Good opening to South Africa on the 40 MHz band - 21st Jan 2023

Saturday the 21st of January 2023 was another busy day on the 40 MHz (8m) band with plenty of activity. I picked out a few notable paths.

South Africa (ZS)... There were three ZS stations on the band... ZSWAB, ZS6OB & ZS4TX. They accounted for some of the longest paths seen on the day.

Here is a list of the longest FT8 paths as reported on the PSK Reporter website...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
ZS6OB K9MU 8m FT8 14292 km 15:04:29
ZS6WAB WB0DBQ 8m FT8 14273 km 15:24:59
ZS6WAB K9MU 8m FT8 14252 km 15:38:59
ZS6WAB KA9CFD 8m FT8 14215 km 15:13:29
ZS6WAB N8PUM 8m FT8 13959 km 15:42:28
ZS6WAB VE3DS 8m FT8 13308 km 15:04:43
ZS4TX OH7PS 8m FT8 9927 km 11:21:29
ZS4TX EI9KP 8m FT8 9834 km 11:11:26
ZS6OB GM0SXQ 8m FT8 9671 km 11:13:26
ZS4TX EI3KD 8m FT8 9604 km 15:26:44
ZS6OB OH7PS 8m FT8 9576 km 11:17:29
ZS6OB EI9KP 8m FT8 9573 km 11:48:11
ZS6WAB MM0AMW 8m FT8 9426 km 15:21:59

This is the FT8 map for ZS6WAB as a sample...

Besides the signals from South Africa reaching North America, they extended well into Northern Europe. It's not that unusual for stations in the south of Europe to hear South African signals on the 40 MHz band but this time, there were reports from stations in Scotland.

It was interesting to see that OH7PS in Finland (KP20AF) reporting reception of both ZS4TX and ZS6OB on FT8.

OH7PS
Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
ZS4TX 8m FT8 9927 km 11:21:29
ZS6OB 8m FT8 9576 km 11:17:29

LA9BN in Norway (JP40CN) reports reception of ZS6WAB on the DX Cluster.

I'm not sure if the ZS stations were reported this far north before on 8m? It feels like a new barrier has been breached when we start seeing reports from the JP/KP locator squares in the north of Europe.

Mexico... XE2OR in Mexico reports reception of the Irish 8m beacon EI1CAH/B and EI2IP. XE2OR is just across the border from Texas but it's further west than recent other reports from the USA.

Trans-Continental in North America... There was also an opening on the 40 MHz band across North America.

WM2XCC is one of the experimental US 8m stations located in California.

Analysis... With the solar flux up around 210, it's probably no great surprise that the F2 layer maximum usable frequency (MUF) is reaching as high as the 40 MHz band. Most of the signals reported are probably via the F2 layer in the ionosphere but for the South African stations then there was probably some TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) as well. As for how much is TEP and how much is F2 for those North-South paths???

I have included below the spots from the DX Cluster and the PSK Reporter spots.

Link... For more info on the 8m band, see my 40 MHz page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

Addendum... 1) Report from Vincent, F5OIH...

Additional info... DX-Cluster spots in order of callsign...

2022 Report for the 40-MHz OZ7IGY beacon

In this post, we'll look at the OZ7IGY beacon in Denmark which transmits on 40.071 MHz and how many times it was spotted on the DX Cluster in 2022. I have used the DXSummit.fi DX Cluster as the source of data for this post as I can check the whole of 2022 and download the spots into a spreadsheet to examine.

There may be some spots that are missing and didn't appear on the DXSummit cluster but the aim of the post is to give a general overview of the stations reporting reception of this Danish 8m beacon during 2022 and not list every single report that appeared on multiple platforms.

If anyone would like to add any additional reports for 2022 then they can leave it in the comments.

One other caveat is that I only used one DX spot per person per day for the overall numbers.

Annual Comparison... In terms of the number of DX spots for 2022, there was a total of 176 spots from 30 people for reception of the OZ7IGY beacon on 8m. This is in marked contrast to just 13 spots from 9 people in 2021 when the beacon was off the air for most of the Sporadic-E season.

