F2 opening on the 50 MHz band across the North Atlantic - 27th Nov 2023

As we approach the peak of the solar cycle, things are beginning to improve on the 50 MHz (6m) band with some F2 layer propagation appearing.

In general, north - south openings are the first to occur on the 6m band as the conditions improve in the F2 layer of the ionosphere. You'll see reports of openings from the Europe to South Africa and from North America to South America. Nice openings but nothing to get too excited about.

The openings to watch out for are the east-west ones from more northerly latitudes. These paths are much more difficult so it was interesting to see an opening on the 27th of November 2023 from the north-west of Europe to North America.

The image above shows the FT8 paths for EI7BMB near Dublin and it's an example of what the opening was like. It's likely that the path from Ireland to Newfoundland was the only single F2 hop. All of the other longer paths required at least two hops.

The most westerly station was W5LDA in Oklohoma.

The image above shows the 6m paths for K1TOL in the state of Maine. The most interesting paths here are the most northerly ones with an opening to the north of Denmark and the south of Sweden.

The solar flux on the day was 187. This isn't going to be a one-off and there should be plenty more east-west openings on the 50 MHz band across the North Atlantic over the next few weeks. Check around 13:00 to 16:00 UTC.

It'll be interesting to see over the next few weeks if there are any openings from the west coast of the USA to the north of Europe.