ZS6WAB beacon on 40.675 MHz heard in Europe - 4th to 11th Feb 2022

During the period of the 4th to the 11th of February 2022, quite a number of stations have reported hearing the ZS6WAB 8m beacon in South Africa on 40.675 MHz.

These are the 8m spots from the DX Maps website...

 Date & time Spotter QRG Mode DX Prop. Comments SFI A K 
2022-02-11 11:40:46 G7PUV (JO00AT) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) F2 JO00AU<F2>KG46RB 539 coming up
2022-02-11 11:00:40 TT8SN (JK72MC) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) F2 JK72MC<>KG46RB Wow, gd signal

2022-02-11 10:33:05 F5JRX (JN26AC) 40.765 CW ZS6WAB (KG46RB) Multihop Sp-E JN26AC<ES>KG46RB 519
2022-02-11 10:27:10 F4CXO (JN26PP) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) TEP JN26PP<>KG46RB 529 QSB

2022-02-10 13:05:25 TT8SN (JK72MC) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) F2 JK72MC<>KG46RB More than 1h

2022-02-10 10:28:14 F6ACU (JN38FC) 50.000 CW ZS6WAB (KG46RC) TEP 40.0675 QSB 559

2022-02-09 15:08:17 F6HTJ (JN12KQ) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) TEP KG46rb<>JN12kq cw beacon 419 

2022-02-09 14:49:33 I0YLI (JN61HU) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) TEP JN61HU<TEP>KG46RB 519 qsb
2022-02-09 14:26:08 EA3ERE (JN11CX) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) TEP JN11CX<>KG46 55 qsb
2022-02-09 14:18:42 9H1TX (JM75FU) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) EP 559 
2022-02-09 12:54:11 F4CXO (JN26PP) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) TEP JN26PP<>KG46RB 529 QSB
2022-02-09 12:18:55 DK2EA (JO50UF) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) F2 JO50UF<F2>KG46RB 559 QSB

2022-02-07 14:23:55 EA3ERE (JN11CX) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) TEP JN11CX<>KG46 5-5
2022-02-07 13:18:13 M0DEP (IO90CR) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) F2 KG46<>IO90 55
2022-02-07 11:30:01 G0DJA (IO93IF) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) F2 539 IO93if 

2022-02-06 13:14:57 IZ5ILX (JN54AC) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) TEP JN54<>KG46RB 579 QSB!

2022-02-06 13:09:39 EA3ERE (JN11CX) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RC)  Multihop Sp-E JN11CX<ES>KG46 s8 qsb
2022-02-06 12:00:35 G7PUV (JO00AT) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RC) F2 JO00AU<F2>KG46RC S9 QSB. F2+Es
2022-02-06 14:31:47 IK0OKY (JN61ES) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB (KG46RC) TEP JN61ES<TEP>KG46RC 539 

2022-02-04 14:55:57 G7PUV (JO00AT) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RC) F2 JO00AU<F2>KG46RC 57 QSB
2022-02-04 14:57:04 EA3ERE (JN11CX) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB (KG46RC) Multihop Sp-E JN11CX<ES>KG46 cw beacon 5/
2022-02-04 12:51:51 IK5YJY (JN53PG) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RC) TEP s5 qsb > jn53

It's worth noting the times of these reports. The earliest is around 10:30 UTC and the latest is around 15:00 UTC. 

That is roughly a 4-5 hour window centred on local noon when the sun is at its highest.

It was also interesting to see a report from Nicolas, TT8SN in Chad at 4,300kms. This was likely to have been one hop F2 propagation.

This is the map of the stations in Europe in more detail...

Notes...

1) It's very encouraging to see so many stations listening for and reporting a beacon on the 40 MHz band!

2) Any serious 6m operator on the 50 MHz band will be always looking for sources of information be it on air or online with DX clusters or chat forums. Even if someone on 6m in Europe has no real interest in the 40 MHz band, the 8m beacon can be used to indicate that an opening to South Africa on 50 MHz may be imminent.

3) Dave, G0DJA in IO93 square in England reports hearing the beacon with a simple dipole. That is also I believe the most northerly reception report of the ZS6WAB 8m beacon to date.

It also reminded me of the perils of using the Mercator projection flat map. When Dave sent me a report, I thought that his location in IO93IF would be a good bit further away from the beacon than my location on the south coast of Ireland which is IO51TU. However in reality as can be seen from the map above which is a great circle projection, I am a little further away.

4) From the 4th to the 11th of February, the solar flux was in the range of 118 to 127.

5) It's worth remembering that all of these reports were heard by a person listening on CW. That is probably 10-15dB above what might be possible with a digital mode like FT8, Q65, WSPR or PI4.

6) This nice video shows reception of the South African beacon by Paul, G7PUV in the south-east of England on the 4th of February 2022....

