17,000km opening on 50 MHz between Europe and Australia - 18th July 2021

Saturday 18th July 2021: After a lull on the 17th, the path on 50 MHz between Europe and Australia opened up again on the 18th. The longest path I could find was 17,122kms from F4ARU in France to VK3ZYC in Victoria. 

From what I can tell, this 6m opening seems to have been mainly confined to the VK1 and VK3 area of SE Australia. In Europe, there was a limit as to how far north it went.

The opening seems to have started around 04:45 UTC and lasted until about 06:15 UTC. This is similar to previous openings and suggests that it is dependent on the position of the sun.

These are the DX spots from the opening...

Spotter  Freq.  DX  Time  Info  Country
VK3OT-@ 50313 IZ2RLO 05:35 18 Jul 21 JN55 FT8 Copy Italy
VK3OT-@ 50313 I2FAK 05:35 18 Jul 21 JN45 FT8 Italy
VK3OT-@ 50313.9 DK8NE 05:13 18 Jul 21 FT8 JO50<>QF12 Fed. Rep. of Germany
IK7EOT 50313 VK3ZYC 05:11 18 Jul 21 FT8 tnx qso B -12 Australia
IK7EOT 50313 VK3DUT 05:11 18 Jul 21 FT8 tnx qso b-09 Australia
SV2JAO 50313 VK3DUT 05:00 18 Jul 21 kn10<es>qf32 Australia

These are the FT8 reports from the PSK Reporter website...

15,000km+ opening on 50 MHz between SE Australia and Europe - 14th July 2021

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...

Opening on 50 MHz between Europe and SE Australia - 13th July 2021

13th July 2021: There was yet another opening on the 50 MHz band between Australia and Europe. In contrast to other openings, this one was a bit unusual in that it seemed to be largely confined to the state of Victoria in the SE of Australia.

These are the spots from the DX cluster which seems to suggest that once again, all of the activity was on FT8...

VK3OT-@ 50313.0 UY1HY 05:48 13 Jul heard in to vk3 Ukraine
VK3OT-@ 50313.0 UR9QQ 05:45 13 Jul in to QF12 32 Ukraine
VK3OT-@ 50313.0 DK8NE 05:45 13 Jul In to Qf12 22 32 Fed. Rep. of Germany
VK3OT-@ 50313.0 SV1DH 05:44 13 Jul into VK3 QF122232 Greece
VK3OT-@ 50313.0 UR0MC 05:43 13 Jul Into Qf12 Qf22 Ukraine

50 MHz paths from DK8NE were confined to the state of Victoria

It's interesting to note that the opening seemed to have a one-hour window lasting roughly from  05:15 to 06:15 UTC. Local sunset in Victoria was at 07:12 UTC.

The longest path that I could find was from VK3DUT in Victoria to F4HMQ near Paris in France, a distance of almost 17,000kms.

These are the FT8 reports from the PSK Reporter website...

18,000km opening on 50 MHz between Europe and Australia - 7th July 2021

Wed 7th July 2021: There was yet another opening on the 50 MHz band between Australia and Europe on the 7th of July except this one seemed a bit more extensive. Looking at the PSK Reporter website, I found at least 15 Australian stations active for the opening.

These are the spots from the DX Cluster and they seem to indicate that as per usual, all of the activity was on the FT8 digital mode.

Spotter Freq. DX Time Info Country

VK3OT-@ 50315.0 G3NSM 06:30 07 Jul decoded on ft8n England
VK3OT-@ 50314.0 UR0MC 06:13 07 Jul CQ VK FT8 Ukraine
VK3OT-@ 50313.0 UT7QF 06:11 07 Jul TNX QSO 73 Ukraine

SP6NVN 50313.0 VK5PJ 07:17 07 Jul -23 db hrd Australia
S57RR-@ 50323.5 VK3ZL 06:47 07 Jul FT8 -19dB JN65um<>QF22 TU! Australia
OH7KM 50313.0 VK2OO 05:57 07 Jul cq -20 Australia 

DG1VL 50313.0 VK4HJ 05:22 07 Jul FT8 -13dB 469Hz Australia
S57RR-@ 50315.3 VK2EFM 05:20 07 Jul FT8 -14dB JN65um<>QF56 CQ Australia

The longest path I could find was 18,009kms between VK2EFM near Sydney and EA1YV in the NW of Spain. That is only 2000kms short of the maximum distance without going to the long path (20,000kms+).