The OZ7IGY beacon was on air for most of 2022 and what also helped was the growing interest in the 40 MHz band as more stations start listening. The number of report for 2022 also surpassed the previous best which was 146 spots from 16 people in 2020.

These were the top spotters of the OZ7IGY beacon in 2022 (30 in total)...

As can been seen on the map at the top of the post, nearly all of the stations heard the OZ beacon via Sporadic-E propagation. It is perhaps a little suprising that there seems to have been no reports from Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Portugal or indeed a lot of Eastern Europe.

DX Cluster... If you do hear the beacon then make sure to report it on dx-clusters like DXSummit or DXMaps as some of the other clusters ignore spots for 40 MHz as they assume they're a mistake.

More information about the OZ7IGY beacon can be found here... http://www.oz7igy.dk/

For more information on the 40 MHz band, go to this page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

Report for activity on the 40 MHz band - Wed 18th Jan 2023

As the map above shows, there was plenty of activity on the 40 MHz band on Wednesday the 18th of January 2023. One of the pivotal stations on the band is Martin, PJ4MM in the Caribbean. With the high MUF due to solar activity, he is ideally placed to put a good signal into the eastern part of the USA and Canada as well as into Europe.

According to PSK Reporter, PJ4MM was involved in the three longest paths reported on the 8m band on the 18th.

 Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
UW8SM PJ4MM 8m FT8 9303 km 14:56:11
PJ4MM SR4DON 8m FT8 8830 km 11:55:30
G9PUV TI5N5BEK 8m FT8 8757 km 15:15:13

Reports...

Paul, G7PUV (G9PUV) in the SE of England reports... "My tally for this afternoon was heard and flagged by 12 US stations, 4 Canadians, PJ4MM and TI5N5BEK. I worked WM2XEJ, VA2CY, PJ4MM and heard WM2XAN plus had 22 F2 backscatter reports from Europe."

This short video from Paul shows reception of WB4JWM/WM2XEJ ON 40.680MHz.

Patrik, 9A5CW reports the first contact on the 40 MHz band between Croatia and Bonaire, a distance of about 8419kms.

Robbie, EI2IP reports the following... "SSB Contact Worked PJ4MM, Martin in Bonaire Island on 8M/40MHz"

and... "SSB Contact WM2XEJ, Tom in Georgia, North America on 8M/40MHz"

Miha, S51FB reports that the 8m beacon in Slovenia, S55ZMS/B was heard by Tim, WW1L in the state of Maine in the USA (FN54).

***

DX Cluster reports are at the bottom of this post.

All reports... All of the 40 MHz paths are shown below. I have removed BG0GE who was almost certainly reporting the wrong band. The WESSEXSDR seems to generate a good few bogus spots as well and I have marked these and other suspect ones with a question mark.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

Danish 40 MHz beacon heard for the first time in N America - 17th Jan 2023

On the 17th of January 2023, Rupert N2OTO reported the reception of the Danish OZ7IGY beacon on 40.071 MHz. This is as far as I know the first reception report of the Danish 8m beacon in North America. 

I have never seen any reports before for this 8m beacon being heard outside of Europe although paths were very likely open.

The distance from OZ7IGY/B to N2OTO is 7739kms and it's very likely the propagation mode was two hops of the F2 layer. It's probably no accident that the signal was heard in Florida as this is the most southerly of the great circle paths.

The solar flux was above 220 which suggests that the F2 maximum usable frequency (MUF) was well above 30 MHz and into the low VHF region.

The composite screenshot from N2OTO above shows some of the PI4 decodes. The opening seems to have lasted about 16 minutes and possibly coincided with a sunset in Denmark.

The peak signal had a signal to noise ratio of +1dB which would have meant that the CW ID would have been quite easy to hear.

As the OZ7IGY beacon is frequency stabilised by GPS, you can see that the receiver used by N2OTO is about 20 Hz off frequency which is pretty normal for most radios. It's a neat test and result for a VHF beacon that is on the other side of the Atlantic.

If anyone else wants to listen for the OZ7IGY beacon then try first on 28.271 MHz and get used to using the PI4 software. Once you get it working, try listening then on 40.0702 MHz USB.

