Sporadic-E on the 50 MHz band - 12th Jan 2023

I received an email from Chris, IX1CKN to let me know about an opening on the 50 MHz band on Thursday the 12th of January 2023. The opening was a little unusual in that it was short lived and took place late in the evening at 20:50 UTC.

The map shows the FT8 contact with John, EI2FG on south coast of Ireland, a distance of about 1300kms.

In a later correspondence between IX1CKN and EI2FG by email, John reports that he worked about 20 stations in a short period of time and nearly all within the same geographic area in Italy.

As for the propagation mode, it was almost certainly Sporadic-E even if it's late in the evening in the Winter as opposed to the more usual daylight openings during the Summer months. There is a small peak in Sporadic-E activity in the middle of the Winter which a lot of people don't expect.

Paul, MI3LDO reports that there have been several Sporadic-E openings after sunset in the last few days with reception of low-band VHF signals from France in the 30-35 MHz range.

There has also been a recent opening from Ireland to Brazil on 50 MHz which was most likely a single Sporadic-E hop to the south and then linking into a TEP opening to South America.

The take home message is that there is plenty of activity on the 50 MHz band at the moment, you just need to spend some time listening and calling on the band.

Trans-Atlantic opening on the 50 MHz band - Fri 16th Dec 2022

There was an interesting trans-Atlantic opening on the 50 MHz band between Europe and North America on Friday the 17th of December 2022 and it looks as if it was either F2 layer or multi-hop Sporadic-E propagation.

The map above shows the 50 MHz paths open via FT8 for AB1OC in New Hampshire. There is evidence of plenty of Sporadic-E activity to the eastern half of the United States but several stations in the UK and Ireland can seen.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
G0CHE AB1OC 6m FT8 5265 km 15:14:44
G4IFX AB1OC 6m FT8 5244 km 15:16:44
AB1OC M0DEP 6m FT8 5194 km 15:13:29
G0GGG AB1OC 6m FT8 5149 km 15:15:14
AB1OC G0HVQ 6m FT8 5117 km 14:38:26
G4RRA AB1OC 6m FT8 5055 km 15:10:44
AB1OC G8IXN 6m FT8 4979 km 14:42:29
EI7GUB AB1OC 6m FT8 4819 km 14:24:14
AB1OC EI3KD 6m FT8 4728 km 14:32:29
EI2IP AB1OC 6m FT8 4688 km 15:09:44

There are plenty of openings on the 50 MHz band at the moment but most of them are from areas closer to the equator. In the last week or so, there have been some very long paths across the Pacific from Australia and New Zealand to the USA. What makes the North Atlantic opening interesting is that it was East-West and it was from a northerly latitude.

It looks as if the opening itself was reasonably modest and it was mainly confined to what might be described as 'large stations' i.e. the numbers were in the tens rather than the hundreds.

WW1L in Maine and W3UR in Maryland have similar list of FT8 across the Atlantic...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
G0CHE WW1L 6m FT8 4965 km 15:15:14
G4IFX WW1L 6m FT8 4945 km 14:49:44
WW1L M0DEP 6m FT8 4894 km 14:44:28
G0GGG WW1L 6m FT8 4850 km 15:15:14
G0HVQ WW1L 6m FT8 4817 km 14:54:44
WW1L G0HVQ 6m FT8 4817 km 14:47:56
WW1L G7RHF 6m FT8 4779 km 14:53:27
WW1L G4RRA 6m FT8 4756 km 15:33:59
WW1L G8IXN 6m FT8 4681 km 14:40:59
EI7GUB WW1L 6m FT8 4518 km 14:13:14
WW1L EI3KD 6m FT8 4428 km 15:02:29

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
G0CHE W3UR 6m FT8 5858 km 15:16:14
W3UR G4IFX 6m FT8 5838 km 15:31:58
W3UR M0DEP 6m FT8 5787 km 14:59:28
W3UR G0GGG 6m FT8 5743 km 14:59:30
W3UR G0HVQ 6m FT8 5711 km 14:59:56
W3UR G7RHF 6m FT8 5673 km 14:59:29
W3UR G4RRA 6m FT8 5648 km 15:31:59
W3UR G8IXN 6m FT8 5571 km 15:31:59
W3UR EI3KD 6m FT8 5321 km 15:33:29

Looking from the eastern side of the Atlantic, the FT8 paths for EI3KD on the south coast of Ireland are shown above. I've included the full path lists for EI3KD and G1IFX at the end of this post.

Analysis... This post certainly isn't an exhaustive list of who worked what but it gives an overview of what the 6m trans-Atlantic opening was like. The big question is if the opening was via the F2 layer or was it multi-hop Sporadic-E like during the Summer months?

In the last three days, there have been 29 M-Class flare from the sun and the solar flux on the 16th was up to 166. It would suggest that F2 propagation might be one explanation. There were some Sporadic-E openings on the day in Europe and North America so the possibility of trans-Atlantic multi-hop Sporadic-E can't be ruled.

Paul Logan, MI3LDO reports that conditions in the low VHF band (~40 MHz) suggests that it was more likely to be Sporadic-E rather than F2 layer.

It's worth remembering that the peak of this sunspot cycle is unlike all of those that came before. Now most radio amateurs are using weak signal modes like FT8 and are listening for signals buried in the noise. In the previous cycles, CW and SSB were the dominant modes.

I didn't see any reports of CW or SSB contacts for the trans-Atlantic opening on the 16th and I'm quite sure that without FT8, it would have been a much smaller affair with just a small few stations making contacts.

The take home message is that if it was F2 propagation then it's likely to happen again. If it was multi-hop Sp-E Sporadic-E then it may not occur again for a while. Keep those beams pointing across the Atlantic and wait for the next 6m opening.

