2900km+ opening on 144 MHz across the south of Australia - Dec 2021

The southern hemisphere is currently in the middle of their summer and there is plenty of activity  on the 144 MHZ band with lots of stations testing out propagation paths with the WSPR beacon mode.

In the last few days, signals in the region of  2930kms have been heard across the south of Australia on 144 MHz. 

The map above shows the stations that VK6JR has heard.

Stations heard by VK6JR (2000kms+)

 UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid                                 MHz W SNR drift     km
2021-12-25 19:28 VK2KRR QF34mr VK6JR OF76mi 144.490461 20 -17 0 2927
2021-12-29 20:34 VK7DC QE28ww VK6JR OF76mi 144.490484 10 -25 -1 2831
2021-12-29 14:38 VK3OE QF22qc VK6JR OF76mi 144.490395 20 -14 0 2765
2021-12-29 14:48 VK3DXE QF21nv VK6JR OF76mi 144.490395 20 -29 0 2743
2021-12-27 17:22 VK3ZAZ QF12ag VK6JR OF76mi 144.490448 100 -24 0 2471
2021-12-29 20:26 VK3HJV QF01tp VK6JR OF76mi 144.490408 20 -18 -4 2439
2021-12-04 22:22 VK5AKK PF94ix VK6JR OF76mi 144.490504 50 -22 0 2173

Stations hearing VK6JR (2000kms+)

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid                                 MHz W SNR drift km
2021-12-25 19:26 VK6JR OF76mi VK2KRR QF34mr 144.490577 10 -19 1 2927
2021-12-29 21:08 VK6JR OF76mi VK7CMV QE29od 144.490482 10 -26 0 2772
2021-12-29 20:44 VK6JR OF76mi VK3DXE QF21nv 144.490422 10 -22 0 2743
2021-12-27 18:22 VK6JR OF76mi VK3ZAZ QF12ag 144.490491 10 -29 0 2471
2021-12-29 18:22 VK6JR OF76mi VK3HJV QF01tp 144.490595 10 -27 1 2439
2021-12-23 22:38 VK6JR OF76mi VK5AKK PF94ix 144.490486 10 -28 3 2173

Propagation Mode: It's likely that marine ducting across the Great Australian Bight played a large part in these openings which were just under 3000kms. Considering it's in the middle of the southern hemisphere Sporadic-E season, that mode could have played a partial role as well for some signals.

Links...

1) For more examples of long distance paths, see my 144 MHz page.

2700km opening on 144 MHz in Australia - 20th Dec 2021

Monday 20th December 2021: The Great Australian Bight is the area of water just off the south coast of Australia and is well known for producing some fine tropospheric ducts. 

On what was the 21st of December in Australia, 144 MHz WSPR signals were exchanged by VK6NI and VK2KRR on a path that was just under 2700kms.

UTC (y-m-d)         TX         txGrid RX rxGrid         MHz         W SNR drift km
2021-12-20 21:02 VK2KRR QF34mr VK6NI OF85pa 144.490562 20 -18 0 2696
2021-12-20 21:26 VK2KRR QF34mr VK6NI OF85pa 144.490553 20 -22 0 2696
2021-12-20 21:42 VK2KRR QF34mr VK6NI OF85pa 144.490552 20 -25 0 2696
2021-12-20 21:48 VK2KRR QF34mr VK6NI OF85pa 144.490553 20 -19 0 2696
2021-12-20 20:58 VK6NI OF85pa VK2KRR QF34mr 144.490427 10 -18 0 2696
2021-12-20 21:18 VK6NI OF85pa VK2KRR QF34mr 144.490427 10 -20 0 2696
2021-12-20 21:38 VK6NI OF85pa VK2KRR QF34mr 144.490427 10 -7 0 2696
2021-12-20 22:22 VK6NI OF85pa VK2KRR QF34mr 144.490427 10 -24 0 2696

The tropo opening seems to have lasted about an hour.

There was also a 2000km tropo opening on 144 MHz between Australia and New Zealand on the same day.

3000km+ opening on 144 MHz between Australia & Fiji - 9th Dec 2021

As the Summer Sporadic-E season begins in the southern hemisphere, there have been reports of openings on the 50 MHz and 144 MHz bands.

In Australia, there is a very active community of stations using WSPR beacon mode on the 2m and 6m bands with a lot of success. On the 9th of December, the 144 MHz WSPR signal from VK2IJM near Sydney was heard almost 3200 kms away on the island of Fiji by 3D2TS.