Propagation Mode??... At the moment, the conditions on the 28 MHz band are reasonably good with plenty of East-West F2 layer propagation. This suggests the the F2 MUF (maximum usable frequency) on North-South paths is up above 30 MHz and into the low VHF spectrum.

Does it reach 40 MHz at the moment? I suspect it does from the south of Europe.

On some bands, you can be reasonably sure what the propagation mode is. On the 40 MHz band at the moment, can we be sure that it's all F2 layer? Is it partially or all TEP related? Is there a Sporadic-E extension at either end of the path?

It would be interesting to see if anyone could hear the beacon at around 20:00-21:00 UTC when there might be evening type TEP. If they could then that might suggest openings on the higher bands like 50 MHz and above.

It would be also interesting to see if stations in the SE of the USA could hear this 8m beacon?

Link...

1) Check out my 40 MHz page for more information about the 8m band.

WSPR activity on the 40 MHz band in North America - January 2022

In 2021, seven US stations and one Canadian station were given experimental licenses for the 40 MHz band. Several are now active and using the WSPR beacon mode on the band.

This post covers the reception reports for each station in North America for January 2022.

Canadian experimental station CBG209: To allow the callsign to be recognised by WSPR, the callsign was reversed and 902BGC was used.

The openings for the month of January are shown above and I have listed the openings below with the reports under 200kms filtered out. I also removed multiple reports for the same station for the same opening. The power is listed as 10 watts.

Local   (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz                         W SNR drift km
2022-01-15 17:32 902BGC CN89 WM2XCC DM13ji 40.663524 10 -22 0 1856

2022-01-12 05:14 902BGC CN89 W3PM EM64or 40.663509 10 -27 0 3365
2022-01-12 04:54 902BGC CN89 WB6HYD CM87xi 40.663524 10 -27 0 1351
2022-01-12 04:54 902BGC CN89 W7IV CM95qn 40.663525 10 -23 0 1560
2022-01-12 00:14 902BGC CN89 WM2XCC DM13ji 40.663522 10 -29 1 1856

2022-01-04 15:40 902BGC CN89 WM2XCC DM13ji 40.663522 10 -13 0 1856

2022-01-03 18:00 902BGC CN89 WM2XCC DM13ji 40.663521 10 -26 1 1856
2022-01-03 17:50 902BGC CN89 WB6HYD CM87xi 40.663524 10 -20 0 1351
2022-01-03 17:40 902BGC CN89 WB6HYD CM87xi 40.663524 10 -21 0 1351

2022-01-02 09:18 902BGC CN89 WM2XCC DM13ji 40.663523 10 -17 0 1856

Even though it's mid-Winter, there seemed to have been five distinct openings. Most of the signals can be accounted for by mid-Winter Sporadic-E or possibly Auroral-E propagation but the one that really sticks out is the 3365km opening to W3PM in Alabama. 

The maximum distance for one hop Sporadic-E is about 2200kms. As it occurred near the end of an opening, it was probably due to double hop / chordal hop Sporadic-E.

WM2XCW in Washington State: Just local reports for this station during the month.

Local   (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km
2022-02-01 22:16 WM2XCW CN88 VE7NZ CN89 40.663552 10 12 0 111
2022-01-13 17:50 WM2XCW CN88 VE7SKY CN89 40.663467 10 10 0 111
2022-01-13 01:30 WM2XCW CN88 VE7RPX CN89lh 40.663531 10 -19 0 93
2022-01-12 21:00 WM2XCW CN88 VE7DH CN89nf 40.663544 10 -4 0 84
2022-01-12 20:50 WM2XCW CN88 KC7GVU CN88kb 40.663531 10 -29 0 47
2022-01-12 20:44 WM2XCW CN88 CGB209 CN89li 40.663529 10 -16 0 97

WM2XAN in Michigan: This one is listed as 100 watts.

There seem to have been four openings during the month and all the distances are typical of single hop Sporadic-E.

Local   (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km mode km/W spotQ version
2022-01-17 16:30 WM2XAN EN74oh W4WLO/S11 EM50vo 40.663449 100 -26 -4 1553

2022-01-16 01:54 WM2XAN EN74oh W4WLO/S11 EM50vo 40.663445 100 -24 -4 1553
2022-01-15 23:44 WM2XAN EN74oh AE5LY/2 EL29hb 40.663491 100 -27 -4 1937

2022-01-12 04:02 WM2XAN EN74oh W3PM EM64or 40.663469 20 -10 -4 1079

2022-01-11 16:24 WM2XAN EN74oh WM2XEJ EM83ji 40.663485 100 -7 -3 1226
2022-01-11 06:20 WM2XAN EN74oh WM2XEJ EM83ji 40.663487 100 -22 -4 1226
2022-01-11 02:56 WM2XAN EN74 VE1PYE FN84et 40.66347 100 -18 0 1690
2022-01-10 22:14 WM2XAN EN74 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663894 0.5 -18 -4 2063

WM2XEJ in Georgia: Another listed as 100 watts although it was listed as 10 watts at times.