Q. Are there more 50 MHz openings to Australia from Europe??? ...There does seem to be an extraordinary number of openings from Australia to Europe at the moment on the 50 MHz band. This is after all a VHF band, it's not HF.

Is this year exceptional? 

Are there a lot more openings than usual?

Were these 50MHz openings happening in 2020 and I just didn't notice them?

I reported on one opening in July of 2019 and that seemed to me at the time to be very unusual. I think if I had noticed all of these openings in 2020, I would have written about it. If it was say from the SE of Australia to the Ukraine then I may not have said anything but any opening on 50 MHz from Australia to Western Europe is always special.

* * * 

FT8 reports on 50 MHz between Australia and Europe from the PSK Reporter website from the 7th of July 2021 are shown below...

Opening on 50 MHz from Australia & New Zealand to Europe - Sat 19th June 2021

Saturday 19th June 2021: Yet another day of openings on the 50 MHz band between Australia and Europe and there doesn't seem to be a clear answer as to why this is happening. We have just moved past the bottom of the sunspot cycle and yet we are seeing almost daily 15,000km+ openings on a VHF band.

I'll outline what I have found on the 19th of June so that there is a record of it.

* * *

The 19th was different from previous days in that some VK3 stations in the SE corner of Australia managed to get in on the action.

This is the maps for VK3OT...

FT8 paths for VK3OT...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
IW5DHN VK3OT 6m FT8 15925 km 05:55:14
IK0FTA VK3OT 6m FT8 15737 km 05:48:44
S57RR VK3OT 6m FT8 15708 km 04:56:14
VK3OT S57RR 6m FT8 15708 km 04:54:29
I6WJB VK3OT 6m FT8 15612 km 05:18:14
VK3OT IZ8VYU 6m FT8 15568 km 05:33:29
S59A VK3OT 6m FT8 15552 km 05:00:44
VK3OT OG3G 6m FT8 15199 km 04:25:29
VK3OT SV1DH 6m FT8 14675 km 05:17:30

* * * 

This is the FT8 map for VK3DUT...

The paths for VK3DUT seem to be somewhat earlier than for VK3OT for whatever reason.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
S59A VK3DUT 6m FT8 15993 km 04:30:11
SP4K VK3DUT 6m FT8 15675 km 04:31:14
HG2DX VK3DUT 6m FT8 15670 km 04:32:11
YL2GD VK3DUT 6m FT8 15256 km 04:24:56
UR3EO VK3DUT 6m FT8 14617 km 04:34:11

* * * 

Paths for VK3BD, VK2WTF & VK5PJ

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
S59A VK3BD 6m FT8 15828 km 04:30:14
HG2DX VK3BD 6m FT8 15505 km 04:33:14

VK2WTF
Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
S59A 6m FT8 15158 km 04:30:14

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
VK5PJ OH2BU 6m FT8 14623 km 04:08:31
UX1UA VK5PJ 6m FT8 14164 km 03:56:41
UT5UGR VK5PJ 6m FT8 14135 km 03:56:44

* * *

VK4MA on the east coast of Australia had the advantage of being further north and had an opening to Europe as well...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
I6WJB VK4MA 6m FT8 15804 km 05:36:14
IZ7NLJ VK4MA 6m FT8 15617 km 05:03:14
IZ7DPB VK4MA 6m FT8 15553 km 05:01:14
VK4MA E72U 6m FT8 15386 km 04:53:59
E72U VK4MA 6m FT8 15386 km 04:42:44
Z37CXY VK4MA 6m FT8 15205 km 04:43:44
VK4MA UT4XU 6m FT8 14558 km 04:37:59
VK4MA UT2XQ 6m FT8 14524 km 04:49:29
UT7UJ VK4MA 6m FT8 14439 km 05:16:14
UX1UA VK4MA 6m FT8 14436 km 05:14:44
VK4MA UX1UA 6m FT8 14436 km 04:49:27
UY5ZZ VK4MA 6m FT8 14429 km 04:41:44
UX4UA VK4MA 6m FT8 14426 km 04:57:44
UT5UGR VK4MA 6m FT8 14415 km 05:10:14
VK4MA US5CCO 6m FT8 14328 km 04:50:11
US5CCO VK4MA 6m FT8 14328 km 04:43:14
UR3EO VK4MA 6m FT8 14115 km 04:42:14
UT7QF VK4MA 6m FT8 14112 km 05:01:44
UT9EZ VK4MA 6m FT8 14109 km 05:02:44
UR5LAK VK4MA 6m FT8 13972 km 04:41:14
UR0MC VK4MA 6m FT8 13870 km 04:21:44