Links...
1) OZ7IGY beacon website
2) My 40 MHz page

Addendum... Report for the 18th of Jan 2023

Martin, PJ4MM on Bonaire in the Caribbean reports reception of the Danish 8m beacon... "Copied the OZ7IGY beacon very well for about 15min. Was to late to install the PI4 software to get a dB report, in cw beacon was around 559"

Rupert, N2OTO reports reception of the beacon again on the 18th. Note the earlier time.

Band -----UTC------ ----Message----- ---------PI4--------- -Carrier-- --Decoder--

  YYYYMMDD HH:MM Decoded        T S/N Qua Time  Freq M  Freq   C/N

Big opening on the 40 MHz band - Sun 15th Jan 2023

As the solar flux soars to over 230, the 40 MHz band is opening up nicely with plenty of F2 propagation. These are some of the 8m paths reported on the PSK Reporter website on Sunday 15th January 2023.

The longest path was 8242 kms from Slovenia to the USA.

S50B N2OTO 8m FT8 8242 km 13:59:00

There are a few dubious ones in the main list and most seem to have a web based receiver in England as a common theme. These are marked as ??? below.

WSPR... It looks as if there was a trans-continental opening on 40 MHz in N America as well.

Wspr reports...
Local   (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km
2023-01-15 17:10 WM2XCW CN88lx N2OTO EL96wi 40.663555 10 -23 0 4452
2023-01-15 16:38 WM2XCC DM13ji N2OTO EL96wi 40.681505 2 -8 0 3640
2023-01-15 11:56 WM2XCC DM13ji WM2XCC/6 DM13ji 40.681484 2 7 0 0
2023-01-15 11:56 WM2XCC DM13ji N3IZN/SDR DM13ji 40.681493 2 -10 0 0
2023-01-15 11:54 EI1KNH IO63ve WESSEXSDR IO80qr 40.014477 20 -17 0 367
2023-01-15 11:48 WM2XCW CN88lx VE7UTS CN89li 40.681539 10 8 0 42

List of FT8/PI4 stations in Transmit order...

Trans-Atlantic opening at 40 MHz - 13th Jan 2023

With the solar flux now up over the 200 mark, there was another trans-Atlantic opening on the 40 MHz band on Friday 13th January 2023.

In the past, the only thing we had to warn about potential trans-Atlantic openings on the 50 MHz (6m) band was strong signals on 28 MHz or utility signals in the low VHF spectrum. Now that there are stations transmitting on the 40 MHz band, it acts as a much better indicator that something might happen higher up in frequency.

It really does show the potential of 40 MHz as a beacon band when there is a rising F2 MUF due to solar activity. It really isn't 'just another band' as some might suggest.

A list of transmitting and receiving stations is shown below with question marks after the dubious ones which may be reports for the wrong band.

Trans-Atlantic opening on the 40 MHz band - 10th Jan 2023

With the recent increase in solar activity, the maximum usable frequency across the North Atlantic is now reaching as high as 40 MHz. The map above shows the paths that were open by those using the FT8 mode on 40.680 MHz.

Signals from G9PUV on the SE coast of England here heard 5000kms away in N America as well as by receiving stations in the UK.

Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
WW1L 8m FT8 5010 km 14:28:14
VA2CY 8m FT8 5010 km 13:57:44
G0DJA 8m FT8 278 km 13:10:11
G8BQR/OWRX 8m FT8 214 km 14:43:00
G4FKA 8m FT8 190 km 14:33:11
WESSEXSDR 8m FT8 187 km 15:45:00
M1SLH 8m FT8 128 km 14:42:11
G7PUV/A 8m FT8 9 km 18:12:14

The experimental WM3XAN station in Michigan was heard in the Caribbean.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PJ4MM WM2XAN 8m FT8 3906 km 15:31:12
WM2XAN PJ4MM 8m FT8 3906 km 15:29:56
WM2XAN WP4G 8m FT8 3359 km 15:26:56 

The current solar flux is about about the 180-190 mark.