There seems to have been seven openings during January. Most of them are Sporadic-E but it's interesting to see several in that 300-800km region which is usually inside the Sp-E skip zone.

Local   (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km mode km/W spotQ version
2022-01-23 21:30 WM2XEJ EM83ji W4WLO/S11 EM50vo 40.663487 100 -19 0 562

2022-01-20 18:34 WM2XEJ EM83ji WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663527 100 -18 0 1226

2022-01-19 15:10 WM2XEJ EM83ji WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663524 100 -28 0 1226

2022-01-16 00:26 WM2XEJ EM83ji WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663525 100 -19 -1 1226
2022-01-15 23:52 WM2XEJ EM83ji AE5LY/2 EL29hb 40.663522 100 -18 0 1251
2022-01-15 22:56 WM2XEJ EM83ji W4WLO/S11 EM50vo 40.663477 100 -17 0 562

2022-01-15 16:32 WM2XEJ EM83ji W3PM EM64or 40.663503 100 -23 0 364

2022-01-12 17:28 WM2XEJ EM83ji N2OTO EL96wi 40.663522 100 -22 0 833
2022-01-12 14:52 WM2XEJ EM83ji NI4Y EM73 40.663509 100 -28 0 171

2022-01-11 21:02 WM2XEJ EM83ji VE2UG FN35gs 40.66345 10 -25 0 1611
2022-01-11 18:20 WM2XEJ EM83ji N2OTO EL96wi 40.663456 10 -22 0 833
2022-01-11 16:08 WM2XEJ EM83ji WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663464 10 -22 -2 1226
2022-01-11 15:04 WM2XEJ EM83ji KC5LT EM86 40.663454 100 -21 1 348

2022-01-11 06:22 WM2XEJ EM83ji WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663466 10 -6 -2 1226
2022-01-11 06:04 WM2XEJ EM83 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663453 10 4 0 841

WM2XCC in California: Listed as just 2 watts this time.

It seems there were three distinct openings and all were to the cluster of receivers near Vancouver. Again, all typical Sporadic-E distances.

Local   (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km
2022-01-11 23:16 WM2XCC DM13ji VE7DH CN89nf 40.663503 2 -25 0 1826
2022-01-11 22:38 WM2XCC DM13ji CGB209 CN89li 40.663489 2 -6 0 1843
2022-01-11 21:46 WM2XCC DM13ji VE7DH CN89nf 40.663503 2 -24 0 1826
2022-01-11 20:16 WM2XCC DM13ji VE7UTS CN89li 40.66349 2 0 0 1843

2022-01-04 15:30 WM2XCC DM13ji VA7MM/A CN89og 40.663537 2 -23 0 1829

2022-01-02 09:38 WM2XCC DM13ji VA7MM/A CN89og 40.663535 2 -22 0 1829

In conclusion: To the best of my knowledge, there is no WSPR activity in Europe at present and the guys in North America are certainly leading the way. 

Despite the fact it was January and mid-Winter, there is plenty of evidence of openings on the 40 MHz band. Once we get to May, these openings in the region of 800-2000 kms should start to become a lot more common. 

Looking through the full reports for January, most of the signals were buried in the noise and it shows the advantage of using a weak signal mode like WSPR as opposed to just plain CW. If all of these experimental stations had just CW beacons then I certainly wouldn't be writing this post as little or nothing would have been reported.

Some thoughts...

1) It would be nice if more people set up receivers for the band and listened for WSPR signals.

2) We'll have to wait and see if the remaining three experimental US calls have any interest in getting up and running on WSPR.

3) It would be great to see some WSPR activity in Europe as well. Anyone interested??

Links...

1) As always, there is plenty of information about the new 8m band on my 40 MHz page.

New 40 MHz beacon WM2XCS now operational from New Jersey

George, N2CG has one of the seven experimental 40 MHz permits in the USA and was given the callsign WM2XCS. He has just announced that he now has an operational 40 MHz beacon from his location in New Jersey.

George writes..." I am happy to announce that on January 26, 2022 at 1900 UTC WM2XCS beacon began operating on 40.685 MHz CW mode at 10 Watts output into a SIRIO 8m 5/8 wave vertical
antenna.  

The WM2XCS CW beacon on 40.685 MHz sends the following message at 12 WPM: "VVV DE WM2XCS BCN WM2XCS BCN FN20WV NNJ 5 seconds dash AR" that takes about 50 seconds to send.  This message is followed by a 60 seconds delay and then the sequence repeats.  My transmitter frequency tolerance is +/- 0.5 ppm.