* * *

The best distance for VK4HJ was slightly longer at 15,871 kms....

VK4HJ
Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
I6WJB 6m FT8 15871 km 04:31:14
E72U 6m FT8 15457 km 05:04:14
UX1UA 6m FT8 14515 km 04:42:44
UY5ZZ 6m FT8 14508 km 04:43:14
UT5UGR 6m FT8 14494 km 04:29:14
US5CCO 6m FT8 14405 km 04:43:14
UR3EO 6m FT8 14190 km 05:02:14
UR7EU 6m FT8 14190 km 04:44:44
UT7QF 6m FT8 14186 km 04:14:44
UT9EZ 6m FT8 14184 km 04:39:44
R6KA 6m FT8 14127 km 04:50:14
UR5LAK 6m FT8 14049 km 04:41:14
UR0MC 6m FT8 13946 km 04:47:14

* * *

VK4WTN also was heard in Europe...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
VK4WTN Z37CXY 6m FT8 15201 km 04:41:56
VK4WTN UX1UA 6m FT8 14431 km 04:41:57

* * *

To finish off the Australia tour, just one European station was heard by VK6KXW on the west coast...

VK6KXW
Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

IW5DHN 6m FT8 13630 km 05:45:44

* * *

New Zealand: The longest path of the day was 18,144 kms from ZL3RC in New Zealand to S59A in Slovenia.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
S59A ZL3RC 6m FT8 18144 km 04:41:44

The map above also highlights one of the problems with FT8 and the PSK Reporter website. It might seem at first glance as if there is a multi-hop path from Slovenia to Australia with stations like T6AA and 9M2TO spaced at roughly 4500 km intervals.

The 'problem' with the PSK Reporter site is that it only shows the last reception report for an individual station, you can't see the earlier reports. This is especially true if you do searches covering several hours like I did. Paths to stations on a map can be at completely different times and you need to be careful not to make assumptions based on just an initial view.

I have included a long list of the FT8 reports for S59A at the end of the post if anyone wants to examine them.

* * *

DX-Cluster: The spots on the DX Cluster suggest that all of the activity was on FT8...

Spotter  Freq.  DX  Time  Info  Country
S57RR 50313.0 VK3OT 04:58 19 Jun -16 into JN65>QF12 Tnx steve! Australia
UX1UA-@ 50313.0 VK4MA 04:53 19 Jun TNX Australia

Spotter  Freq.  DX  Time  Info  Country

VK6KXW-@ 50315.2 IW5DHN 06:36 19 Jun FT8 13622km OF87<>JN53 -18dB JTDX Italy
VK3OT-@ 50315.0 SV1DH 05:17 19 Jun km27<ft8>qf12 1ST vk3 sv1 Greece
VK3OT-@ 50313.0 S59A 05:02 19 Jun CQ JN76<>QF12 FT8 Slovenia
VK3OT-@ 50314.0 S57RR 05:01 19 Jun Tnx QSO FT8 Slovenia
VK3OT-@ 50313.0 E72U 05:00 19 Jun calling u Bosnia-Herzegovina
ZL3RC 50313.0 S59A 04:44 19 Jun -16 calling CQ Slovenia
VK3OT-@ 50314.0 OG3G 04:32 19 Jun KP00 callin you Finland
ZL3RC 50313.0 UR0MC 04:28 19 Jun -12 rx only Ukraine
VK3DUT-@ 50313.0 YL2GD 04:26 19 Jun -17 rx only Latvia
VK3OT-@ 50313.0 UT5UGR 04:24 19 Jun KO50 FT8 calling u Ukraine
VK3DUT-@ 50313.0 S59A 04:23 19 Jun -15 rx only Slovenia

FT8 reports for S59A which shows the times of the openings to Japan and Australia / New Zealand. All single hop stations of under 2,300 kms have been omitted...

