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?"