For now, I operate the beacon about 10-11 hours a day beginning around 8 AM EST (1300 UTC) to 7 PM EST (0000 UTC).  Signal reports and/or spotting reception reports of my 8m beacon will be most welcomed.

I encourage all when hearing my beacon to spot your report on the DXMAPS website ( www.dxmaps.com ) that indicates 40 MHz band reports.

73, George  WM2XCS/N2CG"

Analysis... This beacon should be widely heard once the Sporadic-E season begins in the second half of April. The map above shows the typical range for Sporadic-E signals on the 40 MHz band while most of the openings should be around the 1200-1800km mark.

This in effect means that stations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Tennessee, Georgia and the north of Florida are the most likely to hear it during the Summer months.

There will be openings in the range of 2000-2300kms but these will be weaker.

During the months of May, June & July, there should be more multi-hop Sporadic-E openings. This should allow openings from New Jersey to California and from New Jersey to Europe.

The fact the beacon is CW only and doesn't have a digital component like FT8, PI4 or WSPR means the conditions will really need to be good.

What will be really interesting to see if the rising solar flux levels result in an opening via the F2 layer? Will the MUF reach the 40 MHz band?

Certainly, F2 layer propagation from New Jersey to California and Europe on 40 MHz at the peak of the upcoming sunspot cycle will be possible.

It would also be very interesting to see if anyone in South America is able to hear this beacon.

Listening for the WM2XCS beacon... For the 40 MHz band to open, the 28 MHz band below it will almost certainly be open as well.

I have compiled a short list of 28 MHz beacons which are in the general area of WM2XCS...

K3CX/B 28.2025 FN20CI 
WN2A/AK2F 28.2085 FN20OU 
K3FX/B 28.2160 FN20XE
N3TVV/B 28.2320 FN20DU
N2MH/B 28.2325 FN20UT
WA3MCK/B 28.2400 FN21BF
KG2GL/B 28.2460 FN20WT
KA3JOE/B 28.2495 FN20MD
KB2RSK/B 28.2685 FN22QW
WA3NFV/B 28.2700 FN20IH

If you can hear any of those beacons on 28 MHz then that would be a good time to look for the WM2XCS beacon on 40.685 MHz.

Link...
1) For more information on the 8m band, check out my 40 MHz page.

South African 40 MHz beacon heard in Rome, Italy - 16th Jan 2022

16th January 2022: Emilio, IK0OKY reports that there was a nice opening on the 40 MHz band on the 16th of January when several amateur radio stations in & near Rome reported reception of the ZS6WAB/B beacon in South Africa.

Emilio writes..." Today, there was a 40 MHz opening from Rome area towards South Africa ZS. The ZS6WAB beacon on 40.675 MHz was heard in JN61 square from 11.15 UTC until 12.30 UTC.

The beacon was heard first from IK0FTA Sergio and then also from some other locals (IW0FFK Marco , IK0SMG Pino and myself).

I received it up to 559 on a cubical quad fractal antenna for 6m. Unfortunately no 6m QSO took place during the period that the beacon was in."

Grazie Emilio.

DX-Cluster spots...

Date & time Spotter QRG Mode DX km Prop. Comments
2022-01-16 12:28:24 IK0OKY (JN61ES) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RC) 7508 JN61ES<TEP>KG46RC 319 now 
2022-01-16 12:06:59 IK0OKY (JN61ES) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RC) 7508 JN61ES<TEP>KG46RC still in 
2022-01-16 11:48:38 IK0OKY (JN61ES) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RC) 7508 JN61ES<TEP>KG46RC 559
2022-01-16 11:16:44 IK0FTA (JN61GV) 40.675 CW ZS6WAB/B (KG46RB) 7522 599 in jn61

Propagation: The solar flux on the day was 116 with an A index of 22 and a K index of 2-3. Considering that the beacon and the stations in Rome are equidistant from the geomagnetic equator, I presume the primary mode of propagation was TEP - Trans-Equatorial Propagation. It's probably no accident that the opening was just after local noon.

Early warming... This report I think shows the real value of the 40 MHz band as an early warning system. There is a huge gap between 28 MHz and 50 MHz bands and the 10m band will be open many many times without the propagation ever reaching 6m.

The 40 MHz band helps bridge this gap and this will become even more important as the solar flux begins to rise and the MUF goes above the 28 MHz band and into the low-VHF spectrum.

On this occasion, there was no opening on the 50 MHz band but that won't always be the case. In the future, there will be times when the reception of a 40 MHz beacon will alert VHF operators to get ready on 50 MHz and to have their beams pointing in the right direction.

Links...
1) As always, I have plenty of info on my 40 MHz page.