Cont...

FT8 paths for EI3KD in Ireland...

13,300km opening on the 50 MHz band between Costa Rica and Kuwait - 28th Apr 2022

Following on from a recent post about some long distance openings on the 50 MHz band, Charlie TI5CDA has been in contact to report on another recent opening between Central America and the Middle East.

On the 28th of April 2022, TI5CDA in Costa Rica completed a successful FT8 contact with 9K2NO in Kuwait on 50.313 MHz. The distance was in the region of 13,300 kms.

The solar flux on the day was 132. With the increasing sunspot numbers and the use of new weak signal digital modes, openings like this on the 50 MHz band are going to become increasingly more common, especially for those living in more southerly latitudes.

50 MHz openings to South Africa start as the Sporadic-E season begins - 29th Apr 2022

On the 28th of April 2022, Chris SP4K in Poland reported that there was an opening on the 50 MHz to South Africa, a distance of almost 9000kms.

Chris writes... "The 2022 6m DX Season is officially open here in KO03. Short Es linked TEP to ZS resulted in two QSOs in the log - ZS6NJ and ZS6AF".

The Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP) season tends to peak around the equinox while the Sporadic-E season peaks during the Summer months.

Late April and early May can be a very good time for North-South paths as the two seasons overlap.

Explanation... For stations in Spain, Italy & Greece, they are far enough south to be able to to exploit 50 MHz TEP openings to the south of Africa. Stations further north are too far away for TEP but that changes when the Sporadic-E season starts and there is an opening to the south.

This allows northerly stations to now access the TEP zone further south. This can be seen in the map above. The usual Sporadic-E zone of signals in the 1000-2000km range are shown. For SP4K, there was an opening to the south by Greece and then onto the TEP zone over Africa.

This is the situation for all northerly stations in Europe or the USA and Canada. Late April and early May is the time to beam south and look for those openings to the southern hemisphere.

Log for SP4K...

 Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
SP4K ZS6NJ 6m FT8 8909 km 16:35:42
SP4K ZS6OB 6m FT8 8880 km 16:36:14
ZS6AF SP4K 6m FT8 8867 km 16:39:28
SP4K ZS6WN 6m FT8 8678 km 16:39:14

18,760km opening on the 50 MHz band between Trinidad and Indonesia - 25th Apr 2022

Monday 25th April 2022: It was was interesting to see there there was an 18,760km opening on the 50 MHz band between Trinidad in the Caribbean to Indonesia. 

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

9Y4D YB1AR 6m FT8 18763 km 15:25:59
YB1BA 9Y4D 6m FT8 18673 km 15:10:27
4X1TI 9Y4D 6m FT8 10001 km 18:28:57
9Y4D 4X4DK 6m FT8 9986 km 18:33:26
9Y4D 5B4ALJ 6m FT8 9702 km 18:15:29
9Y4D SV9CVY 6m FT8 9023 km 18:32:59
9Y4D EA8RH 6m FT8 5058 km 17:25:26
9Y4D EA8TL 6m FT8 5051 km 17:33:26

With the solar flux up at 157, it looks as if the maximum usable frequency (MUF) in these southerly latitudes is reaching the 50 MHz band.

21,000km long path opening on 50 MHz between Australia & the Canary Islands - 15th March 2022

At the start of March 2022, I reported on how there was some 18,000km plus openings on the 50 MHz band between New Zealand and the Canary Islands. See previous post HERE.

About a week later on the 15th of March 2022, this distance was exceeded when there was a long path opening on 50 MHz between the east coast of Australia and the Canary Islands. The distance on this occasion was an amazing 21,100 kms!

I'm a little bit late with the post as I've been busy but it's worth highlighting that it happened. There is no shortage of long distance openings on the 50 MHz band at the moment but these tend to be mostly North-South and TEP related.

It's easy to just look at the map and so what? But remember this was at 50 MHz, a VHF band and not down on the HF bands where long path openings are pretty common.

It looks as if FT8 was used by most stations for the opening. The partial screen grab above shows the contact between EA8TL on Tenerife and VK4MA near Brisbane.

Amazingly, Jorge EA8TL was using just a Hexbeam for the contact and he was beaming towards the Caribbean.

The opening wasn't confined to just VK4MA and EA8TL. These are some of the spots from the DX-Cluster.

EA8DO 50313 VK4HJ 21:55 14 Mar 22 ft8 Australia
EA8DO 50313 VK4MA 21:43 14 Mar 22 ft8 Australia
EA8DO 50313 VK4QG 21:43 14 Mar 22 ft8 Australia
EA8TL 50313 VK4MA 21:42 14 Mar 22 ft8 Australia

Propagation Mode??? ...It's probably no accident that all stations involved in the opening were no more than 25 degrees or so from the equator. Radio propagation at these latitudes reaches much higher frequencies than for those located much further north or south.

It's highly likely that a large part of the path was due to chordal mode without the signal hitting the ground.

As for how much of the signal was due to F2? Sp-E? TEP?

Just for the record, the solar flux on the day was 110.

Long path opening on 50 MHz between South America and Asia - 12th March 2022

12th March 2022: There seems to have been a really good opening on the 50 MHz band at about 01:00 to 04:00 from South America to the east of Asia (Thanks to N0JK on the tip off for this).

The map above from the PSK Reporter website shows the paths as reported for PY2XB in Brazil. The site shows the shortest path between two stations but I think in reality, the contacts from Brazil to Japan & Taiwan were all via long path.

Long Path V Short Path... The map above shows the situation. For someone in the south of Brazil, Taiwan is effectively the other side of the world and there isn't that much difference between short path or long path.

