Spain opens up the 40 MHz (8m) amateur radio band with conditions - April 2024

Good news! The licencing authorities in Spain have decided to open up the 40 MHz (8m) amateur radio band with conditions.

The national association for radio amateurs in Spain is the URE and they released this notice... "After hard work by the URE before the administration, today the Resolution of the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure was published on the Amateur Radio website, which authorizes holders of Spanish amateur radio authorizations to make broadcasts. in the 40,650 – 40,750 MHz band, with a maximum peak envelope power (PEP) of 25 W, for a period of eighteen months.

Broadcasts will only be made from fixed stations that have the corresponding license. In addition, the radio amateur must inform the Provincial Telecommunications Inspection Headquarters of the province in which he or she resides about his intention to operate in this band before broadcasting for the first time on these frequencies."

This is huge news for those interested in the 40 MHz band and Spain is the first 'big country' to allow radio amateurs access to the 8m band.

Analysis... In terms of propagation, Spain is in an ideal spot. 

F2... For F2 layer propagation, there will be plenty of openings from Spain to the Caribbean (PJ4MM) and the signals should be clearly heard in the USA and Canada as well. The north-south paths will be especially good and the 40 MHz signals will be heard all over South America and TEP openings to the radio amateurs in South Africa should be a regular occurrence.

Conditions from EA8 (Canary Islands) should be amazing while the southern EA5, EA6, EA7 stations will be a bit better than those further north.

Sporadic-E... The workhorse over the Summer months of May to July will be Sporadic-E with typical distances in the region of 1000 to 2200 kms.

For EI stations in Ireland... Expect EA5, EA6 and EA7 to be the most common. EA1 and EA2 will be harder.

ON stations in Belgium... Expect EA7 to be the most common with EA3 the hardest.

S5 stations in Slovenia... Expect EA1 and EA7 to be the easiest with EA3 and EA6 the hardest.

SV stations in Greece... EA1 might be difficult as it's close to the maximum one hop Sporadic-E distance. The rest of Spain should be easy.

In conclusion... One of the big problems with the 40 MHz band is the lack of activity. For those that are using the band, it soon gets to a stage where there is no-one new to work. With Spain joining the party, that should hopefully change.

As we're at the peak of the solar cycle, now is the time to explore the 8m band before the conditions drop away.

Links...

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

2) URE News item... https://www.ure.es/autorizada-la-banda-de-40650-40750-mhz/

3) The official notice in Spanish posted 2nd April 2024... https://avancedigital.mineco.gob.es/espectro/radioaficionados/autorizaciones/Documents/RESOLUCION_40_MHz.pdf

Addendum... This is the official document via Google Translate...

Did STARLINK #1668 burning up over Spain cause an opening on 28 MHz?

The STARLINK satellite system has been in the news a lot over the last few days as a solar flare caused a large number of them to fail on a recent launch. On Thursday the 10th of February 2022, an older model #1668 reentered the atmosphere over Spain.

The approximate path of the 260kg satellite as it burnt up over Spain is shown above.

Dr. Jose M. Madiedo who has a YouTube channel wrote... "This stunning fireball was spotted from Spain on Feb. 10. It was generated as a consequence of the reentry in the atmosphere of a Starlink satellite at about 20:50 local time (equivalent to 19:50 universal time). The satellite (Starlink-1668) had a mass of 260 kg. It was launched by SpaceX on 2020 Oct. 6. A wide number of causal eyewitnesses could see the phenomenon. The reentry took place at about 23,000 km/h. This gave rise to a fireball which began at a height of around 95 km over the province of La Coruña (region of Galicia, northwest of Spain) and moved southeast, crossing the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean Sea. It ended over Algeria."

A video of the satellite burning up is shown at the end of this post.

28 MHz???... As this satellite burnt up over Spain, it would have left a trail of ionized gas behind it which had to potential to refract radio signals.

I checked the PSKReporter website for unusual signals on 50 MHz or 144 MHz but I didn't note anything. What I did notice however on 28 MHz was that EC1CS in the NW of Spain heard several stations in the 300-700km range on FT8 in the space of a minute.

Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
CT7AQS 10m FT8 304 km 19:48:45 IM69FT
CR7BAV 10m FT8 593 km 19:48:42 IM67HE
CS7AUJ 10m FT8 599 km 19:48:16 IM67XE
EA5GJ 10m FT8 706 km 19:48:15 IM97JX

Over the course of a day on 28 MHz, I'd expect to gradually hear a good few FT8 stations in the 300-700km range but what I found a bit unusual was that EC1CS heard 4 in the space of a minute at 19:48 UTC.

Was it just coincidence or was the ionized trail behind STARLINK #1668 responsible?
Was the track of the satellite too far north?

It's impossible to be certain but surely the ionized trail was capable of refracting some radio signals?