Report from PJ4MM in the Caribbean about 40 MHz activity - 25th to 30th Dec 2022

In a previous post on the 24th of December 2022, I wrote about how Martin, PJ4MM on Bonaire in the Caribbean had received permission to use the 40 MHz and 70 MHz bands - see HERE

Martin has sent on a short report for the six days from the 25th to the 30th of December 2022 inclusive with a list of stations worked on 8m, stations heard on 8m and reception reports of PJ8MM on 8m.

Worked on 8m:
25/12 G9PUV (JO00AU), WM2XAN (EN74OH)
27/12 DL5WP (JO43CD), S50B (JN65XU), G9PUV, WM2XAN
28/12 ZS6WAB (KG46RC) in FT8 and SSB
30/12 WM2XAN (decoding >1.5hr)

Heard on 8m:
24/12 WM2XEJ (EM83JI), WM2XAN
25/12 EI2IP (IO52QJ), WM2XEJ
27/12 WM2XEJ, WM2XCC (DM13JI)

Listener reports on 8m:
23/12 FG8OJ (FK96HG)
27/12 DK8NE (JO50AL), NL8992 (JO32FL), ON7EQ (JO21FC), EA8/DF4UE (IL38BP), EA8BFK (IL38BO), VE1PLZ (FN85PR), KA9CFD (EN40OM), N8PUM (EN66DL), VA2CY (FN46LW), PJ4RF (FK52UD), VE3MMQ (FN14PR), KC0IYT (FN42KJ), W4TAA (EL87VB), PJ4BZL (FK52UC)
30/12 N8PUM, PJ4RF, K5YT (EM22NV), WW1L (FN54OM), EA8BFK , KA9CFD (EN40OM), KE8PFV (EN82JG), WB0DBQ (EN46BW)

Most of the propagation paths are probably F2 and the solar flux was up around the 150 mark for the period in question.

It's gives a nice insight into what is propagation is possible on the 40 MHz (8m) band.

For more information on the 8m band, see my 40 MHz page HERE

12,000km+ opening on the 40 MHz band from California to Australia - 28th Dec 2022

Following on from the report of a 12,000km+ opening from South Africa to the United States, here is another report of remarkable opening on the 40 MHz band from California to Australia.

On the 28th of December 2022, Hilary VK2AZ in Sydney, Australia managed to get two decodes of the WSPR signal from Chris, WM2XCC in California on the 40 MHz (8m) band. The distance was 12,156 kms.

2022-12-28 01:36   WM2XCC   40.681491   -22   0   DM13ji   50   VK2AZ   QF56if   12156   242   2 
2022-12-28 01:28   WM2XCC   40.681492   -22   0   DM13ji   50   VK2AZ   QF56if   12156   242   2

Screenshot from VK2AZ

WM2XCC is the experimental callsign allocated by the FCC to Chris, N3IZN. For his experimental 8m WSPR transmissions, he was using 50-watts to a half-wave vertical.

VK2AZ in Sydney was using a horizontal half-wave dipole in a very noisy suburban location.

Analysis... At 01:30 UTC, the sun would have been over the centre of the Pacific Ocean so it's probably no great surprise that it happened at this time as the level of ionization would have been at maximum. With the solar flux now reaching 150-160, F2 trans-equatorial (north-south) paths up as high as 50 MHz are being reported recently.

In the last few weeks, there have been paths on the 50 MHz band from Australia & New Zealand to the western half of the United States. As 40 MHz is a lower band, it was likely that the path was open as well recently but this is the first time that an 8m signal across the Pacific has been reported.

In terms of propagation and potential paths, the 40 MHz band will never be as good as the 28 MHz band but it should always be better than 50 MHz. The reason it isn't obvious is just a lack of activity and reports.

Link...
1) For more info on the 8m band, visit my 40 MHz page. 

12,475km opening on the 40 MHz band from South Africa to the USA - Dec 2022

With the solar flux now reaching the 150 mark, the MUF (Maximum Usable Frequency) is now allowing more paths on the 40 MHz band to open up.

Tim, WW1L in the state of Maine in the USA reports reception of the FT8 signals from ZS6WAB in South Africa on Monday the 26th of December 2022. The distance was about 12,475 kms.