I'm subject to correction on this but I think this extensive opening on 50 MHz was around 21,000kms via the long path.

The map at the start of the post shows that there was a path also from Brazil to Hawaii at 01:58 UTC. The map above also shows where the daylight was at about 03:00 UTC. It was likely that there was strong TEP to the west of South America which likely played a factor in the opening.

This chart is a point to point HF propagation forecast and shows how likely an opening is on each of the bands from PY2XB in Brazil to BV3UF in Taiwan. As you can see, the long path on 28 MHz is very good from 24:00 to 06:00.

By contrast, the short path prediction is very poor at this time. The DX spots just report stations heard but no-one seems to mention short path or long path.

Propagation Mode???... As mentioned already, TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) is likely to have been involved but how much? Was it partially TEP with the rest of the path via F2 propagation? Was there greyline and chordal propagation involved across the Pacific where the sun was setting?

Some seem to be very quick to explain every long distance opening as being simply TEP but remember that we're talking about a path of 21,000kms at 50 MHz. I'd suggest that it's a lot more complex than that.

Just for reference purposes, the solar flux on the day was about 127.

Notes... This was a reasonably good opening between two areas with a lot of 6m activity. The maps and data I have presented above is just a sample of this opening but it does demonstrate the distances achieved.

18,700km contact on 50 MHz between ZL1RS and EA8DO - 9th March 2022

A few days ago, I reported on an 18,000km+ opening on the 7th of March on the 50 MHz band between New Zealand (ZL1) and the Canary Islands (EA8). The previous post is HERE

On the 9th March 2022, there was another similar opening on 50 MHz but this time, it was only between two stations. As the map shows above, ZL1RS on the northern part of New Zealand managed to complete a contact using FT8 with EA8DO in the Canary Islands.

This is a screen shot of the FT8 contact...

It looks as if the distance was in the region of 18,694 kms which is pretty remarkable for the 50 MHz band.

The opening on this occasion was at 21:07 UTC. The previous opening from ZL1 to EA8 on the 7th was between roughly 21:48 to 23:22 UTC.

Besides the distance, there are two things that I find interesting about this contact.

1) Time... For the opening on the 7th of March, it looks as if the path from ZL to EA8 was open before or at the start of the opening from EA8 to South America.

PSK Reporter log for EA8DO

For the opening on the 9th of March, it was the same. Why is this? Normally openings follow the sun moving from East to West. Why did the main opening from the Canary Islands to South America happen after the more westerly opening to New Zealand?

Will there be more openings like this from EA8 to ZL1 and will they all be at the start of the opening to South America?

2) No opening from ZL1 to South America... In the previous opening on the 7th, I noted how none of the four ZL1 stations in New Zealand heard or were heard by anyone in South America. 

On the 9th, the same happened again. Note the map at the top of the post from the PSK Reporter website. There are no FT8 reports from any station in South America despite the fact that the path crosses over the continent.

As I mentioned in the previous post, it's almost like chordal hop with the signal going between different parts of the ionosphere without reaching the ground.

Propagation Mode?... How exactly does a signal from the Canary Islands reach what is effectively the other side of the planet on 50 MHz? Trans-Equatorial Propagation is probably responsible for part of the path from the Canaries to South America but how did the signal get across the Pacific?

Someone suggested that antipodal focusing may be a factor in the opening but it's worth noting that this is 50 MHz, not 14 MHz. It may help but it doesn't explain what happens to make the path or paths possible.

It's good that we have two openings with some similarities but like all good science experiments, we need more openings and more data. Two data points isn't exactly 5-Sigma! 😄

The PSK Reporter log for EA8DO is shown below and you can see that ZL1RS was at the start of the opening.

18,000km+ opening on 50 MHz between New Zealand & the Canary Islands - 7th March 2022

Monday 7th March 2022: There was an extremely long distance opening on the 50 MHz band between the north island of New Zealand (ZL1) and the Canary Islands (EA8) and in most cases, the distances were well in excess of 18,000kms.

If you consider that the circumference of the Earth is 40,000kms then this opening was close to the border line of what is short path or long path. See EA7 below.

Looking at the reports on the PSK Reporter website, the opening from ZL1 to EA8 occurred around 22:30 UTC. What's interesting is the EA8 stations had what looks like a TEP opening to South America about an hour later but it didn't seem to coincide with the ZL1 opening.

Questions... Like many openings, this one raises more questions than it answers.

1) Was part of the path due to TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation)? If it coincided with the opening to South America then yes but it seems to have been before it.

2) The map above for ZL1RS in New Zealand shows the shortest paths to the stations in the log on the PSK Reporter website. Was the path to EA8 direct or slightly skewed? Was the real path not actually over South America?

3) I checked the reports for the ZL1 stations and none of them show a South American station and yet, the opening was supposed to have gone over the continent of South America. There seems to have been an opening later from the south of New Zealand (ZL3) to Central America and Mexico. Was the real EA8-ZL1 path skewed and further north?

4) Propagation mode?... I would think that a large part of the path was due to chordal mode without the signal hitting the ground.

Did the signal pass over South America by chordal hop without reaching the ground?

5) How did the signal get across the Pacific which is a feat in itself?

6) How much of the path was due to F2? Sp-E? TEP?

Answers... If we were at the peak of the solar cycle then it may not be a big deal. But we're not, we're just on the way out of solar minimum, the solar flux is just 118 and this is up at 50 MHz. 

I think at best, we can make educated guesses but I think that's all we can do. Whatever the reason for the opening, it's probably no accident that this opening occurred near the equinox and it's likely to happen again.

Reports...These are some of the reports from the PSK Reporter website...