UTC (y-m-d)        TX         txGrid  RX         rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km
2021-12-09 23:08 VK2IJM QF56ni 3D2TS RH91fv 144.490586 20 -29 -1 3218 

As you can see from the single reception report, the signal was -29dB which is an incredibly weak signal.

The two stations tried to complete a FT8 contact just 14 minutes later. 3D2TS on Fuji could hear VK2IJM at-21dB but 3D2TS wasn't strong enough in Australia to complete a contact.

Propagation Mode???... The next question is how did a 144 MHz signal get from Sydney to Fiji? The maximum distance for one hop Sporadic-E is about 2300kms so something else has to account for the additional 900kms.

It's probably no accident that this happened over a sea path and the most likely explanation is a combined one hop Sporadic-E signal that coupled into a marine duct over the ocean. The above tropo forecast map from Pascal, F5LEN certainly supports this theory.

It's not possible to completely rule out a 100% marine duct or a chordal hop Sporadic-E opening with two Sp-E clouds but the highest probability is a combined Sp-E / tropo duct.

Links...

1) Check out my 144 MHz page for details of more 3000km+ openings.

Successful WSPR reports on the 40 MHz band in the USA - Nov 2021

Over the last few months seven stations in the USA have received experimental permits for the 40 MHz band... see previous post.

While a few have tried FT8, a number have been using the WSPR mode as an experimental beacon. 

A list of of some of the reports are shown below with maps shown above.

1) WX2XCC in California is operated by Chris, N3IZN and he has a remote receiver listening for his own WSPR transmissions. During what was probably a Sporadic-E opening on the 40 MHz band, he was decoded by VA7MM in Vancouver in western Canada at a distance of 1819 kms.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km
2021-10-28  22:12 WM2XCC DM13 N3IZN/SDR DM13ji 40.663484 2 7 0 21
2021-11-28 17:48 WM2XCC DM13 VA7MM CN89og 40.663488 2 -17 0 1819

2) WM2XEJ in Georgia is operated by Tom, WB4JWM and his WSPR signal has been reported by two stations... NZ2X and N4WLO.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km
2021-11-23 15:08 WM2XEJ EM83 NZ2X EM83ij 40.663473 10 5 0 25
2021-11-29 17:48 WM2XEJ EM83 N4WLO EM50uo 40.663433 10 -23 0 589

While NZ2X is a local station, the distance to N4WLO is 589 kms which is pretty short if it was Sporadic-E.

3) WX2XCW is operated by Hal, NR7V is just in the far north-west of Washington state. He is very close to the city of Vancouver and all of the reports are from local Canadian stations.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift
2021-10-28 22:06 WM2XCW CN88 VA7MM CN89og 40.663527 0.2 2 0
2021-10-28 22:06 WM2XCW CN88 VE7UTS CN89li 40.663524 0.2 -8 0
2021-11-22 18:16 WM2XCW CN88 VE7RPX CN89lh 40.663529 2 -16 0
2021-11-22 18:36 WM2XCW CN88 VE7AFZ CN89ji 40.663527 2 -28 0

Overall, it's still early days but hopefully more stations will start transmitting on WSPR and more will start listening and uploading their spots to the WSPRnet website.

Link...

1) More info on my 40 MHz page

Number of WSPR stations heard on 28 MHz in July of 2021

 

The chart above shows the number of individual WSPR stations that I heard on the 28 MHz band from the 1st of July to the 30th of July 2021.

If you examine it carefully, there are subtle differences between the first half and the second half of the month as the Sporadic-E season begins to splutter and the intensity decreases.

2021 Vs 2020: My own feeling is that there were more WSPR stations active on the 28 MHz band in the Summer of 2021 as compared to the Summer of 2020.

I did a comparison between the number of stations I heard during the first 30 days of July 2021 and compared them to the same period of 2020.

Now, there is a caveat with this data as I can't be 100% certain if I was listening all of the time in July 2020 but it's very likely I was.

Looking at the data, I heard an average of 55 stations per day in this time period in 2020 as compared to an average of 71 stations per day in 2021, an increase of just over 28%.

As the chart shows, there are a lot more higher Blue days than Red. For example, there are six days in July 2021 where I heard more than 90 stations in one day as compared to none over 90 in 2020.

This isn't just down to conditions, it's due to there being more WSPR activity on the 28 MHz band this year which is a welcome development.

I'm sure as the Sporadic-E season winds down at the end of August, a lot of stations will probably migrate to the lower HF bands. I'm not sure what I will do myself as once the activity level drops below a certain level, it kind of gets a bit pointless monitoring a quiet frequency with no activity. 