Opening on the 40 MHz band from Michigan to Georgia & Florida - 11th Jan 2022

11th January 2022: In an earlier post, I explained how the first contact between two of the new experimental 40 MHz stations in the USA took place on the 9th of January 2022.

Roughly 48 hours later, the band opened up again with much better conditions.

It starts on the 10th of January with N2OTO in Florida reporting reception of the 40 MHz FT8 signal from WM2XAN in Michigan, a distance of roughly 2040kms. The time was 21:15 UTC which would have been 4:15 PM in the afternoon in Florida.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
WM2XAN N2OTO 8m FT8 2039 km 21:15:00

Later in the evening, there was an opening after 11pm local time between WM2XEJ in Georgia and WM3XAN in Michigan. This was around 04:15 UTC on the 11th of January.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

WM2XEJ WM2XAN 8m FT4 1226 km 04:14:58

The two experimental stations then proceeded to complete contacts on FT8, Q64A, FST4, FT4 and SSB over a 20 minute period on 40.662 MHz.

Ken Miller WM2XAN in Michigan gives the following report on his Facebook account... "At about 03:45 conditions between WM2XAN and WM2XEJ began to develop.  First noticed on WSPR, we switched to FT8 and although there was a struggle at first to complete the QSO, it finally happened as conditions began to peak.  Then we began to switch through the modes and making contacts. 

04:02 completed QSO on FT8

04:05 completed QSO on Q64A

04:09 completed QSO on FST4-12s

04:15 completed QSO on FT4

04:22 completed QSO on SSB

 

This was a long lasting event, with big signals at the beginning and end of the session, with a relatively quick null in the propagation at the mid point of our QSO’s. "

Ken also reports using an ICOM IC-7300 for his 40 MHz experiments.

WSPR... There were also several WSPR reports and it looks like this is becoming the mode of choice for beacon experiments on the 40 MHz band in North America.

These are the stations that heard WM2XAN in Michigan...

Interesting to see VE1PYE was listening from Nova Scotia.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km

2022-01-10 21:44 WM2XAN EN74 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663894 0.5 -14 -4 2063

2022-01-10 21:52 WM2XAN EN74 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663895 0.5 -15 -4 2063

2022-01-10 22:08 WM2XAN EN74 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663894 0.5 -16 -4 2063

2022-01-10 22:14 WM2XAN EN74 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663894 0.5 -18 -4 2063

2022-01-11 01:20 WM2XAN EN74 K8HTL EN74oh 40.663499 100 -4 0 27

2022-01-11 02:56 WM2XAN EN74 VE1PYE FN84et 40.66347 100 -18 0 1690

2022-01-11 02:58 WM2XAN EN74 VE1PYE FN84et 40.663466 100 -17 0 1690

2022-01-11 06:20 WM2XAN EN74oh WM2XEJ EM83ji 40.663487 100 -22 -4 1226

Outside of K8HTL which is Ken's own amateur radio call, the rest of the signals are typical for one-hop Sporadic-E.

These are the stations that heard WM2XEJ in Georgia...

It's curious to see that there were three reports from KC5LT at 348 kms. Mode of propagation?? Tropo? aircraft scatter? Meteor scatter? It seems to be a bit too close of Sporadic-E. 

It's a bit like some of the signals in that range on the 28 MHz band, it can be hard to be sure exactly sure of the propagation mode unless you're sitting at the radio and you use other clues.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km 

2022-01-11 03:28 WM2XEJ EM83 WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663458 10 -11 0 1214

2022-01-11 05:56 WM2XEJ EM83 WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663462 10 -25 1 1214

2022-01-11 06:04 WM2XEJ EM83 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663453 10 4 0 841

2022-01-11 06:04 WM2XEJ EM83 WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663462 10 -10 0 1214

2022-01-11 06:18 WM2XEJ EM83 WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663462 10 -11 0 1214

2022-01-11 06:22 WM2XEJ EM83ji WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663466 10 -6 -2 1226

2022-01-11 14:24 WM2XEJ EM83ji KC5LT EM86 40.663454 10 -21 -1 348

2022-01-11 15:00 WM2XEJ EM83ji KC5LT EM86 40.663453 100 -21 -3 348

2022-01-11 15:04 WM2XEJ EM83ji KC5LT EM86 40.663454 100 -21 1 348

While none of the above is ground breaking propagation wise, it is never the less a first for these experimental 40 MHz stations in the USA.

Link...

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

2021 Report for the 40-MHz EI1KNH beacon

In this post, we'll look at the EI1KNH beacon in Ireland which transmits on 40.013 MHz and how many times it was spotted on the DX Cluster in 2021.

The map above shows the spots for 2021. A total of 21 stations reported the beacon the cluster which is down a little on the 26 in 2020. 

If we count just a maximum of one spot per station per day then there were 52 spots in 2021 compared to 77 in 2020.