ZL1RS...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
ZL1RS EA8/DF4UE 6m FT8 18986 km 22:23:29
ZL1RS EA8AXT 6m FT8 18828 km 22:19:29
ZL1RS EA8RH 6m FT8 18745 km 22:35:56
ZL1RS EA8TL 6m FT8 18742 km 22:34:56
ZL1RS EA8TH 6m FT8 18694 km 23:19:26

ZL1SG...
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
ZL1SG EA8/DF4UE 6m FT8 19019 km 22:06:56
EA8AQV ZL1SG 6m FT8 18929 km 21:48:11
ZL1SG EA8AXT 6m FT8 18861 km 22:00:59
EA8AXT ZL1SG 6m FT8 18861 km 21:49:41
ZL1SG EA8RH 6m FT8 18777 km 22:33:56
EA8RH ZL1SG 6m FT8 18777 km 22:31:41
ZL1SG EA8TL 6m FT8 18774 km 22:34:59
EA8TL ZL1SG 6m FT8 18774 km 22:31:41
EA8TH ZL1SG 6m FT8 18725 km 23:17:41

ZL1RQ... Note CN9YZ in Morocco & YS1AG in El Salvador...
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
ZL1RQ CN8YZ 6m FT8 19768 km 20:52:26
ZL1RQ EA8/DF4UE 6m FT8 19019 km 22:10:56
ZL1RQ EA8AXT 6m FT8 18861 km 21:36:29
EA8RH ZL1RQ 6m FT8 18777 km 22:30:41
ZL1RQ EA8RH 6m FT8 18777 km 22:11:29
ZL1RQ EA8TL 6m FT8 18774 km 22:29:29
EA8TL ZL1RQ 6m FT8 18774 km 22:17:41
EA8TH ZL1RQ 6m FT8 18725 km 23:22:41
YS1AG ZL1RQ 6m FT8 11511 km 01:31:41

ZL1AKW...
Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
EA8TH 6m FT8 18318 km 23:17:26

EA5GJ reports the following... "ZL1RS receives 3 decodes from EA7HCL on 50 MHz for the long step in an intense opening this afternoon with South America, we are facing the first Pacific-Europe Long Path openings on 6 meters, in many years... #50MHz #Propagation". 

Note that none of these appeared on the PSK Reporter site.

EA7HCL is in the far south of Spain and this opening for him was actually long path. For the EA8 stations, it was short path.

These are the spots from the DX Cluster for the evening / morning. As you can see, all of the activity seems to have been via digital modes like FT8 on 50.313 MHz...

Spotter Freq. DX Time Info Country
ZL3OZ 50313.0 YS1AG 00:36 08 Mar wkng PY. -18 El Salvador
ZL3OZ 50313.0 XE1HG 00:20 08 Mar part QSO tnx. Mexico
XE1MEX 50313.0 ZL3OY 00:04 08 Mar Tnx QSO New Zealand
XE1MEX 50313.0 ZL3OZ 00:00 08 Mar Tnx QSO New Zealand
ZL3OZ 50313.0 XE1MEX 23:30 07 Mar CQ at -6 through -19 Mexico
EA8TH 50313.0 ZL1RS 23:23 07 Mar FB Signal. TU Bob New Zealand
ZL1RS 50313.0 EA8TH 23:23 07 Mar tnx qso Canary Islands
EA8RH 50313.0 ZL1RS 22:17 07 Mar tnx qso new one New Zealand
ZL1RS 50313.0 EA8RH 22:09 07 Mar tnx qso Canary Islands
ZL1RS 50313.0 EA8TL21:48 07 Mar tnx qso Canary Islands
EA8TL 50313.0 ZL1RS 21:45 07 Mar calling you ft8 New Zealand
ZL1RS 50313.0 EA8AQV 21:32 07 Mar tnx QSO Canary Islands
ZL1RS 50313.0 EA8/DF4UE 21:26 07 Mar Canary Islands
ZL1RS 50313.0 CN8YZ 21:01 07 Mar rx only, calling ZL1RQ Morocco
ZL1RS 50313.0 EA7HCL 20:18 07 Mar 3 decodes ... Spain

12,000km opening between Australia & California - 27th Dec 2021

Monday 27th December 2021: It was interesting to see that there was a recent opening on the 50 MHz band between the SE of Australia and southern California. Unlike openings from Australia to South America, this one crossed the equator and went to North America.

There is a very active group in Australia & New Zealand using the WSPR beacon mode and on the 27th of December, VK2IJM and VK2EFM in New South Wales heard N3IZN in California.

 UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid                         MHz         W SNR drift km 
2021-12-27 01:16 N3IZN DM13ji VK2IJM QF56ni 50.294549 100 -24 0 12115 
2021-12-27 00:52 N3IZN DM13ji VK2EFM QF56oq 50.294554 100 -18 0 12091 

The distance was just over 12,000kms.

Propagation Mode?? The first most obvious answer is that it was multi-hop Sporadic-E but I suspect the reality is more complex that that. The signal path crosses the TEP zone around the equator so that may have had some impact. The solar flux is up around 120 and the MUF is now above 30 MHz most days. Is it reaching 50 MHz near the equatorial region?

Western Australia to Europe?? The example above was just over 12,000kms, that is the same distance from the west coast of Australia to the south-east of Europe. Are there openings between Europe and Australia on 50 MHz at the moment?

Opening on 50 MHz from Australia to Europe??? - 17th Dec 2021

Friday 17th December 2021: I got an interesting email from Nigel, VK6CPU informing me of what looks like an opening on the 50 MHz band from Australia & New Zealand to Europe in December!

