Fleeting opening between Europe and Australia on 50 MHz - 22nd Jan 2023

It looks as if there was a very short opening on the 50 MHz band between Europe and Australia on Sunday the 22nd of January 2023. What I found interesting was that one of the paths was from Poland to Australia which is much further north compared to the opening on the 16th of January 2023.

SP4MPB in Poland exchanged a few FT8 signals with VK3FZ in Australia and the QSO could not be completed. SP4MPB reports a maximum signal of -14dB.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
VK3FZ SP4MPB 6m FT8 15505 km 08:54:58

Earlier, there was another very short opening between Italy and Australia with VK2EFM reporting reception of the FT8 signals of IK0FTA

Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

VK2EFM 6m FT8 16255 km 08:25:42

Again, this seemed like a very short opening with just a single reception report. As far as I know, there were no other Europe - Australia paths on 6m reported.

In truth, these openings were fleeting and the signals were very weak. In previous solar cycles, openings like this wouldn't even have been noticed as people were using SSB and CW then.

Now that there are so many stations using FT8 on the same frequency, even the weakest opening on the 50 MHz band gets reported.

It's also likely to just a hint about the long distance 6m openings which are more likely to happen as we head towards the equinox.

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...