Update - 11th Jan 2021: After posting this, I subsequently found out that the DXSummit cluster is missing a LOT of the dx spots for the 40 MHz band. I'll have to rework and update this post.

These are the top spotters of the EI1KNH 40 MHz beacon (again, based on counting just one spot maximum per person per day)

As the map shows above, most were in the region of 500 to 1700kms from the beacon which is a typical distance for Sporadic-E signals at 40 MHz during the Summer season.

The report for the year 2020 can be seen HERE

The EI1KNH 40 MHz beacon which is just to the south of Dublin first became operational in May of 2020.

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 EI1KNH beacon can be found here... https://www.qrz.com/db/EI1KNH/

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

Contact on the 40 MHz band in the USA between two experimental stations - 9th Jan 2022

 

9th January 2022: In the second half of 2021, a number of amateur radio stations in the USA applied for experimental permits for the 40 MHz band... see this previous post.

On the 9th of January at 04:15 UTC, WM2XEJ in Georgia managed to complete a two way FT8 contact with WM2XAN in Michigan on 40.662 MHz. (Note: Local time in the USA would have been late on the evening of the 8th)

The distance was around 1,230 kms and it's possible that the propagation mode was mid-Winter Sporadic-E. WM2XAN reports that it may have been due to Auroral-E. The K-index was at 5 late on the 8th of January which gives some credence to the Au-E theory.

While some of the US experimental stations have exchanged WSPR reports up to now, this is I think the first actual contact between two US experimental stations on the 40 MHz band.

The PSKReporter website shows that WM2XEJ was also heard locally by KS4OT in Georgia.

Once we get to late April and early May and the start of the Sporadic-E season, 40 MHz contacts and reports like this should become more common.

Link...
1) For more information on the 40 MHz band, see my page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

2021 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 2021.

Looking through the DX Summit DX-Cluster, I could only find 12 spots for the beacon on 40 MHz in 2021 and that was from just 9 stations. This is in marked contrast to the 146 spots from 16 stations in 2020.

(The 21M085 is I presume a CB station in Sweden who spotted it on the DX cluster. He was supposed to be 116km from the beacon so I made a rough assumption about his location.)

I was wondering initially if there was something wrong with the cluster as there seems to have been a large drop in DX spots in 2021.

There were no spots during the months of June, July or August which suggests to me that the beacon was off air during the Sporadic-E season. Considering I can see plenty of spots for the Irish 40 MHz beacons during the same time period, it would certainly suggest that the Danish 40 MHz was not transmitting.

The beacon itself was certainly off air while a fault in the PA stage was being repaired in September & October so perhaps it was operating with no RF output from late May 2021 until the end of August 2021??

Here are the top spotters for 2021...

# of spots for OZ7IGY/B on the DX Cluster

Curious Fact... As of the end of 2021, there are a total of about 500 spots for the OZ7IGY beacon since it first became operational on 40 MHz in 2007. Out of all of the spots, there isn't one from outside Europe. There are no double hop Sporadic-E reports. There must have been plenty of times when the 40 MHz signal was audible in North America and South Africa.

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

Listening to the EI1KNH 40 MHz beacon during the 2022 Quadrantids meteor shower

The 2022 Quadrantid meteor shower was predicted to peak at 21:00 UTC on the 3rd of January and as an experiment, I wanted to see if I could detect the peak using the EI1KNH beacon on the 40 MHz band.

First, let me set out what I did. The EI1KNH beacon transmits on 40.013 MHz using both CW and the PI4 digital mode. It is 213 kms from my location and is is badly screened by mountains to the south-west of the beacon site.

Using just a 28 MHz vertical antenna, I listened for two 18-hour periods for two days i.e. 18:00 UTC on the 3rd of January to 12:00 UTC on the 4th of January AND from 18:00 UTC on the 4th of January to 12:00 UTC on the 5th of January. For both 18 hour sessions, I monitored the frequency for PI4 signals.

Some of the decodes are shown above so I had some success. This is the distribution of decodes...

The chart with the Blue bars shows the number of decodes on the 3rd & 4th of January and I had 22 decodes in total. There seems to be a peak in the number of PI4 decodes from 02:00 UTC to 08:00 UTC on the morning of the 4th of January.

During the 18 hour period on the 4th & 5th of January, I had just 8 decodes.

Was the experiment a success??? Well... maybe. I came to following conclusions...

1) To do the experiment properly, I should probably have monitored over several days. Maybe something like 2 days before the peak and 2 days after.

2) I don't think PI4 is the best mode for meteor scatter. The PI4 transmission is about 20 seconds in length and many of the bursts heard were quite short. I'm not sure how much of the signal I would need to hear for a valid decode but I suspect I was only getting the really big meteor scatter bursts. As can be seen from the chart, the 'peak' is hardly outstanding. 