***

Update 18th Dec: VK3ZAZ & VK6CPU says that this was a bogus reception report with a VK station in Australia using the callsign of LZ2HV to generate false reports.

It still doesn't mean that mid-Winter openings like this can't happen. It would still worthwhile for stations in the south of Europe to listen for VK stations on 6m.

***

Trans-Pacific 50 MHz opening between New Zealand and South America - 14th Dec 2021

14th December 2021: It's interesting to see that long distance paths across the Pacific on the 50 MHz band are now beginning to get better in the southern hemisphere.

The map above shows some of the 6m signals heard by ZL1RS in New Zealand with paths to South America ranging from 9,836 kms to 12,595 kms.

 Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PY4AQA 6m Q65 12595 km 22:30:30
PY2XB 6m Q65 12202 km 22:49:29
PU2MBY 6m Q65 12059 km 23:13:27
PY5EW 6m Q65 11967 km 23:33:27
PY5KD 6m Q65 11893 km 23:13:27
PT9FD 6m Q65 11825 km 23:08:29
LU5FF 6m Q65 10736 km 22:52:29
CE3VRT 6m Q65 9836 km 23:20:32

Note the mode... Q65! FT8 isn't the only weak signal mode.

The times are in UTC so in reality, this opening was during the daytime with the sun over the Pacific.

Propagation Mode??... As it's December, the Summer Sporadic-E season in the southern hemisphere has started and is likely to get better. 

If we assume the average Sporadic-E hop to be say 2000kms, did 5 or 6 of these hops line up for the 50 MHz signal to get from South America to New Zealand?

I'd be pretty certain that Sporadic-E was involved to some extent but I don't think anyone can say for certain it was 100% responsible. Was part of it chordal hop? Was the mesosphere region associated with noctilucent clouds involved?

As the openings get better, it'll be interesting to see the signals extend as far as Australia and what paths open up then.

Update from Bob, ZL1RS: Bob mentions that there have been several openings from ZL1 (North Island of New Zealand) to South America on 6m in the last few weeks.

25th Nov 2021 - CE (Chile) and PY (Brazil)

26th Nov 2021 - CE and LU (Argentina)

01st Dec 2021 - LU (RX only)

02nd Dec 2021 - CE

10th Dec 2021 - CE

14th Dec 2021 - as noted above

Bob adds... "... and on another date that I did not note, with propagation from ZL3 to SA.

... and signals from SA have been reported as received in VK3 and VK5 (while the operators were out of the shack). Having said that, the opening on 14 Dec was the most sustained so far this season ... signals in and out from 21:15 UTC until 23:15 UTC."

Big opening on 50 MHz between South Africa & Europe - 23rd Oct 2021

Saturday 23rd October 2021: I was first alerted to this big opening on the 50 MHz band between Europe and South Africa when Tom, SP5XMU posted the map on the left on Twitter and tagged me.

This is a snapshot of FT8 signals on the 50 MHz over a short period but it clearly shows an opening in progress.

As well as posting the photo, Tom writes... "First solid Trans-Equatorial Propagation #TEP on 50 MHz in Solar Cycle 25 from south Europe to South Africa"

In this post, we'll look at the opening and keep a record of how extensive the opening was.

FT8: As per usual, FT8 was the dominant mode for the opening and the list below shows how many European stations were heard by each of the African stations.

Call - # of stns heard

ZS6NJ - 86 (10 DXCC)

ZS6NK - 79

ZS6WAB - 53

ZS6AF - 44

ZS6OB - 23

ZS6JGL - 18

V51WC - 16

ZS6BOS - 15

ZS4TX - 6

ZS6AYE - 5

ZS6NK: While ZS6NK was the second highest in terms of stations heard, it was interesting to see that the path for him extended beyond the usual TEP zone.

You can see the line of stations in the south of Europe that ZS6NK heard but it goes up to the UK and Germany as well.

Here is the map of Europe in more detail...

FT8 reports from Germany & England...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

ZS6NK G0BNR 6m FT8 8965 km 14:45:26

ZS6NK DK8NE 6m FT8 8489 km 15:34:59

ZS6NK DL1YM 6m FT8 8370 km 15:34:59

It's likely that there was some Sporadic-E which allowed the TEP signals from Africa reach further north into Europe.

Sometimes, the locations where there are no signals can be interesting as well. For example, there was no path for ZS6NK to Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. Likewise in South Africa, it was the stations in the north of the country that were enjoying the TEP opening and there was no sign of the stations further south near Cape Town.

Namibia: V51WC in Namibia was also active and his FT8 is shown below...

Like the stations near in the north of South Africa, he is far enough north to avail of the TEP opening.

SSB & CW: Looking at the DX Cluster, there was some activity on SSB and CW as well. See below...

The DX cluster spots for V51 & ZS on the day are shown below. Non-FT8 are in bold...

Video: Modes of Propagation on 50 MHz by K9LA

In June of 2021, Carl Luezelschwab K9LA gave a presentation to the Madison DX Club titled 'Modes of Propagtion on 6 meters'.

There are plenty of guides and explanations about propagation on the 50 MHz band in books and on websites and they tend to be pretty basic. In this video, K9LA looks at propagation modes in more detail and as expected, things are often not as simple as they seem.

It's very easy to look at long distance contacts on the 50 MHz band and just blindly assume it has to be multi-hop Sporadic-E. As you will see in the video, we should all keep an open mind and accept that it may be due to other propagation modes. This is especially true now as the FT8 digital mode is showing that weak signal paths exist that weren't so obvious in the past with SSB or CW.

The 51 minute video can be seen below...

Some timestamps and items of interest...

00:00 to 02:20 Introduction

02:20 to 04:20 Old 50 MHz radios

The talk is then broken down as follows...