The Red lines on the map above are for the 50 MHz band and the Purple lines are for the 40 MHz band. On the 8m band, WW1L was hearing two of the US experimental stations as well as ZS1WAB in South Africa.

The main frequency for SSB and FT8 on the 8m band is 40.680 MHz, right in the middle of the ISM band (Industrial, Scientific, Medical).

Wed 7th Dec 2022: This day seems to have been even better with WW1L hearing ZS6WAB & ZS6OB from South Africa and G9PUV from England.

A note of caution about the map above... there may be some mistaken reports from other bands but overall, it seems about right. ZS6WAB and ZS6OB can both be seen in South Africa and they had 8m paths to Europe and the USA.

PJ4MM in the Caribbean is hearing 8m signals from Europe. The station in the south of Portugal and in the Canary Islands are hearing 8m signals and reporting them.

As you can see, there is quite a bit of activity on the band.

It looks as if one of the US experimental stations WM2XAN in Michigan exchanged a signal report with ZS6WAB on 40.680 MHz...

160015 -20 0.3 1399 ~ WM2XAN ZS6WAB R-02

Link...
1) For more info on the 8m band, visit my 40 MHz page. 

Opening on the 40 MHz band from the Caribbean to Europe - 27th Dec 2022

In a previous post a few days ago, I gave details about how Martin, PJ4MM on Bonaire in the Caribbean had received permission for the 40 MHz and 70 MHz bands. With the Solar Flux up around the 150 mark, it looks as if the F2 MUF (maximum usuable frequency) for some paths is well above 30 MHz and into the low-VHF region.

The map above shows the paths on 40 MHz from Bonaire and the list below shows extracts of the 8m FT8 log from the PSKReporter website.

The furthest signal to the east was to S50B in Slovenia (8435 kms), the furthest to the west was to WM2XCC in California (5485 kms).

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PJ4MM PJ4RF 8m FT8 10 km 17:14:41
PJ4BZL PJ4MM 8m FT8 12 km 17:33:26
PJ4MM PJ4BZL 8m FT8 12 km 17:32:41
WM2XEJ PJ4MM 8m FT8 2803 km 16:07:59
PJ4MM KC0IYT 8m FT8 3370 km 17:25:14
PJ4MM VE3MMQ 8m FT8 3709 km 17:16:41
PJ4MM VE1PZ 8m FT8 3765 km 16:26:44
PJ4MM KA9CFD 8m FT8 3846 km 17:14:44
PJ4MM VA2CY 8m FT8 3873 km 17:14:44
PJ4MM WM2XAN 8m FT8 3906 km 17:28:41
PJ4MM N8PUM 8m FT8 4229 km 17:14:44
WM2XCC PJ4MM 8m FT8 5485 km 19:44:44
PJ4MM EA8BFK 8m FT8 5896 km 16:22:00
PJ4MM EA8/DF4UE 8m FT8 5896 km 14:20:29
PJ4MM G9PUV 8m FT8 7438 km 14:01:59
PJ4MM ON7EQ 8m FT8 7748 km 13:49:27
PJ4MM NL8992 8m FT8 7899 km 13:40:29
PJ4MM DL5WP 8m FT8 8022 km 13:47:29
PJ4MM DK8NE 8m FT8 8136 km 13:38:28
PJ4MM S50B 8m FT8 8435 km 13:45:26

Additional report from PA3GHQ... "I received 9 times CQ from PJ9MM with Elad FDM DUO SDR, HM dipole in the attic & JTDX from 13:45 x 13:51 UTC. Signals from -9 tot -24 dB. ‘73 Kees PA3GHQ/ SWL BDXC CAS4147 Gorinchem The Netherlands"

Link...
1) For more info on the 8m band, visit my 40 MHz page. 

Opening on 40 MHz between England and Lebanon - 25th Dec 2022

With the solar flux up around the 150 mark, there was an interesting opening on the 40 MHz band between England and Lebanon.  The map above shows the path on 40.680 MHz between Paul, G7PUV on the south of England using the call G9PUV and Samir, OD5SK in Lebanon.

