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...