Review of all these modes
Antenna considerations
Solar Cycle 25
References

04:50 to 09:30 Fundamentals of the atmosphere and ionosphere.

It's interesting to note that K9LA questions if PMSE (Polar Mesospheric Summer Echoes) at 85kms above the Earth plays a part in bending radio signals slightly before they reach the higher Sp-E and F2 layers.

In the slide for trospheric ducting, there is an error in that it should read 450 metres as opposed to 450 kms. As K9LA observes, tropo ducting at 50 MHz is very unusual in temperate regions.

At 15:45, K9LA talks about SSSP - Short-path Summer Soltice Propagation which is linked to PMSE. It may well be that this propagation mode is responsible for many of the openings from Europe to Japan on 50 MHz as opposed to the standard 'it must be multi-hop Sporadic-E explanation'.

At 27:30, there are charts suggesting that Sporadic-E may be changing over the years.

At 32:00, Carl suggests that equatorial Sporadic-E may be a significant factor where signals are crossing the equator at local noon.

At 36:00, the video looks at Chordal Hop modes. As the image below shows, there can be a lot more going on than just simple hop Sporadic-E...

At 41:00, skewed paths are examined.

45:20 Antenna considerations

46:50 Cycle 25 status

Links...

1) I have some examples of unusual long distance paths on the 6m band on my 50 MHz page.

17,000km opening on 50 MHz between Europe and Australia - 18th July 2021

Saturday 18th July 2021: After a lull on the 17th, the path on 50 MHz between Europe and Australia opened up again on the 18th. The longest path I could find was 17,122kms from F4ARU in France to VK3ZYC in Victoria. 

From what I can tell, this 6m opening seems to have been mainly confined to the VK1 and VK3 area of SE Australia. In Europe, there was a limit as to how far north it went.

The opening seems to have started around 04:45 UTC and lasted until about 06:15 UTC. This is similar to previous openings and suggests that it is dependent on the position of the sun.

These are the DX spots from the opening...

Spotter  Freq.  DX  Time  Info  Country
VK3OT-@ 50313 IZ2RLO 05:35 18 Jul 21 JN55 FT8 Copy Italy
VK3OT-@ 50313 I2FAK 05:35 18 Jul 21 JN45 FT8 Italy
VK3OT-@ 50313.9 DK8NE 05:13 18 Jul 21 FT8 JO50<>QF12 Fed. Rep. of Germany
IK7EOT 50313 VK3ZYC 05:11 18 Jul 21 FT8 tnx qso B -12 Australia
IK7EOT 50313 VK3DUT 05:11 18 Jul 21 FT8 tnx qso b-09 Australia
SV2JAO 50313 VK3DUT 05:00 18 Jul 21 kn10<es>qf32 Australia

These are the FT8 reports from the PSK Reporter website...

Big opening on 50 MHz between Australia and Europe - 16th July 2021

16th July 2021: There was a pretty big opening on the 50 MHz band on the 16th between Australia and Europe. The map of FT8 reports for VK5PW near Adelaide is shown above. It's interesting to note that the propagation extended as far west as Belgium and the Netherlands and as far north as Finland.

These are the reports from the DX Cluster which suggests that all of the activity was on FT8...

 Spotter Freq. DX Time Info Country
VK3ZAZ-@ 50313.8 UR0MC 08:30 16 Jul Open from 0500 to 0730 Ukraine
VK3ZAZ-@ 50313.0 OH3XA 08:29 16 Jul worked in VK3 VK5 Finland 
VK3ZAZ-@ 50314.0 OH4SS 08:29 16 Jul worked in VK3 FT8 Finland
VK3ZAZ-@ 50313.0 OG3G 08:28 16 Jul CQ KP QF FT8 Finland
VK6KXW 50313.0 4L/DL7ZM 07:37 16 Jul 0620UTC,r--08,late spot Georgia
VK3OER 50313.0 PA2M 07:35 16 Jul CQ -14, few min ago Netherlands
OH4SS 50313.0 VK3OT 07:18 16 Jul KP21UC<ES>QF12AG CQ tu Australia
OG3G 50313.0 VK3OT 07:18 16 Jul CQ -12dB Australia
US0ZZ-@ 50313.7 VK5PJ 07:05 16 Jul FT8 -18 Australia
VK3OER 50313.0 OG3G 06:59 16 Jul -15 CQ DX OG3G Finland
UT4EX 50313.0 VK3OT 06:54 16 Jul tnx CQ Australia
VK6OX-@ 50313.5 OG3G 06:49 16 Jul FT8 13286km -13dB Finland
SV2JAO 50313.0 VK4HJ 06:43 16 Jul kn10<es>qg63 Australia
OG3G 50313.0 VK5SFA 06:39 16 Jul call corr Australia
VK3OER 50313.0 OH4SS 06:35 16 Jul -18 CQ DX OH4SS KP21 Finland
UT4EX 50313.0 VK5SFA 06:26 16 Jul tnx Australia
VK2WJ 50313.0 HG2DX 06:11 16 Jul FT8 QF56ss -> KN06cq Hungary
VK3OER 50313.0 YU1EL 06:04 16 Jul -22 CQ YU1EL KN04 Serbia
UR0MC 50313.0 VK5DK 05:54 16 Jul Tnx Australia
VK6OX-@ 50314.1 UT7QF 05:51 16 Jul FT8 11915km -15dB Ukraine
UT4EX 50313.0 VK5PJ 05:35 16 Jul tnx QSO 73 Australia
VK6KXW-@ 50314.9 DF5VAE 05:15 16 Jul FT8 -18dB 13751km Fed. Rep. of Germany
VK3OER 50313.0 4L/DL7ZM 05:12 16 Jul FT8 -14 wkg JA-JL Georgia
VK6KXW-@ 50314.7 DF5VAE 05:11 16 Jul FT8 -16dB 13751km Fed. Rep. of Germany
VK6KXW-@ 50314.0 HA8CE 05:07 16 Jul FT8 -13dB 12972km Hungary
VK6KXW 50313.0 UR5LAK 05:06 16 Jul tnx qso Ukraine
VK3OER 50313.0 S59A 05:05 16 Jul -17 0.5 2530 ~ CQ S59A JN76 Slovenia
VK6OX-@ 50314.7 UR5LAK 05:03 16 Jul FT8 11892km -17dB Ukraine
VK6OX-@ 50314.3 UR0MC 05:00 16 Jul FT8 11766km -26dB Ukraine
VK6KXW-@ 50314.9 UR0MC 04:43 16 Jul FT8 -14dB 11894km Ukraine
VK6KXW-@ 50314.4 OZ1IEP 04:42 16 Jul FT8 -20dB 13894km Denmark
VK6KXW-@ 50313.3 UB7K 04:39 16 Jul FT8 -12dB 11802km European Russia