It's likely I'll switch back to monitoring the FT8 frequency on 28 MHz over the Winter as this will show if anything unusual is happening on the band.

Top spotter for WSPR on 28 MHz - 22nd July 2021

22nd July 2021: On a few occasions, I have been one of the top five spotters worldwide for WSPR signals on the 28 MHz band. On the 22nd, I was in first place!

As the chart shows, I reported 101 separate WSPR signals which is over 20 more than those in the other top 5 spots.

I should point out that this really has nothing to do with me as it's just my radio listening for WSPR signals on the 28 MHz band all day. The reason I ended up in the top spot is because of my location in the north-west of Europe.

The map above shows the location of the 101 stations. Other than four in North America, the rest were in Europe. The problem with the WSPR mode is that there is a lack of stations transmitting in comparison to say the hugely popular FT8 mode.

This is a closer look at the European stations. The main reason I ended up in top spot was probably because I heard 30 stations from the UK via short skip Sporadic-E and this was in addition to the more usual single hop Sp-E signals out around 1000-2000kms.

At the moment, I am just using a simple half wave vertical above 4m above the ground for reception and it really is nothing special. 

Link...

1) VK7JJ's WSPR Top Spotters website 

Mystery US callsign spotted on WSPR on 80m to 10m in Europe

The callsign K9YO with the locator square JO22SA has been reported on WSPR on 80m to 10m since the 28th of June 2021. 

The transmitter doesn't seem to be operational all of the time and the WSPR signal has been reported by 47 stations since the 28th of June. The map above shows those who have heard this signal on 28 MHz (10M) which suggests that the transmitter was only on air for a short period.

Does anyone have any info as to why is there a US callsign in the Netherlands???

Update: The LU7AA.ORG website suggests that it might have been a balloon.

144 MHz WSPR beacon in Hawaii heard by several stations in California (~4000kms)

Back in April of 2021, I had a post up about how Chris, N3IZN in the south of California was hearing the KH6HME WSPR beacon on Hawaii on 144 MHz. At that time, he seemed to be the only person listening for it.

It's good to see that 144 MHz WSPR activity is now on the increase in California and between the 28th of June and the 4th of July 2021, a total of eight stations heard the beacon in Hawaii.

This is the list of stations...

UTC (y-m-d)         TX                 txGrid RX         rxGrid MHz W SNR
2021-06-28 00:04 KH6HME/B BK29go KK6TG CM88qk 144.276997 20 -28
2021-06-28 02:12 KH6HME/B BK29go N3IZN/2 DM13ji 144.277008 20 -19
2021-06-28 15:22 KH6HME/B BK29go N6WS CM95 144.277033 20 -21
2021-06-28 16:54 KH6HME/B BK29go W6IT DM13bp 144.276998 20 -29
2021-06-28 17:10 KH6HME/B BK29go N6CA DM03ut 144.277005 20 -21
2021-06-30 20:00 KH6HME/B BK29go K7KX CM95nj 144.277045 20 -32
2021-07-01 04:20 KH6HME/B BK29go N3IZN DM13ji 144.276999 20 -28
2021-07-01 21:16 KH6HME/B BK29go K6TW DM03 144.277 20 -32

There were a total of 1590 reception reports during that period for the beacon which is pretty amazing considering the distance is in the region of 4000kms.

The strongest signal was +4db which was probably strong enough for a SSB QSO. The weakest signal -34dB which is about 20dB below what can be heard with the human ear.

This was the tropo forecast at 21:00 UTC on the 1st of July which seemed to be a good time for conditions...

There seems to be a 500km or so gap around Hawaii but there seems to have been a good tropo duct predicted for the eastern part of the path to California.

It's likely that the vast majority of the 1590 reception reports were via a tropo duct close to the ocean but considering it's the Summer time, a percentage could have been via Sporadic-E with a tropo extension.

These are the stations in California that heard the KH6HME beacon over a 700km or so front...

Snapshot of WSPR activity levels on various bands - Fri 2nd July 2021

2nd July 2021: For the last few weeks, I have been monitoring the WSPR frequency on 28.1246 MHz and uploading the reports to the WSPRnet website. I noticed on the 2nd of July that I was ranked 3rd in the world for 10m reception reports on that day.

This certainly isn't due to anything special on my part as I'm just using a simple CB type half-wave vertical. The 3rd place is likely due to my location in the north-west of Europe which means I was probably hearing a lot of European stations on that day and I might have a slight advantage towards North America.