3) With the distance around 210kms, I think I'm a bit too close. If I was further away... say 500-1000kms then I think the meteor scatter bursts on 40 MHz would be much better. As I'm only 210 kms, I am also getting some aircraft reflections and I'm not 100% all of the signals heard were actually meteor scatter. The longer distance would also rule out any tropo.

In conclusion: The attraction of PI4 for me was that I could just leave the radio on a frequency and count the number of decodes afterwards. It was a worthwhile experiment but I get the feeling that I was only seeing the 'peak' with a very low resolution. 

I'll probably try some experiments again for a future meteor shower but I'll use a different signal and mode.

Pause on new 40 MHz experimental permits in the USA

In a previous post, I outlined how seven experimental licenses were issued for the 40 MHz band in the USA. It now seems as if the FCC, the licensing authority in the USA are now turning down new applications.

It's possible there may be two reasons for this...

1) The FCC may have been contacted by existing users of the 40 MHz band about their fear of interference from these new experimental stations.

2) The FCC may feel that this is an attempt by radio amateurs to gain access to a new VHF band by the back door so to speak.

Hopefully, the FCC will be assured that the licenses issues are issued to people who want to conduct propagation experiments and it's not just another band for talking or DX-ing.

Links...
1) My 40 MHz page

Successful WSPR reports on the 40 MHz band in the USA - Nov 2021

Over the last few months seven stations in the USA have received experimental permits for the 40 MHz band... see previous post.

While a few have tried FT8, a number have been using the WSPR mode as an experimental beacon. 

A list of of some of the reports are shown below with maps shown above.

1) WX2XCC in California is operated by Chris, N3IZN and he has a remote receiver listening for his own WSPR transmissions. During what was probably a Sporadic-E opening on the 40 MHz band, he was decoded by VA7MM in Vancouver in western Canada at a distance of 1819 kms.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km
2021-10-28  22:12 WM2XCC DM13 N3IZN/SDR DM13ji 40.663484 2 7 0 21
2021-11-28 17:48 WM2XCC DM13 VA7MM CN89og 40.663488 2 -17 0 1819

2) WM2XEJ in Georgia is operated by Tom, WB4JWM and his WSPR signal has been reported by two stations... NZ2X and N4WLO.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km
2021-11-23 15:08 WM2XEJ EM83 NZ2X EM83ij 40.663473 10 5 0 25
2021-11-29 17:48 WM2XEJ EM83 N4WLO EM50uo 40.663433 10 -23 0 589

While NZ2X is a local station, the distance to N4WLO is 589 kms which is pretty short if it was Sporadic-E.

3) WX2XCW is operated by Hal, NR7V is just in the far north-west of Washington state. He is very close to the city of Vancouver and all of the reports are from local Canadian stations.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift
2021-10-28 22:06 WM2XCW CN88 VA7MM CN89og 40.663527 0.2 2 0
2021-10-28 22:06 WM2XCW CN88 VE7UTS CN89li 40.663524 0.2 -8 0
2021-11-22 18:16 WM2XCW CN88 VE7RPX CN89lh 40.663529 2 -16 0
2021-11-22 18:36 WM2XCW CN88 VE7AFZ CN89ji 40.663527 2 -28 0

Overall, it's still early days but hopefully more stations will start transmitting on WSPR and more will start listening and uploading their spots to the WSPRnet website.

Link...

1) More info on my 40 MHz page

New experimental license issued for the 40 MHz band in Canada - Q4 2021

In a recent post, I outlined how seven stations in the USA had been given experimental permits for the 40 MHz band.

One of those permits (WM2XCW) went to Halden Field, NR7V in the far north-west of Washington state. Halden also holds the Canadian callsign of VE7UTS and he has also received an experimental license from the Canadian authorities for the 40 MHz band.

The experimental callsign allocated is CGB209 and it is for 50 watts ERP from a fixed location in a 4 kHz wide frequency allocation centered on 40.6635 MHz.

VE7UTS writes... "CGB209 is now transmitting from the same location as VE7UTS on a 10-minute interval.  The VE7UTS receiver is deaf when CGB209 is transmitting.  

CGB209 is encoded in reverse sequence in the WSPR packet because WSPR protocol doesn't support numbers in a callsign suffix or a letter as a callsign's 3rd character."

CGB209 has been transmitting for the last few weeks on WSPR on 40 MHz and has been received by the following stations locally in the Vancouver area.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W                 SNR drift 
2021-11-16 20:02 902BGC CN89 VE7RPX CN89lh 40.663529 0.2 -3 0 
2021-11-17 04:52 902BGC CN89 VA7MM CN89og 40.663528 0.2 -13 0 
2021-11-21 15:36 902BGC CN89 VE7UTS CN89li 40.663406 1 -13 0 
2021-11-23 05:30 902BGC CN89 VE7AFZ CN89ji 40.663526 1 -25 0 

VE7UTS / CGB209 is currently using 1-watt into a quarter wave ground place and hopes to upgrade to 10-watts soon.