It seems that when the band does open, it's pretty much at the same time every day. That's NOT a characteristic of Sporadic-E. It suggests that there is a solar influence on the propagation.

One of the more interesting paths was from VK6KXW in the west of Australia to 7S2W in the north of Sweden.

Just think about that for a second. A path on 50 MHz from Perth in Australia to a spot close to the Arctic Circle in the north of Europe AND we're near the bottom of the sunspot cycle.

It looks like the VK3, 5 and 6 stations got the best of this particular opening. The VK2 and VK4 stations were almost absent.

The longest path I could find was just over 16,000kms.

These are the FT8 reports from the PSK Reporter website...

Opening on 50 MHz from Europe to Western Australia - 15th July 2021

15th July 2021: There was a small opening on 50 MHz this time between the west coast of Australia and Europe. The two stations concerned were VK6KXW and VK6OX near Perth and the maximum distances were just over 15,000kms.

These are the spots from the PSK Reporter website...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

CT1EKY VK6KXW 6m FT8 15143 km 07:10:14
VK6KXW IZ7NLJ 6m FT8 13052 km 06:45:56
IZ7NLJ VK6KXW 6m FT8 13052 km 06:42:44
4O6AH VK6KXW 6m FT8 12924 km 06:40:14
YT1Q VK6KXW 6m FT8 12865 km 06:51:14
Z37CXY VK6KXW 6m FT8 12724 km 07:29:14
VK6KXW UR0MC 6m FT8 11898 km 06:45:26
UR0MC VK6KXW 6m FT8 11893 km 07:19:14

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
VK6OX CT1APE 6m FT8 15043 km 07:19:29
CT1EKY VK6OX 6m FT8 15036 km 07:14:44
VK6OX SV2DCD 6m FT8 12581 km 06:50:57
UR0MC VK6OX 6m FT8 11794 km 06:45:44

The only other Australian stations reported were from Darwin in the north of the continent.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
UR0MC VK4ABW 6m FT8 11218 km 06:06:44
Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
UR0MC VK8MS 6m FT8 11235 km 06:11:44

It seems unusual that there seems to be more openings from Europe to the SE of Australia (VK2 & VK3) than the west coast (VK6). From the perspective of say someone in central Europe, the west coast of Australia is a lot closer.

I would have expected a lot more openings on 50 MHz to the west of Australia (VK6) than the SE of Australia (VK3). Instead, it seems to be the other way around.

Is it a lack of big stations on the west coast? If VK6KXW is not on air then does it just seem like the VK6 area is missing?

These are the spots from the DX Cluster...

15,000km+ opening on 50 MHz between SE Australia and Europe - 14th July 2021

Wednesday 14th July 2021: Openings on the 50 MHz between Europe and Australia near the bottom of the solar cycle are supposed to be 'special'... i.e. a rare occurrence... something that doesn't happen very often.

And yet the 14th of July saw yet another opening. I'm in two minds at this stage if I should be even recording these events are they seem so common? I need these openings to stop soon so I can take a break! 😂😂

The map above shows the extent of the opening from VK2XN in New South Wales in the SE of Australia. You'll notice that opening on the 14th seems to be mainly to the south-east of Europe. The longest path on FT8 was to IS0AWZ in Sardinia at 16,334kms.

I found the map for VK2OO near Sydney to be of interest...

Notice how the 50 MHz went up as far as Finland. Also notice how VK2OO also had what seemed to be a big opening to Japan at about 04:00 UTC (~8000kms) and this was followed later by the opening to Europe around 07:00 UTC. It has all the appearance of TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation).

As far as I can tell, the opening from Europe seemed to be largely confined to VK2 and VK3 stations in New South Wales and Victoria in the SE of Australia.

These are the spots from the DX Cluster... 

