Overnight opening on 28 MHz from Europe to the W coast of the USA - 14th Jan 2022

At present, nearly all of the openings on the 28 MHz band are during the daylight hours. The solar flux is roughly around the 100-120 mark and there are some F2 layer openings during daylight hours. There is also some mid-Winter Sporadic-E at times but again, this is during daylight hours.

14th January 2022: At about 22:30 to 22:45 UTC, Tom SP5XMU in Poland was one of those who caught an opening to the west coast of the USA on the 28 MHz band. For Tom, this would have been around 11:30 PM.

This is highly unusual and worth noting. It's about 7 hours after the sun has set in Poland so it can't be easily explained the position of the sun and it is also a very northerly path.

At the bottom of this post, I have the FT8 log for SP5XMU for this opening and it shows that there was an opening to Scandinavia at the same time from Poland.

Tom wasn't the only person to catch this opening. Further down this post, I have a list of spots from European stations of US stations on 28 MHz. It suggests that the main opening lasted from about 19:30 to 23:15 UTC.

Auroral-E: It is probably no accident that this opening from Poland to the USA coincided with an aurora and a high k-index of 5-6.

It wasn't the typical 'aurora' where signals are spread out and distorted. After all, digital FT8 signals were being decoded. Instead, it was likely to have been auroral-e propagation.

Distance: However, the distance from SP5XMU to the stations on the west coast of the USA was in the region of 9,000kms.  Aurora-E as the name suggests forms in the E layer of the ionosphere and the maximum range from one hop would be in the range of 2000-2300 kms.

That leaves a huge gap of about 7000kms in the path to the USA. 

How did the signal get from Europe to the west coast of the USA? 

Multi-hop auroral-E? 

Some form of chordal hop auroral-E? 

Did it couple into some ordinary Sporadic-E or F2 layer at the western end of the path?

I've seen a lot of people just explain it away as 'Auroral-E' but it's more complex than that. That's what makes this type of opening so interesting.

50 MHz: I checked the DX cluster and I could see no spots for an opening from North America to Europe on that band.

DX-Cluster spots for European stations spotting the USA on the 28 MHz band...

MM0TFU 28200 W6WX/B 23:15 14 Jan 22 IO75QH<F2>CM97BD 419 United States

MM1BMK 28448 K5GKC 23:12 14 Jan 22 John Texas 5/6 United States

MM1BMK 28465 K7QXG 23:07 14 Jan 22 Rob 5/5 Oregon United States

G0FWX-@ 28434 KF4IRE 22:43 14 Jan 22 United States

OG2M 28440.5 K7SS 22:39 14 Jan 22 59+10 United States

SM3RAB-@ 28440.5 K7SS 22:38 14 Jan 22 Great signal to Scandinavia! United States

GI4SNA 28074 W7APM 22:38 14 Jan 22 FT8 -06dB from CN88 2031Hz United States

DG7LAZ 28440.5 K7SS 22:36 14 Jan 22 Seattle 5.5 ufb United States

LA9NKA 28434 KF4IRE 22:35 14 Jan 22 JP20QD<AUE>CN84MW 5/2 CQ United States

EI6JK 28440.4 K7SS 22:34 14 Jan 22 United States

M0WHC 28074 W7APM 22:26 14 Jan 22 FT8 -13dB from CN88 2023Hz United States

OG7J-@ 28440.6 K7SS 22:26 14 Jan 22 Aurora, 57 in Finland United States

DO5NU 28440.5 K7SS 22:24 14 Jan 22 tnx United States

LA9NKA 28440.5 K7SS 22:22 14 Jan 22 JP20QD<AUE>CN87TN 5/5 tnx qso United States

MM1BMK 28377 KB0DWI 22:22 14 Jan 22 Gary Colorado 5/7 United States

DL4EEC 28440.5 K7SS 22:13 14 Jan 22 57 in Germany , tnx QSO United States

MM0TFU 28440.5 K7SS 22:11 14 Jan 22 IO75QH<>CN87TN Tnx QSO United States

MM1BMK 28425 KC4TVZ 22:06 14 Jan 22 Todd cq cq United States

RA1AMW 28017 K7SS 21:58 14 Jan 22 KP40UM<>CN87TN CQ DX United States

OZ6CM 28016.9 K7SS 21:56 14 Jan 22 TU United States

OH2FQV 28074.5 N3QQ 21:56 14 Jan 22 Tu Vy! 73 United States

SM6NZA 28025.7 K7SS 21:51 14 Jan 22 CQ United States

LA1MFA-@ 28025.6 K7SS 21:47 14 Jan 22 tnx qso Dan United States

DO1LR 28074 K7BTW 21:42 14 Jan 22 +02db in North Germany United States

MM0ZBH 28017.4 N5RZ 21:41 14 Jan 22 cq from TX United States

OZ3K-@ 28075.5 NW7M 21:36 14 Jan 22 FT8 JO45tl<>CN87 -14dB 100W tnx United States