Analysis... The main propagation mode for experiments in the short term is going to be Sporadic-E and with a maximum single hop distance of about 2200kms, all of the current US experimenters will be out of range with the exception of WM2XCC in southern California. 

Over the Winter months, there will be plenty of Sporadic-E openings on the 40 MHz band and it's likely that anyone in the LA to San Francisco area will be able to hear the 40 MHz WSPR signals from Canada if they put their mind to it.

From the second half of April 2022, the single hop Sporadic-E openings will become a lot more common. In May, June & July 2022, some double hop openings to the eastern half of the USA are possible.

F2 to Florida???... As we head towards the sunspot maximum, the maximum usable frequency will climb upwards and will reach the 40 MHz band. It will be interesting to see if there will be a 4000km opening via F2 propagation from Vancouver to Florida?

Canadian Info: If any radio amateurs in Canada are interested in trying for a 40 MHz 'Developmental Licence', have a look at this website for more info... https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf11373.html#how

40 MHz Info: As always, check out my 40 MHz page which has plenty of information about this new 8m band.... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

Example of TEP on 40 MHz between South Africa & Spain - 30th Oct 2021

Back on the 30th of October 2021, there was a nice TEP opening on the new 40 MHz band between South Africa and Spain.

Joan, EA3ERE reports that he heard the ZS6WAB beacon on 40.675 MHz using an ICOM IC-7300 and a dipole for the HF bands. The distance was almost 8000kms.

Joan kindly sent on a video of the reception and it's shown below...

There are now 7 experimental US stations on the 40 MHz band - Nov 2021

18th Nov 2021: In previous posts, I detailed how some amateur radio stations in the USA had managed to obtain special experimental permits to operate on the new 40 MHz band. 

The first 40 MHz permit WL2XUP near Atlanta was issued back in June of 2021. See this previous post.

The second permit WL2XZQ near Houston was issued in August. See this previous post.

As of mid November 2021, there are now seven experimental permits for the 40 MHz and these are shown on the map above and in the list below. An eight from Alabama is pending.

The permit allows for experiments in the frequency range of 40.660 to 40.700 MHz which is the 40 MHz ISM band (Industrial, Scientific, Medical).

The permits allow ERP powers in the region of 100-400 watts and the license lasts for two years.

Propagation: If you examine the map above, you'll note that the distances between the various experimenters.

For example, take WM2XCS in New Jersey. He is 950kms from WM2XAN, 1200kms from WL2XUP and 2250kms from WL2XZQ. 

WL2XZQ in Houston is 1800kms from WM2XAN.

WM2XCC in California is 2100kms from WL2XZQ, 3050kms from the stations near Atlanta, 1800kms from WM2XCW.

WM2XCW is the far north-west of Washington state is 3150kms from Houston and 3900kms from New Jersey.

It is highly unlikely that tropospheric propagation will contribute much to the experiments. The distances for aircraft scatter are also likely to be too far. Some in the 500-1200km range may manage to complete contacts with digital modes like MSK144 with meteor scatter.

The real workhorse on the 40 MHz band is going to be Sporadic-E. There may be a few openings over the next few months but things will really get going at the end of April 2022. At that stage, the experimental stations will have had time to get their radios and antennas ready for the band and I'd expect that contacts in the range of 800 to about 2200 kms will be common with something in the region of 1700kms being the most common distance.

In the second half of May 2022, double hop Sporadic-E openings will become more common and at that stage, contacts from the west coast to the eastern half of the USA should be possible.

Crossband: Just like in Europe, there are likely to be crossband contacts from 40 MHz to 28 MHz and from 40 MHz to 50 MHz with those who cannot transmit on the 8m band. 

Someone doesn't need an special 40 MHz permit to take part in the experiments. The experimental stations are likely to be using SSB, CW, FT8 and WSPR and I'm sure they would like to make as many crossband contacts as possible as well as receiving any reports of their transmissions.

Analysis: It's great to to this surge in interest in the 40 MHz band in the USA. The 8m band is NOT just another band. It is halfway between the 28 MHz and 50 MHz bands and it can be useful for exploring just how high the maximum usable frequency (MUF) goes as the solar activity increases as we head towards the sunspot maximum.

For example, it would be interesting to know what kind of solar flux/sunspot number is required before there are east-west openings between say California and the eastern part of the United States.

It would be really nice if some stations in South America were able to listen on the 40 MHz band and then try to complete some crossband TEP contacts with experimental stations in the southern states of the USA.

Links...
Check out my 40 MHz page for more info... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html