WSPR activity: Looking at the data above, it gives a snapshot into the activity levels for WSPR on the various bands on what was a busy day for Sporadic-E propagation. 

The LF band down around 136 kHz has so little activity that it can be ignored. Perhaps it has more activity in Winter. Likewise for the MF band around 473 kHz.

The 70 MHz (4m) band has so few users that it is probably a waste of time using WSPR.

WSPR activity on 144 MHz (2m) is mostly confined to the SE of Australia and California. The level of activity in Europe is very low.

There is very little activity on the 432 MHz (70cms) and 1296 MHz (23cms) band.

I calculated the average number of stations heard by the five top receiving stations (>10 stns heard) on each band and this is what the chart looks like...

1.8 MHz (160m) / 3.5 MHz (80m) / 5.5 MHz (60m) ...Perhaps there is a lack of activity due to the amount of daylight during the Summer months but only 80m seems to have enough users for it to be meaningful.

7.0 MHz (40m) / 10.1 MHz (30m) / 14.0 MHz (20m) ...These are the only three bands where the level of activity is really high. I'd suggest that these are the bands that have enough users to make antenna tests and comparisons meaningful.

18.1 MHz (17m) / 21 MHz (15m) ...There is probably just enough activity on these bands to make them useful for propagation tests but the level of activity is well below the likes of 20m.

24.9 MHz (12m) ...The level of activity is very low and is probably of little value.

28 MHz (10m) ...From my experience, the level of activity outside of the summer Sporadic-E season is so low that it's pointless. Now during the Summer months however, there is a modest amount of activity but many of the propagation paths go unreported due to a lack of stations in suitable locations. In this respect, FT8 is much better at getting an idea of what the band conditions are like.

50 MHz (6m) ...Most of this activity is in Europe but the number of users is so low as to make it pointless.

In Conclusion: It might be interesting to take a snapshot again in the middle of Winter but for now, the WSPR mode is of limited use on some bands. Even though I monitor the 10m WSPR frequency every day, I can't really say it has any real advantages over say FT8 other than the fact the WSPR reception reports get stored for a longer period as opposed to 24 hours for FT8.

If you are interested in buying one of those small standalone WSPR transmitters for doing antenna tests then I'd suggest you choose one for either 40m, 30m or 20m.

Links...

1) WSPR Rocks website by Phil, VK7JJ

10-milliwatt WSPR signal on 28 MHz heard in Ireland - 28th May 2021

Friday 28th May 2021: I left the radio monitoring the WSPR frequency on 28 MHz for whole day and I heard signals from all over Europe including DP0POL on the German Icebreaker ship near the north of Norway.

At the end of the day, I got an interesting e-mail from Andreas, DL2KCL about my reception of his very low power WSPR beacon during the day.

Andreas wrote... "You received a transmission from my homemade WSPR-TX on 10m. The TX puts out 10 mW directly from a Si5351A-chip. No PA. It runs from a single rechargeable D-cell with a DC/DC-converter (85 mA).

The antenna is a piece of about 2.5 m thin wire wound on a 18 cm PVC tube in resonance on 28.2 MHz. There is no additional counterpoise."

I checked back through the WSPR logs and amazingly, I had heard the 10-milliwatt signal from DL2KCL a total of 77 times during the day. The weakest signal was -27dB which is buried way in the noise. The strongest signal was -12dB which would have been just about audible to the human ear.

The photo above shows the transmit antenna which is just a quarter wave of wire wound on an 18cm PVC pipe. To hear such a low power system 77 times during the way just goes to show how good conditions must have been.

On my side, I was just using a simple CB type half wave vertical so there was no additional gain to pull in weak signals.

Analysis: The one crucial part of equation is the distance... 1075kms. During the Sporadic-E season, signals in the 1000 to 1500km range are a bit like the sweet spot on 28 MHz. 

There are a lot more openings on 28 MHz compared to the higher bands like 50 MHz and signals around 1100kms are at the very least 6dB stronger than those out around 2200kms just due to the fact they are closer.

The signals at 1100kms are also coming in around 8 degrees above the horizon which allows it to clear local obstructions at either end of the path. 

Antennas on 28 MHz will probably have more gain at 8 degrees above the horizon in comparison to say 1 or 2 degrees and a 2000km skip distance.

It just goes to show how good the 28 MHz band can be when the conditions are right.

WSPR North-South Divide on 28 MHz - 16th May 2021

Sunday 16th May 2021: This was similar to the previous few days with plenty of Sporadic-E on 28 MHz but it was less intense. I heard 465 WSPR transmissions from 71 different station on the band.

