Opening on the 40 MHz band from Michigan to Georgia & Florida - 11th Jan 2022

11th January 2022: In an earlier post, I explained how the first contact between two of the new experimental 40 MHz stations in the USA took place on the 9th of January 2022.

Roughly 48 hours later, the band opened up again with much better conditions.

It starts on the 10th of January with N2OTO in Florida reporting reception of the 40 MHz FT8 signal from WM2XAN in Michigan, a distance of roughly 2040kms. The time was 21:15 UTC which would have been 4:15 PM in the afternoon in Florida.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
WM2XAN N2OTO 8m FT8 2039 km 21:15:00

Later in the evening, there was an opening after 11pm local time between WM2XEJ in Georgia and WM3XAN in Michigan. This was around 04:15 UTC on the 11th of January.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

WM2XEJ WM2XAN 8m FT4 1226 km 04:14:58

The two experimental stations then proceeded to complete contacts on FT8, Q64A, FST4, FT4 and SSB over a 20 minute period on 40.662 MHz.

Ken Miller WM2XAN in Michigan gives the following report on his Facebook account... "At about 03:45 conditions between WM2XAN and WM2XEJ began to develop.  First noticed on WSPR, we switched to FT8 and although there was a struggle at first to complete the QSO, it finally happened as conditions began to peak.  Then we began to switch through the modes and making contacts. 

04:02 completed QSO on FT8

04:05 completed QSO on Q64A

04:09 completed QSO on FST4-12s

04:15 completed QSO on FT4

04:22 completed QSO on SSB

 

This was a long lasting event, with big signals at the beginning and end of the session, with a relatively quick null in the propagation at the mid point of our QSO’s. "

Ken also reports using an ICOM IC-7300 for his 40 MHz experiments.

WSPR... There were also several WSPR reports and it looks like this is becoming the mode of choice for beacon experiments on the 40 MHz band in North America.

These are the stations that heard WM2XAN in Michigan...

Interesting to see VE1PYE was listening from Nova Scotia.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km

2022-01-10 21:44 WM2XAN EN74 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663894 0.5 -14 -4 2063

2022-01-10 21:52 WM2XAN EN74 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663895 0.5 -15 -4 2063

2022-01-10 22:08 WM2XAN EN74 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663894 0.5 -16 -4 2063

2022-01-10 22:14 WM2XAN EN74 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663894 0.5 -18 -4 2063

2022-01-11 01:20 WM2XAN EN74 K8HTL EN74oh 40.663499 100 -4 0 27

2022-01-11 02:56 WM2XAN EN74 VE1PYE FN84et 40.66347 100 -18 0 1690

2022-01-11 02:58 WM2XAN EN74 VE1PYE FN84et 40.663466 100 -17 0 1690

2022-01-11 06:20 WM2XAN EN74oh WM2XEJ EM83ji 40.663487 100 -22 -4 1226

Outside of K8HTL which is Ken's own amateur radio call, the rest of the signals are typical for one-hop Sporadic-E.

These are the stations that heard WM2XEJ in Georgia...

It's curious to see that there were three reports from KC5LT at 348 kms. Mode of propagation?? Tropo? aircraft scatter? Meteor scatter? It seems to be a bit too close of Sporadic-E. 

It's a bit like some of the signals in that range on the 28 MHz band, it can be hard to be sure exactly sure of the propagation mode unless you're sitting at the radio and you use other clues.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km 

2022-01-11 03:28 WM2XEJ EM83 WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663458 10 -11 0 1214

2022-01-11 05:56 WM2XEJ EM83 WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663462 10 -25 1 1214

2022-01-11 06:04 WM2XEJ EM83 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663453 10 4 0 841

2022-01-11 06:04 WM2XEJ EM83 WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663462 10 -10 0 1214

2022-01-11 06:18 WM2XEJ EM83 WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663462 10 -11 0 1214

2022-01-11 06:22 WM2XEJ EM83ji WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663466 10 -6 -2 1226

2022-01-11 14:24 WM2XEJ EM83ji KC5LT EM86 40.663454 10 -21 -1 348

2022-01-11 15:00 WM2XEJ EM83ji KC5LT EM86 40.663453 100 -21 -3 348

2022-01-11 15:04 WM2XEJ EM83ji KC5LT EM86 40.663454 100 -21 1 348

While none of the above is ground breaking propagation wise, it is never the less a first for these experimental 40 MHz stations in the USA.

Link...

1) For more info on the 8m band, check out my 40 MHz page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html