16,000km+ opening on 50 MHz from Australia & New Zealand to Europe - 17th June 2021

Thursday 17th June 2021: Another day, another opening on 50 MHz between Australia and Europe. This one however was different as several stations from the Adelaide area (VK5) in the south of Australia were involved.

It also seems as if a small number of stations in New Zealand and the Australian states of Victoria & Western Australia managed to work Europe as well. Info further down post.

All the areas of Australia are not the same in terms of propagation, Stations on the north coast have a pipeline into Japan & China via TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) whereas stations in the south of the continent are a bit too far south.

That's why openings on 50 MHz between the south of Australia and Europe are always of interest. It raises the very real question of just how exactly does a signal at 50 MHz travel so far near the bottom of the sunspot cycle.

The maps and station list below are derived from FT8 reports on the PSK Reporter website and it may well not include everyone. I couldn't find any information on SSB or CW contacts being made but that doesn't mean they weren't.

Remarkable 13,000 km opening on 6-metres between Australia and South America - 12th Dec 2020

At the moment, our colleagues in the southern hemisphere are in the middle of their summer Sporadic-E season and there are of course plenty of openings on the VHF bands.

On the 12th of December 2020, there was a remarkable opening on 6-metres between Australia and South America. For example, the map below from the PSK Reporter website shows the sent/received reports for VK3BD in the SE of Australia.

What is truly remarkable about this is the sheer distance and the path of the signals.

For many, the distance between the stations in Australia and the stations in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay was in excess of 13,000 kms! 

To put that into perspective for European readers, the distance from say the UK to Japan is about 9500 kms. Every year, there seems to be multi-hop Sporadic-E openings from Europe to Japan on 50 MHz which cause a lot of excitement. This opening from Australia to South America was significantly further.

The second interesting point was the path. In some instances, the Great Circle path crossed part of Antarctica with the most southerly path going as far as 78 degrees south. Again to put that into perspective for European readers, 78 degrees is about as far north as say the island of Svalbard to the north of Norway.

Far northern or far southern latitudes are not areas normally associated with Sporadic-E.

To get a view from the South American side, I took a screenshot of the map for CP6UA in Bolivia.

As the map shows, the stations in New Zealand (ZL) were also getting in on the action and the distance to them was an impressive 11,000 kms or so.

Mode of propagation???... The million dollar question. I presume it was multi-hop Sporadic-E but it was a lot of hops! One of the longest paths that I saw was between VK5BC and PT9FD, a distance of 13,530 kms.

VK5BC PT9FD 6m JT65 13530 km 22:17:50

The maximum distance for one Sporadic-E hop is about 2300 kms. Was it six hops of 2255 kms? Seven hops of 1933 kms? If it was multi-hop Sporadic-E then a lot of patches of Sporadic-E had to line up in a row and at the correct distance for it to work.

Addendum... Someone suggested that Polar Mesospheric Summer Echos (PMSE) with electrons gathering around ice crystals may have been responsible for this opening. I include it here for reference reference.

Contacts... I'm sure many contacts were made but the purpose of this post is just to highlight the fact that the opening occurred.

Looking at the PSK Reporter website, these were the stations that I saw listed...

Australia...

VK1JA

VK2ZQ

VK3OT, VK3BD, VK3DUT, VK3OER, VK3WE, VK3KU

VK5PW, VK5BC, VK5PJ, VK5RM

Brazil - PY5HOT, PT9FT, PY5KD, PY5EK

Paraguay - ZP5DPC, ZP4KFZ

Bolivia - CP6UA

Argentina - LW2DAF, LU3CQ, LU9DO

Chile - CE3SX, CA3SOC, XQ3MCC

Uruguay - CX6DRA

DX-Cluster... Here are a selection of spots from the DX-Cluster...