The unusual signals on this day was the appearance of TA4/G8SCU in Turkey and TF3HZ in Iceland. 

There was some short skip to the UK as well with 15 stations heard but it didn't seem as good as previous days.

I was also reminded about one of the main issues with WSPR on 28 MHz i.e. the lack of stations in some countries.

North-South Divide: As you can see from the map above, there is a real lack of signals from the south of Europe. For example, there are hardly any WSPR signals coming from Portugal, Spain, France and Italy.

When I was monitoring the 10m WSPR band on Sunday evening, I hadn't decoded anything in over an hour. I thought the band was closed. I then switched over to FT8 and there were plenty of stations coming through from Spain, Italy and Brazil.

It really is hard to beat FT8 in terms of getting an overall idea of where the band is open to.

QRSS (Very Slow Morse): With the skip going long, I managed to get a screen grab of the QRSS signals from TF3HZ in Iceland.

First Trans-Atlantic WSPR signal on 28 MHz - 15th May 2021

Saturday 15th May 2021: The last few days have been very good for Sporadic-E propagation with the 28 MHz band staying open for most of each day. The 15th of May started with the band being open from the previous day and finally closed for me at 22:44 UTC. I heard 685 WSPR transmissions from 94 stations during the day.

This was the first day of the 2021 season that I heard a 28 MHz WSPR Trans-Atlantic signal. I got just one decode of Vernon, VE1VDM's signal in Nova Scotia. Vernon was using a QRPLabs U3S transmitter with a 4-watt amp. His antenna was a full size Windom.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid                 RX      rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km
2021-05-15 11:50 VE1VDM FN85ij EI7GL IO51tu 28.126127 1 -22 0 4001

There was also plenty of short skip around with 18 stations from the UK heard on the band.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km

2021-05-15 11:38 EI2SBC IO63dj EI7GL IO51tu 28.126077 5 -26 -1 177

2021-05-15 10:32 G6PSZ IO82 EI7GL IO51tu 28.126141 0.2 -23 -1 370

2021-05-15 08:48 G8CQX/A IO80jq EI7GL IO51tu 28.126048 10 -28 0 382

2021-05-15 10:28 MW0GRJ IO83kf EI7GL IO51tu 28.126042 5 -10 0 386

2021-05-15 07:52 G0EKQ IO83pi EI7GL IO51tu 28.126076 5 -24 1 417

2021-05-15 09:20 M0SDM IO92pv EI7GL IO51tu 28.126006 2 -13 0 533

2021-05-15 09:48 G8IOA IO92rp EI7GL IO51tu 28.126097 5 -9 -1 540

2021-05-15 10:02 M7SBL IO93rf EI7GL IO51tu 28.126095 0.01 -23 0 551

2021-05-15 08:28 M0GBZ IO91vv EI7GL IO51tu 28.126144 0.5 -23 0 560

2021-05-15 09:40 G4VME JO02cg EI7GL IO51tu 28.12601 0.2 -23 -1 588

2021-05-15 08:12 G8AXA JO01bi EI7GL IO51tu 28.126112 0.5 -18 -3 589

2021-05-15 00:38 G4KPX JO02dj EI7GL IO51tu 28.126089 0.005 -7 1 594

2021-05-15 08:18 M0XDC JO01dq EI7GL IO51tu 28.126084 5 -6 -1 596

2021-05-15 08:18 M0PWX JO01ij EI7GL IO51tu 28.126154 2 -11 0 629

2021-05-15 09:40 G4NJJ JO02 EI7GL IO51tu 28.126075 0.2 -24 -2 640

2021-05-15 05:08 G0MBA JO01 EI7GL IO51tu 28.126049 0.2 -19 0 645

2021-05-15 05:08 G0PKT JO01mt EI7GL IO51tu 28.126061 0.2 -14 0 647

2021-05-15 05:08 G0FTD JO01mi EI7GL IO51tu 28.126118 0.2 -20 0 652

2021-05-15 09:08 GM4SJB IO88ba EI7GL IO51tu 28.126071 5 -13 0 743

EI2SBC: I managed to get two decodes from EI2SBC (Shannon Basin Radio Club) in the centre of Ireland. 

