40 MHz band report - 19th Feb 2023

Sunday 19th February 2023: Due to interference on 10m from the ARRL CW contest, I switched over to the 40 MHz from about noon onwards and had left the radio monitoring 40.680 MHz for the rest of the day. As shown above, I heard three new stations for me... WM2XAN in the USA, VA2CY in Canada and 4X1BG in Israel.

These are my FT8 reception reports for the day in order of distance.

 Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC) SNR
WM2XAN 8m FT8 5472 km 18:01:11 -18
VA2CY 8m FT8 4426 km 17:50:26 -10
4X1BG 8m FT8 4076 km 15:14:29 -13
G9PUV 8m FT8 594 km 17:19:11 -19
EI4GNB 8m FT8 214 km 17:29:42 -18
EI4GEB 8m FT8 79 km 20:56:48 2
EI2IP 8m FT8 62 km 18:02:12 -10
EI9FVB 8m FT8 14 km 15:50:42 20

This was just a very small part of the activity on the 40 MHz band for the day with many FT8 reports exchanged across the North Atlantic and from South Africa to Europe. 

What really stood out for me was just how many stations in Europe are now listening on the 40 MHz band. The image above shows the stations in Europe reporting reception of ZS6OB on FT8.

It's worth remembering that there is no DXCC, no awards, no grid square hunting, no DX-peditions on the 40 MHz band, this is just people curious about propagation conditions on this low-VHF band.

The image above shows stations in Europe reporting reception of VA2CY in Canada on 40.680 MHz. Notice the relatively large number of stations in the UK and Ireland.

I have included a list of stations that heard VA2CY below if you want to have a look. For more information on the 8m band, have a look at my 40 MHz page.

Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC) SNR
SV1DH 8m FT8 7354 km 14:58:44 -11
S50B 8m FT8 6177 km 15:03:41 -16
DF6HT 8m FT8 5602 km 17:16:56 -15
SM7FJE 8m FT8 5589 km 17:40:56 -17
DL5WP 8m FT8 5406 km 14:46:29 -7
F5VLY 8m FT8 5385 km 16:48:56 -12
F1GTU 8m FT8 5336 km 17:50:26 -20
NL8992 8m FT8 5334 km 15:44:59 -19
PE1ITR 8m FT8 5320 km 17:13:26 -20
OZ4VV 8m FT8 5295 km 17:34:59 -18
PC5C 8m FT8 5292 km 17:45:26 -18
EA8/DF4UE 8m FT8 5285 km 17:53:45 -12
OZ4VV/SWL 8m FT8 5285 km 17:17:58 -19
F1SCR 8m FT8 5275 km 14:58:41 -12
EA1HRR 8m FT8 5163 km 17:26:59 -16
LA3EQ/1 8m FT8 5043 km 17:16:59 -19
LA3EQ 8m FT8 5043 km 15:32:56 -15
G7PUV/A 8m FT8 5014 km 17:30:00 -16
G9PUV 8m FT8 5010 km 17:40:29 -11
G0LFF 8m FT8 4994 km 15:32:58 -16
G4IFX 8m FT8 4944 km 17:40:28 -17
G8TTI 8m FT8 4844 km 17:37:56 -16
WESSEXSDR 8m FT8 4844 km 16:48:15 -14
G8JNJ 8m FT8 4840 km 17:32:56 -15
M0CTP 8m FT8 4839 km 14:47:58 -18
G0KTN 8m FT8 4833 km 17:24:00 -19
G0HVQ 8m FT8 4812 km 17:45:56 -17
G8BQR/OWRX 8m FT8 4809 km 17:26:45 -18
G1SDX 8m FT8 4795 km 17:42:59 -13
G0CER 8m FT8 4759 km 17:41:29 -16
G3WCS 8m FT8 4744 km 15:49:59 -18
G3TDJ 8m FT8 4726 km 15:16:30 -18
G7RAU 8m FT8 4707 km 17:54:26 -19
G7SWL 8m FT8 4693 km 15:28:59 -20
GW4VXE 8m FT8 4636 km 17:31:26 -18
GM0SXQ 8m FT8 4598 km 17:48:59 -20
GD6ICR 8m FT8 4577 km 17:48:59 -21
EI4GNB 8m FT8 4523 km 17:40:29 -2
EI6IKB 8m FT8 4516 km 17:43:29 -19
EI5HHB 8m FT8 4516 km 17:29:59 -15
MM0AMW 8m FT8 4479 km 15:28:29 0
EI7GL 8m FT8 4426 km 17:50:26 -10
EI9FVB 8m FT8 4411 km 15:47:26 -14
EI4GEB 8m FT8 4390 km 17:37:56 -7
EI9KP 8m FT8 4316 km 17:49:56 -18
EI7IX 8m FT8 4287 km 17:44:29 -10