First contact between Slovenia and South Africa on the new 40 MHz band - 17th Oct 2021

Sunday 17th October 2021: A little bit of radio history was made today when there was a successful two way contact between S50B in Slovenia and ZS6WAB in South Africa on the new 40 MHz band.

Not only was this the first contact between Slovenia and South Africa but it was also the first contact between Europe and Africa on the new 8-metre band.

Borut, S50B reports that he worked Willem, ZS6WAB on 40.680 MHz using the FT8 digital mode...

As can be seen, the signal was quite weak at -8dB and -10dB which suggests that a contact on CW might have been possible but unlikely on SSB.

S50B writes... "I'd like to announce the first 8m, 40mhz, FT8 qso between AF-EU and South Africa and Slovenia. Mny tnx to ZS6WAB.....Juupii 🙂 73 de Borut s50b"

The key point about this contact is that it shows the 40 MHz path between Europe and South Africa is possible and in future, CW and SSB contacts may follow.

Distance: The contact was in the region of 7925kms which means by default, it also sets a new distance record for the new 40 MHz band.

Propagation Mode: If this contact was on 50 MHz, I'd probably be saying it was TEP - Trans-Equatorial Propagation. At the moment, we're getting modest East-West openings at 28 MHz further north in Europe. It stands to reason that openings from the south of Europe on paths to the South must extend well up into the low VHF region above 30 MHz.

Does the F2 MUF to the south extend up as far as 40 MHz? I really don't believe anyone can say with 100% certainty that this opening was only F2 layer or it was only TEP. The solar flux today was just 78 which isn't all that high.

Equipment: Subject to confirmation, I think S50B was using 100 watts from an ICOM IC-7100 into a 4-element Yagi as shown above. 

ZS6WAB uses an old ICOM IC-706 for the 8m CW beacon with a 5-element YU7EF designed Yagi so I presume that is what was used.

Antenna stack at ZS6WAB with the 40 MHz Yagi at the top

Hopefully, this contact will encourage more experiments on the 40 MHz band. There is a number of new 40 MHz experimental stations in the USA and an 8m contact contact between South Africa and North America would be really interesting.

As always, if you want more information on the new 8m band then check out the links in my 40 MHz page.

New 8m beacon from Slovenia on 40.670 MHz

Update - 30th Apr 2021: The S55ZMS beacon has now been moved to its final destination and is on air with a full 7 watts to a Halo antenna.

Frequency: 40.670 MHz 

Call: S55ZMS 

Locator:JN86CR 

QTH: Dolina 

Height ASL: 320m 

Antenna: Halo 

Polarization: Horizontal

Pwr: 7.00 W 

Modes: PI4 + CW 

Beacon Ops: S53M & S51FB

Status: Active

Beacon website: https://slovhf.net/svetilniki/

Updated: 30.04.2021

Antenna is about 3m above metal roof, abt 7m above ground.

Update - 16th Feb 2021: The S55ZMS beacon is currently under test. The power output is 4-watts into a multi-band dipole. The plan is to eventually increase this to 10 watts and to move the beacon to the S53M contest location which is situated on top of a hill. A proper 40-MHz dipole is planned for the site but its exact location on the site and its orientation hasn't been finalised.

* * *

More good news for the new 8-metre amateur radio band! A new beacon in Slovenia is now operational on 40.670 MHz.

The callsign of the beacon is S55ZMS and it has an output power of 7 watts into a dipole. The transmissions are in both CW and on PI4, a digital mode designed for beacons.

The beacon is located near Bakovci in the far eastern part of Slovenia near the border with Hungary and its locator is JN86BO.

The licensing authorities first gave permission for 8m beacons in Slovenia back in June of 1998 but not  much happened at the time. This new beacon in the 40 MHz ISM band (Industrial, Scientific & Medical) is now the third operational 8m beacon in Europe joining OZ7IGY in Denmark and EI1KNH in Ireland.

The map above shows the location of the 8m beacon in Slovenia and the distances from it. It's very likely that it will be heard around Europe during the Summer months by Sporadic-E propagation. The range is likely to be in the region of 800 to 2100 kms.

The fact that the new beacon from Slovenia is also further south than the beacons in Ireland and Denmark is also significant. As we move further into solar cycle 25 and the flux rises, there will be times when 40 MHz signals will be heard much further away in places like North & South America, Africa and Asia.

It's also highly likely that the 40 MHz signal from Slovenia will be heard in South Africa through a combination of Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP) and Sporadic-E (Sp-E).

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

First Slovenia to Slovenia contact on 40 MHz - 9th Aug 2020

On the 9th of August 2020 at 10:14 UTC, Borut S50B and Ivo S59F managed to complete a contact on 40.680 MHz for the first contact on the new 8-metre band between two Slovenian stations.

Even though the distance between each of the stations was only about 20 kms, this was over a very poor path with a lot of high ground in the way. Signal reports of 5/3 and 5/5 were exchanged on SSB.

For this first S5 to S5 contact on 40 MHz, S59F was using an ICOM IC-7300 with 100 watts into a dual band 50 MHz / 70 MHz Yagi. It's probably safe to assume that this antenna had no gain on 40 MHz so would be no better than a dipole for the band.

S50B was also running 100 watts from an ICOM IC-7100 but into a dedicated SIRIO vertical for 8-metres.

Even though the Slovenian licencing authorities allocated a slice of spectrum at 8-metres back in 1998, it's only in 2020 that S5 stations have started up on the band. This is largely in response to the new 8-metre allocations in Ireland and Lithuania.

S50B had already worked EI4GNB and LY2YR for S5 firsts at 40 MHz so the contact with S59F was his third first for the band.

As can be seen below, the 8-metre allocation in Slovenia is from 40.660 to 40.700 MHz, the exact same as the ISM (Industrial, Scientific, Medical) band.

First contact between Lithuania and Slovenia made on the new 40 MHz band - 13th June 2020

At the end of April 2020, LY2YR in Lithuania made a contact with EI4GNB in Ireland for the first LY-EI QSO on the new 40 MHz amateur band.

Gintas, LY2YR achieved another first for the 8-metre band when he worked Borut, S50B in Slovenia on the 13th of June 2020 using the FT8, FT4 and CW modes. The frequency used was 40.680 MHz which is in the middle of the ISM (Industrial, Scientific, Medical) band.

Even though the ISM band of 40.660 MHz to 40.700 MHz has been allocated for beacons in Slovenia since 1998, it was only this year that the licencing authority there clarified that radio amateurs could make contacts as well.

The contact between LY2YR and S50B was approximately 1270 kms and the propagation mode was Sporadic-E. Even though the distance is pretty normal for Sporadic-E, there were some difficulties due to some 1000-metre high mountains just a few kms from S50B's location. Both stations had to wait until the Sporadic-E was strong enough to overcome the path loss.

LY2YR also completed an FT8 contact with S50TG, the 17-year old son of S50B.

For the first Lithuania to Slovenia 8-metre contact, LY2YR was using a YAESU FT-200 and a Hexbeam for 28 MHz/50 MHz.

S50B was using an ICOM IC-7100 with about 100 watts into a SIRIO vertical for 8-metres.

S50B is now looking to make the first 40 MHz contact with Ireland.

Links...
1) For more information on the new 8-metre band, see the 40 MHz page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html