PT9FD 50276.0 VK3OT 22:19 12 Dec JT65A GG27OR <> QF12ag TU 73 Australia

PT9FD 50276.0 VK5BC 22:00 12 Dec JT65A gg27or PF95jj tks 73 Australia

CE3SX 50276.0 VK5PJ 22:00 12 Dec FF46<>PF95MK TU Peter Australia

CP6UA 50276.0 VK3DUT 21:35 12 Dec Thanks New One Norm. 73 Australia

PY4AQA 50276.0 VK4QG 22:18 10 Dec JT65A -24 dB Australia

VK3OER 50276 PT9FD 23:24 12 Dec 20 JT65 -25 CQ Brazil

VK3OT-@ 50277.3 PT9FD 22:18 12 Dec 20 QF12ag GG27 jt65 qso 73 Brazil

VK3OT-@ 50277 PT9FD 22:14 12 Dec 20 cq pt9fd gg27 jt65a -19 Brazil

VK3OT-@ 50277 PY5HOT 21:42 12 Dec 20 cq gg46 jt65a Brazil

VK3OT-@ 50279 PT9FD 21:34 12 Dec 20 jt65 cq -23 Brazil

VK3OT-@ 50277 ZP4KFX 20:55 12 Dec 20 wow thanks JT65A Paraguay

VK3OT-@ 50277 ZP5DBC 20:50 12 Dec 20 JT65A thanks -19 Paraguay

I also kept a record for some of the Australian stations logs of the signals that they heard from South America for this opening. PSK Reporter normally wipes all records after 24 hours so it's nice to have some record of the opening. See below...

Unusual 50 MHz opening from Australia to Europe - Wed 24th July 2019

Over the last few weeks, there have been multiple openings from Europe to Japan at 50 MHz as stations make use of digital modes like FT8 to dig weak signals out of the noise. Most of these contacts are in the region of 9,000 to 10,000 kms which suggest multi-hop Sporadic-E was the likely propagation mode.

On Wednesday the 24th of July 2019, there was a very unusual opening on 50 MHz between Europe and New South Wales in SE Australia.

Here are some of the send/receive reports from PSK Reporter for the Australian stations on the 50 MHz band...

VK3ZL...

A successful FT8 contact was made between VK3ZL and EI3KD in Ireland, a distance of 17,375 kms. This seems to have been the longest contact of the day.

VK3BD...

VK3ANP...

VK3ZYC...

VK3EW...

The opening from Europe to SE Australia seemed to be from about 07:09 UTC to about 08:20 UTC.

The graphic below shows where the sun was shining at 07:30 UTC.

The opening seemed to coincide with sunset in SE Australia.

Some notes....
1) Solar..... The solar flux was way down at 67, the sunspot number was zero and there was no sign of any type of enhancement due to a flare. It's hard to imagine there was any normal type F2 propagation which might be seen around the peak of the sunspot cycle.

2) Japan..... The opening from Europe to Australia seemed to coincide with an opening from Europe to Japan. S57RR in Slovenia was on the send/receive list for five of the six VK3 stations and this is what the 6m map was like for him on the 24th...

3) Multi-hop Sporadic-E ???.... The distances worked from Europe to Australia were in the region of 16,000 to 17,400 kms. If it was simple multi-hop Sporadic E, it would require something like eight to nine hops. What are the chances of this many Sporadic-E hops? I find it hard to believe it's possible.

4) Winter..... It's worth noting that it's winter in Australia and this is not their Sporadic-E season. There seems to be no sign that the VK3 stations were hearing any other stations via Sporadic-E, just the opening to Europe.

Theory?...... Just a thought and I'm putting it out there for others to consider. Is it possible there was TEP (Transequatorial propagation) opening from SE Australia to an area SE of Japan and then became skewed via Sporadic-E? The multi-hop Sporadic-E opening from Europe also got to this region in the Pacific?

It's possible the TEP path may have been a bit more westerly from Australia to an area closer to China.

Perhaps it's grasping at straws for an explanation but I find it just as feasible as expecting 8-9 Sporadic-E hops to line up in a row at 50 MHz for the shorter direct path.

The key difference between the two paths would of course be if the beam headings for all parties were the most direct short path ones or if they were skewed. Unless someone is using a long Yagi, it may not be so obvious at 50 MHz.

All good material for debate of course but probably impossible to prove one way or the other.

Addendum : See message below from Brian, VK3BD (Added 12th Aug 2019)...