VK2WJ 50313.0 UR0MC 07:36 14 Jul FT8 QF56ss -> KN99ea Ukraine

VK3OER 50313.0 LY2IJ 07:20 14 Jul 071830 -10 0.2 2342 ~ CQ DX L Lithuania

LY2IJ 50313.0 VK3OER 07:17 14 Jul TU QSO! Australia

DO5OT 50313.0 VK3DUT 07:13 14 Jul JO62WL<ES>QF32VF ft8 TNX new o Australia

LY2IJ 50313.0 VK3ZYC 07:04 14 Jul TU QSO! QF31<>KO25 Australia

IK6DTB 50313.0 VK2XN 06:35 14 Jul TNX 73 Australia

SV2JAO 50313.0 VK2XN 06:12 14 Jul kn10<es>qf59 Australia

VK3ZAZ 50313.0 S57RR 05:49 14 Jul FT8, CQ vk Slovenia

VK3OT-@ 50313.5 S57RR 05:46 14 Jul into vk3 Slovenia

VK3OER 50313.0 4O6AH 05:31 14 Jul 052700 -14 0.2 922 ~ CQ DX 4 Montenegro

VK3DUT-@ 50313.0 406AH 05:31 14 Jul -17 rx only Montenegro

VK3DUT-@ 50313.0 I6WJB 05:30 14 Jul -18 rx only Italy

SV1DH 50313.0 VK3BD 05:30 14 Jul CQ -16db and gone Australia

FT8 paths for Australian stations on 50 MHz to Europe are shown below...

Opening on 50 MHz between Europe and SE Australia - 13th July 2021

13th July 2021: There was yet another opening on the 50 MHz band between Australia and Europe. In contrast to other openings, this one was a bit unusual in that it seemed to be largely confined to the state of Victoria in the SE of Australia.

These are the spots from the DX cluster which seems to suggest that once again, all of the activity was on FT8...

VK3OT-@ 50313.0 UY1HY 05:48 13 Jul heard in to vk3 Ukraine
VK3OT-@ 50313.0 UR9QQ 05:45 13 Jul in to QF12 32 Ukraine
VK3OT-@ 50313.0 DK8NE 05:45 13 Jul In to Qf12 22 32 Fed. Rep. of Germany
VK3OT-@ 50313.0 SV1DH 05:44 13 Jul into VK3 QF122232 Greece
VK3OT-@ 50313.0 UR0MC 05:43 13 Jul Into Qf12 Qf22 Ukraine

50 MHz paths from DK8NE were confined to the state of Victoria

It's interesting to note that the opening seemed to have a one-hour window lasting roughly from  05:15 to 06:15 UTC. Local sunset in Victoria was at 07:12 UTC.

The longest path that I could find was from VK3DUT in Victoria to F4HMQ near Paris in France, a distance of almost 17,000kms.

These are the FT8 reports from the PSK Reporter website...

18,000km opening on 50 MHz between New Zealand and Europe - 11th July 2021

Sunday 11th July 2021: It looks as if there was another extensive opening on the 50 MHz band between Australia and Europe with ZL1RS in the north of New Zealand managing to get in on the action as well.

These were the FT8 paths open to ZL1RS and as can be seen, the longest one was 18,126kms to IK8GYS in the south of Italy.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
IK8GYS ZL1RS 6m FT8 18126 km 06:09:44
I6WJB ZL1RS 6m FT8 18077 km 06:20:14
SV2DCD ZL1RS 6m FT8 17542 km 04:36:14
HA2NP ZL1RS 6m FT8 17497 km 04:23:14
SV2JAO ZL1RS 6m FT8 17457 km 06:10:14
SV1DH ZL1RS 6m FT8 17309 km 05:34:14
SV9CVY ZL1RS 6m FT8 17199 km 05:13:14
R6KA ZL1RS 6m FT8 16326 km 06:46:45
UB7K ZL1RS 6m FT8 16281 km 06:13:44

The main opening was from Australia to Europe...

One of the longest paths from Australia was from VK2EFM near Sydney to EA6VQ on the Balearic Islands, a distance of about 17,100kms.

The DX Cluster spots for the day are shown below and they suggest that all of the activity was via the FT8 digital mode.

Spotter Freq. DX Time Info Country
VK2WJ 50313.0 IT9PQJ 06:41 11 Jul CDM IT9* CDM I* IOTA EU-025 Sicily
IW0FFK 50313.0 VK2WJ 06:39 11 Jul JN61FS<ES>QF56 tu 880 Hz Australia
4O6AH 50313.0 VK4MA 06:38 11 Jul tnx for FT8 QSO new one Australia
HA8CE 50313.0 VK4HJ 06:31 11 Jul Tnx !! Australia
IW0FFK 50313.0 VK2EFM 06:30 11 Jul JN61FS<ES>QF56 tu nw cq Australia
SV9CVY 50313.0 VK4HJ 06:21 11 Jul 591 ~ CQ EU VK4HJ QG63 Australia
IK1EGC-@ 50313.6 VK4HJ 05:43 11 Jul FT8 JN35<>QG63 Australia
VK3DUT-@ 50313.0 R6KA 04:49 11 Jul tu B +3 European Russia
UR0MC 50313.0 VK1KW 04:42 11 Jul Tnx New Grid Australia
VK3DUT-@ 50313.0 SV1DH 04:41 11 Jul Best +6 Greece
VK3OER 50313.0 R6KA 04:40 11 Jul 043900 -9 0.4 522 ~ CQ R6KA European Russia
VK3OT-@ 50315.0 UR5LAK 04:26 11 Jul KN89<FT8>QF12 QSO 73 again Ukraine
VK3DUT-@ 50313.0 UR0MC 04:15 11 Jul wkg S50R Ukraine
VK3DUT-@ 50313.0 UR0LAK 04:14 11 Jul FT8, into VK3 Ukraine
ZL1RS 50313.0 4L/DL7ZM 03:34 11 Jul RX only calling ZL Georgia
Z32ZM 50313.0 ZL3RC 03:57 11 Jul -14 dB 600Hz - and gone New Zealand

The opening seems to have been from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC which is 2pm to 5pm in Sydney. When the band does open, it seems to be pretty consistent around this window which suggests that it is not due to some random alignment of Sporadic-E clouds.

These are the paths on FT8 for the various Australian stations to Europe that I could find.