Saturday 19th March 2022: I was checking my 28 MHz log for WSPR when I noticed that I had heard the Canadian Arctic Research Station VY0ERC.
What is unusual about this is that the station is located on Ellesmere Island at 80 degrees north in the Canadian Arctic and this was on 28 MHz, not one of the lower HF bands.
In the last 5 weeks, it has only been heard on 28 MHz by 3 stations in the direction of Europe.
2022-03-19 15:58 VY0ERC ER60tb GM4VAC IO77xm 28.126127 0.2 -25 -3 3615
2022-03-19 15:38 VY0ERC ER60tb GM4VAC IO77xm 28.126062 0.2 -18 -3 3615
2022-03-19 15:18 VY0ERC ER60tb GM4VAC IO77xm 28.126089 0.2 -18 -3 3615
2022-03-19 14:58 VY0ERC ER60tb EA8BFK IL38bo 28.126176 0.2 -3 0 6545
2022-03-19 14:38 VY0ERC ER60tb EA8BFK IL38bo 28.1261 0.2 -3 -3 6545
2022-03-19 13:58 VY0ERC ER60tb EI7GL IO51tu 28.12604 0.2 -22 -3 4134
Station details... Eureka, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. VY0ERC is currently operating out of the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) Ridge Laboratory (RidgeLab) located on top of the hill at 80 degrees 3 minutes N and 86 degrees 25 minutes W at 600 m.a.s.l.
The WSPR station was running just 200 milliwatts which makes it even more remarkable.
There are a few things that make this reception report unusual.
1) It was on 28 MHz and it's not usual to hear signals from so far north. The solar flux on the day was only 94 and most propagation paths are much closer to the equator.
2) The distance for me was 4,134 kms which suggests perhaps it was F2 propagation? If it was due to other propagation modes closer to the E layer than multiple hops would be required.
3) No distortion. Signals going across the polar regions tend to have an auroral flutter, something that is not conducive to WSPR.
4) Why the lack of stations hearing the signal in Europe? Why only two in the UK and Ireland?
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