The FT8 signal was +2dB so it just above the noise floor.

The distance was 3,430kms and it's very likely the mode of propagation was via the F2 layer as the MUF is now extending above 30 MHz on a daily basis into the low VHF spectrum.

The image below from the Proppy HF propagation prediction site suggests that the path from the south of England to Lebanon is well above 30 MHz most days from 08:00 to 12:00 UTC. 

The next obvious question is if the propagation can get to 40 MHz then can it reach 50 MHz? It might be worth checking around 10:00 UTC.

Link...
1) For more info on the 8m band, visit my 40 MHz page. 

Addendum: Paul, G7PUV writes... "My end is an Icom 706MK2G with 25W output into a Log Periodic on a 17M mast. The other end was a 4 element Steppir and Icom 7300. OD, 5B and 4Z are about as optimal as it gets here for single hop F2 across low VHF, the MUF peaked around 43MHz that morning going by other utility signals heard. In actual fact the signal on the 706 meter peaked about S5 but I've noticed before +dB signals are never very accurate, presumably something with my set up?"

PJ4MM in the Caribbean gets permit for 40 MHz & 70 MHz - Dec 2022

Martin, PJ4MM on Bonaire in the Caribbean reports that he has just received an experimental license for the 40 MHz (8m) and 70 MHz (4m) band.

These are the frequency allocations with equipment.

8m: 40.680 - 40.700 MHz, all mode, max 50W out, ant modified 4elm 6m yagi (elem length adjusted)

4m: 70.000 - 70.500 MHz, all mode, max 100W out, ant 8elm LFA, fixed to Eu

Martin reports that he has already been heard by FG8OJ on Guadeloupe and K9MU in Wisconsin. 

Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
FG8OJ 8m FT8 865 km 18:16:14
K9MU 8m FT8 4243 km 16:58:44

Martin also reports a signal of -22dB in IM67 in the south of Portugal on 8m but it wasn't reported on the PSK Reporter website.

Martin also says that for 4m, he will be following the Region 1 band plan (Europe) and will be mostly operating on FT8.

Analysis... This is really excellent news as it opens up the possibility of a lot of interesting paths from this southerly location.

On 40 MHz, there will be plenty of openings on F2 up to the USA and Canada and will allow some contacts with the experimental stations there as well as crossband contacts and reception reports. Ironically it may be easier to get reports from the NE of the USA (3500-4000kms) than the SE which may be a bit too close.

There should also be plenty of openings to Europe, especially to Spain and Portugal. It should also open eventually to the UK and Ireland and the question is how far east into Europe will the signal travel.

In the Summer months, there should be plenty of multi-hop Sporadic-E openings from May to July and may act as an early warning for 50 MHz openings to follow.

What I find really interesting are the possible openings on 70 MHz.

Will amateurs in the USA and Canada be interested enough to listen on the band now that there is someone on from the Caribbean on 4m?

Will there be multi-hop Sporadic-E openings on 4m to Europe during the Summer? Almost certainly to Spain and Portugal but further north to the UK and Ireland? How far into Europe? Is it possible to get as far east as Cyprus? Further?

Looking at the southern hemisphere, there are a lot of interesting potential paths.

TEP openings on 40 MHz and 70 MHz to Argentina and the south of Brazil are a given. Will anyone there listen?

From Bonaire to the Falkand Islands (VP8) on 70 MHz?? Is it possible?

Bonaire to South Africa on 40 MHz should be possible on F2 but is it even possible on 70 MHz with multi-hop Sp-E? 11,000kms is a long way on 4m.

And what about the really long paths? From Bonaire to New Zealand (ZL) and Australia (VK) on 40 MHz???

We can be sure that some really interesting paths are going to pop up from this location.

Links for more info...
1) My 40 MHz page
2) My 70 MHz page

Addendum: Martin provides the following information of his permit.

1) 8M license is for 40.66 - 40.7MHz, max 50W, all modes. 

2) 4M license is for 70.0 - 70.5MHz, max 100W, all modes, Antenna restricted direction to Europe. Probably because Venezuela still has multiple analog TV channels in use in this range. 

