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.

New 2700km+ IARU Region-1 tropo record on 23cms between Ireland and the Canary Islands - 17th July 2020

On the 17th of July 2020, there was an opening between the Canary Islands and the UK & Ireland on the VHF & UHF bands. A remarkable contact was made on 1296 MHz between EA8CXN and EI2FG which turned out to be a new IARU Region-1 tropo record for the 23cms microwave band.

In a report on his website, Cesar EA8CXN reports that there was a good tropo opening on July 17, 2020,  between Ireland-England and the Canary Islands.

In the evening, EA8CXN completed contacts with G7RAU, G4LOH and EI20C (op. Mark, EI3KD) on 432 MHz. EI20C mentions that John, EI2FG is also active on 1296 MHz so tests begin.

G7RAU is the first to complete a successful contact on SSB on 1296.200 MHz using just 5 watts into a 56 element Yagi. G4LOH also completed a contact.

After a period of deep QSB, a successful SSB contact was completed with EI2FG on 23 cms with 5/1 and 5/4 reports exchanged. The distance was an amazing 2714 kms.

Not only was this the first ever contact between Ireland and Canary Islands on 1296 MHz but it was also a new IARU Region-1 tropo record for 23 cms.

The map above shows the limit of the new record. The old record of 2661 kms was set on the 14th of July 2017 between EA8AVI and M0VRL.

The map also suggests that there is plenty of scope for the record to be broken with sea paths further north to the west of Wales and up the Irish Sea.

Equipment... For the record SSB contact on 23 cms, EA8CXN was using 150 watts into a small parabolic dish which was 50 cms in diameter. The feed point for the dish was a 3-element horizontally polarized PCB Yagi.

EI2FG was using his EME station of 200 watts into a 3-metre parabolic dish. The feed point was Right-Hand Circular Polarization on transmit and Left-Hand CP on receive.

Propagation... The mode of propagation was via a maritime duct over the ocean.

This duct exists for long periods of the year between the Canary Islands and the western coast of Spain & Portugal and then gets extended sometimes further north to the UK and Ireland.

In conclusion.... To put this this record 2714 km contact on 1296 MHz, a microwave band into perspective, it's worth remembering that the distance across the North Atlantic from Ireland to Newfoundland is around 3000kms. 

It's also likely that the record distance could be exceeded further north to Wales or up the Irish Sea as outlined earlier. The biggest obstacle at the moment is probably the lack of stations on 23 cms.

If the D4VHF station on Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa ever became operational on 1296 MHz, the record could well be extended to about 4000 kms.

Links...

1) EA8CXN post in Spanish

Unusual Sporadic-E opening on 144 MHz in N Europe hints at possibility of Trans-Atlantic contact

In this post, we'll look at a recent Sporadic-E opening on 144 MHz in northern Europe and what it might mean for a trans-Atlantic contact on 2 metres.

First, the opening...

There was an extensive opening on 144 MHz on the evening of Monday the 13th of July 2020 as can be seen from the graphic above from DXMAPS.COM

Sporadic-E openings on 144 MHz are reasonably common in Europe but they are usually much further south. Radio amateurs in say the UK or Ireland are likely to catch several openings to say Spain or Italy during the months of May, June and July every year.

It is very unusual to have a Sporadic-E in northern Europe and it is rare for the radio amateurs in the UK or Ireland to hear the likes of Finland or the Baltic states on 144 MHz via Sporadic-E.

While the graphic above gives an illustration of the extent of the opening, let's have a look at some specific examples. The maps below generated by FT8 reports on the PSKReporter website are useful for examining the extent of the opening.

EI2FG on the south coast of Ireland was one of the most westerly stations listening on the FT8 frequency on 144 MHz for the opening.

The longest path was to UA1ALD at 2416 kms and the signal was +9dB which was certainly strong enough for an SSB contact. Note the beam heading... 55 degrees. OH6KTL was up at 44 degrees.