OZ3K-@ 28075 N7RO 21:33 14 Jan 22 FT8 JO45tl<>CN88 -13dB 100W tnx United States

MM0ZBH 28026 K5BG 21:30 14 Jan 22 Bob in Texas United States

OZ3K-@ 28075.7 KB7AK 21:29 14 Jan 22 FT8 JO45tl<>CN85 -13dB 100W tnx United States

SM7OJH-@ 28020 N7QT 21:17 14 Jan 22 UFB SIGS ROB. TNX FB QSO United States

RN3QBG 28020 N7QT 21:13 14 Jan 22 579 United States

MM0TFU 28400 KF0FND 21:12 14 Jan 22 IO75QH<>DN91OC Tnx QSO United States

G0FWX-@ 28074 K7BTW 21:11 14 Jan 22 United States

OH2FQV 28075.8 AA4VT 21:05 14 Jan 22 oh wow! tu vy! 73 United States

OH5TS 28025.1 AD4EB 21:01 14 Jan 22 CW United States

SP2IQW 28074 K7BTW 20:56 14 Jan 22 JO94<>CN86 United States

SM3YBP 28074.8 WC3W 20:55 14 Jan 22 United States

MM1BMK 28400 KF0FND 20:53 14 Jan 22 Rick Nebraska 5/5 United States

SM3YBP 28074.8 W4CHA 20:50 14 Jan 22 United States

SM3YBP 28074.8 N1UK 20:44 14 Jan 22 United States

SM3YBP 28074.8 KN4PPD 20:42 14 Jan 22 United States

SM3YBP 28074.8 WD4C 20:41 14 Jan 22 United States

LA9NKA 28298 K5TLL 20:32 14 Jan 22 JP20QD<AUE>DM15 CW BCN 559 United States

SM3YBP 28074.8 W4ILJ 20:22 14 Jan 22 United States

SM3YBP 28074.8 W1RH 20:17 14 Jan 22 United States

OH7KB 28074.6 W6JGR 19:26 14 Jan 22 United States

FT8 log for SP5XMU from the PSK Reporter website...USA stations in Bold

 Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
K7BTW SP5XMU 10m FT8 8459 km 22:28:57
W7FN SP5XMU 10m FT8 8254 km 22:28:57
SP5XMU LA6MNA 10m FT8 1561 km 22:29:44
N6DNU SP5XMU 10m FT8 9139 km 22:29:56
SP5XMU LA1JFA 10m FT8 1571 km 22:30:11
W7CT SP5XMU 10m FT8 8689 km 22:31:59
WB6JJJ SP5XMU 10m FT8 8630 km 22:32:26
W7TZ SP5XMU 10m FT8 8876 km 22:33:26
SP5XMU LA9VFA 10m FT8 2053 km 22:33:44
SP5XMU DJ9PC 10m FT8 739 km 22:34:15
K7OVM SP5XMU 10m FT8 8610 km 22:37:44
K6VVK SP5XMU 10m FT8 9418 km 22:40:41
AH0U SP5XMU 10m FT8 9354 km 22:40:41
N7LAN SP5XMU 10m FT8 8768 km 22:44:11
SP5OAB SP5XMU 10m FT8 29 km 23:02:11
OH8WW SP5XMU 10m FT8 1387 km 23:04:11
OH6HOW SP5XMU 10m FT8 1185 km 23:07:11
SP5XMU OH8HHP 10m FT8 1395 km 23:09:14
SP5XMU SM2UHF 10m FT8 1542 km 23:10:41
SP5XMU LA9AJA 10m FT8 1361 km 23:10:44
SP5XMU LB5GI 10m FT8 1443 km 23:11:41
SP2XF SP5XMU 10m FT8 123 km 23:19:11
SM2UHF SP5XMU 10m FT8 1542 km 23:19:59
LB5GI SP5XMU 10m FT8 1443 km 23:27:56
SP5XMU LA3WJA 10m FT8 1411 km 23:29:11
SP5XMU LA9KY 10m FT8 1635 km 23:32:26
SP5XMU LA5WJA 10m FT8 1449 km 23:32:30
SP5XMU G4SGX 10m FT8 1327 km 23:33:56
SP5XMU DH8BAT 10m FT8 822 km 23:33:59
SP5XMU DH8GV 10m FT8 912 km 23:34:26
SP5XMU LA7DFA 10m FT8 1455 km 23:34:59
SP5XMU LA2XPA 10m FT8 1449 km 23:34:59
SP5XMU GI6ATZ 10m FT8 1791 km 23:38:56
SP5XMU SM2GHI 10m FT8 1533 km 23:40:15
LA5WJA SP5XMU 10m FT8 1449 km 00:06:14
SM3XGV SP5XMU 10m FT8 1021 km 00:08:41
SM5EPO SP5XMU 10m FT8 904 km 00:08:44