On the 16th of March 2025, there was an interesting opening on the 40 MHz (8m) band between New Zealand and the UK.
ZL28M is an 8m beacon on 40.680 MHz and is located on a hilltop on the North Island of New Zealand. It is operated by Mark, ZL2WHO and is running 10-watts into a 3-element Yagi beaming at the north of Australia which also the direction for the south of Europe. The beacon uses an RF ZERO controller and operates on FT8 and CW.
The beacon was received by Paul, G9PUV who is located in the south-east of England. The screenshot by Paul of the FT8 decodes is shown below.
Paul reports that he only got 3 decodes and that he was beaming in the general path of short path to New Zealand over the hills of the South Downs which have a 3-degree elevation.
The signals were in the region of -15dB to -19dB which means that they were weaker than what can be heard by the human ear. The time of 08:25 UTC is consistent with it being a short path opening.
Direct or skewed path??? As can be seen from map above, the direct short path from the UK to New Zealand goes well into the Arctic region. Did it really go that far north or was it skewed to a more southerly path where propagation on the low VHF bands might be more likely?
Whichever it was, it's always interesting to see such a long path like this on the 40 MHz band. At about 18810 kms, it's only about 1200 kms shy of the maximum of 20,000 before it changes to long path.
It also worth mentioning that there were some openings from New Zealand to Spain in the previous few weeks. On the 20th of February and the 12th of March 2025, Joan
EA3ERE reported reception of the ZL28M FT8 beacon. The path to the south of Europe is a lot more favourable but is still a considerable distance at 19,467 kms.
Additional info... Back on the 13th of March 2023, G9PUV and EI2IP in Ireland were heard by Bob, ZL1RS in New Zealand via long path. See previous post HERE
Also see my 40 MHz page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html
No comments:
Post a Comment