Note also that the path was open only to the northern part of Estonia, there was nothing further south.

UA1ALD... This is the FT8 sent/receive map for UA1ALD.

Note how concentrated the footprint is in the UK. There is no-one from the south-east of England shown.

ES4RM... Note how the results for ES4RM in the north of Estonia are pretty much the same with nothing from the south-east of England.

OH2FQV... This is the map for OH2FQV in the south-east of Finland.

Note the difference in the footprint in the UK compared to UA1ALD. This time, there are a lot more stations in the south-east of England except for an area south of London.

This suggests that the Sporadic-E cloud responsible for the 144 MHz opening was probably somewhere over the north of Denmark. What each station worked or heard was dependent on where they were relative to this Sporadic-E hot spot.

It's also amazing to see just how many stations in England are using FT8 on 144 MHz!

GI6ATZ... This is the map from GI6ATZ in the north-east of Ireland.

The more northerly location of GI6ATZ results in stations in Lithuania and Latvia being heard.

G7RAU... The send/receive map for G7RAU in the south-west corner of England shows that there was a 2445 km path open to OH6CT in the north of Finland, just three degrees or so south of the Arctic Circle.

Again, note the beam heading from G7RAU to OH6CT which was 35 degrees. The signal was -2dB which would have been enough for a CW contact.

OH6CT... From OH6CT's viewpoint, he was hearing the south-east of England this time and the rest of the UK and Ireland was missing.

Trans-Atlantic on 144 MHz??? .....First of all, lets recap.

a) Both G7RAU and EI2FG heard or were heard by stations on FT8 in Finland at beam headings of 35 and 44 degrees respectively i.e. very far to the north.

b) Both G7RAU and EI2FG heard or were heard at -2dB and +9dB respectively at a distance of about 2400 kms. Note that this is about the maximum distance for one hop Sporadic-E.

Now lets look at the path from St.John's in Newfoundland to the south-west of Ireland and the north-west of Spain.

First off, the beam headings of 68 and 80 degrees are a lot further south than the beam headings experienced by EI2FG and G7RAU. If there is a Sporadic-E opening on 144 MHz in the north of Europe then why wouldn't it also happen out over the North Atlantic?

I know some might argue that Newfoundland is closer to the geomagnetic pole and that might impact on Sporadic-E formation but Newfoundland is also further south than Ireland.

While the one hop of 2400 kms ends up in the Atlantic, the remaining distance to span isn't huge. Just another 800 kms or so would reach the south-west of Ireland. Just another 1000 kms would reach Spain. Both of these distances could be easily bridged by a tropo duct forming over the ocean to the west of Ireland or Spain.

Surely there must be times when there are Sporadic-E openings on 144 MHz to the east of Newfoundland? And there must be times when these openings coincide with tropo over the eastern part of the Atlantic? I would argue that there must be times when the path across the North Atlantic on 144 MHz is open although I would acknowledge that these openings are pretty rare.

I'd suggest that one of the biggest problems is the lack of activity on the western end. I don't believe there is anyone in Newfoundland transmitting or listening on 2-metres for signals across the Atlantic. For all we know, some of the trans-Atlantic CW beacons in Ireland, England or France may well have made it across the ocean to Newfoundland but there was nobody there listening to report it.

Look at the distance from Newfoundland to the Azores (CU). That's within Sporadic-E or meteor scatter distance and yet as far as I am aware, there has never been a contact on 144 MHz from Newfoundland to the Azores.

Solution... The most obvious one to me is the establishment of a station on Newfoundland that can be operated remotely, just like D4VHF on the Cape Verde Islands. Something like two stacked 5-element Yagi antennas beaming at 70 degrees with 100 watts?

Digital modes like FT8 could be used to see if the path was viable by transmitting and receiving on the 2-metre frequency of 144.174 MHz.

It is of course easy to say how it might happen, it's another thing for a group to implement it.