona heard the beacon via Sporadic-E propagation at a distance of about 1660 kms.
The website for the beacon is here... http://www.oz7igy.dk/
The map above for HI8DL in the Dominican Republic and WP4KJJ in Puerto Rico shows some of the contacts that were made.
Most of the contacts were made with the Q65 digital mode as opposed to the usual FT8. The spots below from the DX Cluster shows some activity on CW as well.
Spotter Freq. DX Time Info Country
LU2DPW-@ 144180.0 HI8DL 00:45 03 Nov TKS Q65B QSO Dominican Republic
LU5CQC 144180.0 WP4KJJ 00:20 03 Nov Q65 15S SUB B TEP Puerto Rico
LU5CQC 144180.0 HI8DL 00:19 03 Nov Q65 15S SUB B TEP Dominican Republic
PY5EK 144180.0 WP4KJJ 23:42 02 Nov Q65B -3 dB 1362 Hz TNX TEP Puerto Rico
LW2DAF 144180.0 WP4KJJ 23:41 02 Nov CQ Q65B 15s Puerto Rico
LU7DW-@ 144300.0 HI8DL 23:36 02 Nov GF05sh<TEP>FK58al CW Dominican Republic
Monday 1st November 2021: The was a nice Sporadic-E opening on this day and extended in frequency at least as high as the 40 MHz band.
Christian, F4CXO in the east of France heard the two Irish 40 MHz beacons and managed to complete a 40 MHz to 50 MHz crossband contact on SSB with Lloyd, EI7HBB.
I got tired of monitoring FT8 signals on the 28 MHz band so I switched over to WSPR for a change. While I was listening during the morning, I heard an unusual signal on SSB.
It sounds like a slightly rough tone that lasts for about 7 seconds, stops for 1 second and then restarts as a different tone for another 10 seconds.
It then turns off for a second and the cycle starts again. The whole process seems to last for about 2-3 minutes.
The waterfall display above from the WSJT-X programme shows that the tones are in fact composed of several distinct frequencies.
It is not an amateur radio signal and I am assuming that it might be some sort of military OTHR (Over The Horizon Radar) signal but I have no idea about it's source?
Others must have heard this signal, anyone have any idea about its source???
Update: It looks as if this is Over The Horizon Radar (OTHR) from Iran.
"Ghadir, is an Iranian over the horizon radar Ghadir is a 360°, 3D-radar, with a ceiling of 300 km, and a maximum range of 1,100 km. You can hear a high and a low tone, corresponding to the sweep rates of 870 and 307 sweeps/sec. sent in two separated bursts."
Info... https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/%27Ghadir%27_OTH_Radar
This video from YouTube from IZ0KBA shows what it sounds like...
I recorded a total of 1164 stations in 78 DXCC countries on FT8 which is really good. It seems to have been mainly due to a very good Sporadic-E opening to Western Europe as well as a very good F2 layer opening to the eastern half of the USA, South America and the eastern part of Europe. It probably helped that it was a Sunday and many people were off.
I had a quick listen to the SSB portion of the band and there were plenty of signals. It was nice to hear some CW beacons just below 28.3 MHz coming in from the USA for a change.
The solar flux was 103.