3) Valid until Christmas 2023.

OZ7IGY 40 MHz beacon in Denmark is transmitting again - Dec 2022

In a previous post on the 30th of November 2022, I wrote about how the OZ7IGY team in Denmark had  announced that their 8m beacon on 40.071 MHz has been turned off due to increased electricity costs.

The good news is that a few days later on the 5th of December 2022, they announced the following... "The 40 MHz beacon is back on the air. The 10 GHz beacon is now off the air.... OZ7IS"

This is good news as it would be nice to have the 8m beacon operational for the peak of the sunspot cycle.

Annual sponsorship of one individual beacon for one year costs 1400 Danish Krone which is about €190.

OZ7IGY website... http://www.oz7igy.dk/

2022 Reports... Looking at the DX Cluster, there are plenty of reports for the OZ7IGY beacon on 40.071 MHz but they are all from Europe. I'm open to correction on this but I have seen no reports from South Africa, South America or North America.

There are plenty of reports of Trans-Atlantic paths on 40 MHz from the USA to Ireland and UK but what about Denmark?

It's further east and the path would be more northerly. Can it be heard outside of Europe?

A plan of action... The OZ7IGY beacon is on both 28.271 MHz and 40.071 MHz. A good place is start is on 10m. Put your receiver on 28.2702 MHz USB and listen for the CW beacon. Try to use the PI4 software and get experience with it to decode the PI4 signals.

If the 10m beacon is a reasonable signal strength then repeat the experiment on 40.0702 MHz USB.

The key point here is that if you are interested in the 40 MHz band then don't spend all your time on 40.680 MHz. Try the other beacon frequencies and report what you hear.

Link...
a) My 40 MHz page

Big opening on the 40 MHz band - 7th Dec 2022

Wednesday 7th December 2022: With the Solar Flux up at 148, the F2 MUF is now extending well above 30 MHz and into the low VHF spectrum. The map above shows some of the FT8 activity on the experimental 40 MHz band on the 7th of December.

The stations in South Africa (ZS), Slovenia (S5), Croatia (9A) and Ireland (EI) are radio amateurs who have permission to use this band. The stations in the USA, Canada and the UK are using experimental licences for transmitting.

I have a full list of the stations decoded at the end of this post. I'm not sure about a few of the transmitting callsigns as there may have been some mistakes and the wrong band was reported.

Martin, PJ4MM on the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean sends the following report...

 Just copied multiple stations from EU on 8M:

G9PUV JO00 ft8 +20  S9 on meter)
EI2IP IO52 ft8 +22  S9 on meter
EI4GNB IO63 ft8 +12
S50B JN65 ft8 -6
S59F JN65 ft8 -1
9A5CW JN65 ft8 -8

The G and EI stations were loud enough for SSB. Opening started ~1530Z and lasted until 1629Z

Last Monday (5th Dec) copied:   144230  6  0.1  798 ~  CQ WM2XEJ EM83  (ft8). Opening lasted ~30min
And on Sunday 20221204 (wspr):
2022 -23  0.11  40.6814841  WM2XCC DM13 33
2040 -13 -0.15  40.6814851  WM2XCC DM13 47
2102 -27  0.15  40.6814844  WM2XCC DM13 33
RX: IC7300, Antenna modified 6m 4el with increased element length

Link: My 40 MHz page

Full log of activity is shown below...

40 MHz & 60 MHz Facebook Group now has over 500 members

Just a quick update to say that the 40 MHz & 60 MHz Group on Facebook now has in excess of 500 members. As the chart shows above, it has more than doubled in the last year.

The level of interest in two obscure experimental amateur radio bands in the low VHF spectrum has been a bit of a surprise to me. I initially thought the group would struggle to get to 100.

If you have a genuine interest in keeping up with the experiments and activity on the band then you can find the group here... https://www.facebook.com/groups/2897330140356898

40 MHz beacon in Denmark off air due to electricity costs

The OZ7IGY team in Denmark have announced that their 8m beacon on 40.071 MHz has been turned off due to increased electricity costs.

They write... "The 40 MHz, 2,4 GHz, 3,4 GHz, 5,7 GHz and 24 GHz beacons are all off air due to the increased price of electricity. It is currently impossible to say when they will be back on the air. 

OZ7IGY has an annual electricity bill of more than 20 000 DKK, equivalent to about 2800 EUR given normal electricity prices. Unfortunately Denmark is among the most expensive countries when it comes to the cost of electricity. But we are also looking for equipment support in our continuous strive to make OZ7IGY the best beacon in the world.

As of October 2022 the annual electricity cost will exceed 7000 EUR.  – 2022-10-17"

The beacons at 28 MHz, 50 MHz, 70 MHz, 144 MHz, 432 MHz, 1296 MHz & 10 GHz remain operational.

Annual sponsorship of one individual beacon for one year costs 1400 Danish Krone which is about €190.

OZ7IGY website... http://www.oz7igy.dk/

Upgrade of WSJT-X software and the 40 MHz band

Just a post of some notes for my own benefit although others might find it useful as well.

Even when I wasn't updating the blog for the last six months, I was still using the radio in that I left it monitoring the WSPR frequency on 28.1264 MHz every day. The software I was using on the PC was WSJT-X with quite an old rev V2.0.1 which I think is from 2019?

I never really bothered updating the version I had as it decoded WSPR and FT8 signals fine. I know my old version didn't decode the 'new' FT4 mode but I wasn't too bothered about that.

I tried listening for some of the Irish 40 MHz beacons this morning. I managed to get two two successful decodes from EI1CAH on 40.16 MHz using the PI4 mode. I think this was via aircraft scatter.

The other beacon EI1KNH on 40.013 MHz uses several modes including FT8 so I had to be careful as I didn't want to 'hear' something on 40 MHz and have my PC upload it to PSKReporter as a 28 MHz signal.

The problem with my old version of WSJT-X and FT8 is that it doesn't support any 40 MHz operation. So I downloaded the latest version of WSJT-X from the Princeton University website... V2.5.4

It essentially looked the same when I ran it. From the default settings, it doesn't show 8m (40 MHz) as a band option.

Under 'File', I had to go to 'Settings...' and then click on 'Frequencies' as can be seen above.

There are loads of options here... I picked the one that was All mode on 24 GHz as I was pretty sure I wouldn't need it 😉

Then it's just a case of double clicking on it and changing the frequency. I chose 40.680 MHz... and then clicked ok.

When I went back to the main programme then, I had 40.680 MHz on 8m as a band option.

In the end, I didn't manage to any FT8 decodes from the beacon but I probably need to improve my antenna system.

At listen I can report any signals that I hear now.

Addendum... I finally managed to decode one FT8 transmission from EI1KNH which I think was from aircraft scatter again.

F2 opening on the 40 MHz band between Europe and North America - 4th Nov 2022

Just a quick post to say that there was a F2 layer opening between Europe and North America on the 40 MHz band on Friday 4th Nov 2022.

With the improving solar conditions, North-South paths on 40 MHz or even 50 MHz are no big deal, it's the East-West paths that are more difficult and require conditions to be very good.

An East-West opening via the F2 layer at 40 MHz doesn't mean that an East-West opening at 50 MHz is imminent but it does show that things are heading in the right direction.

This is why experiments and beacons on the 40 MHz band are so important, they act as an early warning system for higher bands like 6m

Opening on the 40 MHz band between the USA and Chile - 18th May 2022

There was an interesting opening on the 18th of May 2022 when the FT8 signals from the US experimental 40 MHz station WM2XEJ in Georgia were heard by CE3SOC in Chile.

The path distance was 7562kms.

Log on the PSK Reporter website...

 Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
WLO/S32 8m FT8 561 km 20:36:26
WLO/O5 8m FT8 561 km 20:30:45
CE3SOC 8m FT8 7562 km 19:29:26
WLO/S11 8m FT8 561 km 17:00:59

With the solar flux on the increase and more openings on the higher 50 MHz band, it's probably not such a great surprise that there was an opening between North and South America at 40 MHz.

It is however nice to see more interest in the band from amateur radios stations in South America and hopefully we'll see many more reports.