2021-05-15 11:38 EI2SBC IO63dj EI7GL IO51tu 28.126077 5 -26 -1 177 
2021-05-15 11:58 EI2SBC IO63dj EI7GL IO51tu 28.126078 5 -23 -4 177 

At -23dB and -26dB, the signal was really buried in the noise and at a level well below what is audible to the ear. As before, it's hard to be sure of the mode of propagation but I suspect it may have been either very short Sporadic-E or Sporadic-E back scatter.

Short Skip on 28 MHz - Fri 14th May 2021

Friday the 14th of May was another day where the 28 MHz band seemed to be open for nearly 21 of the 24 hours.

I left the radio on the WSPR frequency all day and heard 903 WSPR transmissions from 86 stations on 28 MHz.

The most interesting signals were again the closest ones due to very short Sporadic-E skip.

These were the WSPR stations that were heard just from England alone...

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid                          MHz     W SNR  drift  km
2021-05-14 14:54 G8CQX/A IO80jq EI7GL IO51tu 28.126063 20 -8 0 382
2021-05-14 14:52 G6GN IO81rm EI7GL IO51tu 28.12615       1 -13 0 404
2021-05-14 14:52 G3RVX IO81uj EI7GL IO51tu 28.126081     5 -15 1 423
2021-05-14 19:10 G4GVZ IO81wv EI7GL IO51tu 28.12615  5 -16 0 429
2021-05-14 13:26 G0LQI IO80sp EI7GL IO51tu 28.126175 1 -14 0 433
2021-05-14 10:48 G4ZTM IO92al EI7GL IO51tu 28.126101 1 -20 0 443
2021-05-14 15:16 G4BMC IO90es EI7GL IO51tu 28.126101 5 -16 2 484
2021-05-14 12:04 G4CUI IO93fi EI7GL IO51tu 28.126147 1 -24 0 490
2021-05-14 13:38 G4BOO IO91ij EI7GL IO51tu 28.126049 5 -17 0 491
2021-05-14 09:24 G7GXK IO90is EI7GL IO51tu 28.126015 0.2 -17 0 507
2021-05-14 10:40 M0SDM IO92pv EI7GL IO51tu 28.126008 2 -11 0 533
2021-05-14 10:36 G8IOA IO92rp EI7GL IO51tu 28.126096 5 -21 -1 540
2021-05-14 10:08 M0GBZ IO91vv EI7GL IO51tu 28.126148 0.5 -22 0 560
2021-05-14 13:28 G6JVT IO90st EI7GL IO51tu 28.126121 0.2 -18 0 562
2021-05-14 14:58 G4LRP IO91ta EI7GL IO51tu 28.126148 5 -13 1 562
2021-05-14 13:20 G4NXH IO94hu EI7GL IO51tu 28.126109 0.1 -24 0 572
2021-05-14 15:26 G4YBN JO01bs EI7GL IO51tu 28.126087 1 -19 -1 584
2021-05-14 10:10 G4VME JO02cg EI7GL IO51tu 28.126175 0.2 -21 0 588
2021-05-14 13:56 G8AXA JO01bi EI7GL IO51tu 28.126117 0.5 -20 -3 589
2021-05-14 10:22 G4KPX JO02dj EI7GL IO51tu 28.126138 0.005 -24 0 594
2021-05-14 10:18 M0XDC JO01dq EI7GL IO51tu 28.126088 5 -20 -2 596
2021-05-14 20:12 G6AVK JO01ho EI7GL IO51tu 28.126149 0.5 -22 0 620
2021-05-14 15:10 G8LVK JO01in EI7GL IO51tu 28.126098 1 -19 0 626
2021-05-14 10:40 G4NJJ JO02 EI7GL IO51tu 28.126081 0.2 -19 -2 640
2021-05-14 03:08 G0MBA JO01 EI7GL IO51tu 28.126055 0.2 -27 0 645
2021-05-14 18:24 M0XYM JO01 EI7GL IO51tu 28.126108 0.2 -31 0 645
2021-05-14 03:08 G0PKT JO01mt EI7GL IO51tu 28.126066 0.2 -19 0 647
2021-05-14 13:38 G0FTD JO01mi EI7GL IO51tu 28.126121 0.2 -20 0 652

There were 9 that were under 500kms.

28MHz band stays open all day - Thurs 13th May 2021

After the aurora and disturbed conditions on Wednesday the 12th of May, the 28 MHz band opened on that evening at about 18:00 UTC. What was really unusual was that the band stayed open that night and all through Thursday the 13th of May... roughly 36 hours. This is in marked contrast to the Sporadic-E openings for the previous few weeks where the band might open at some stage during the day and then close late in the evening.

As the 28 MHz band was open all day, I left the radio monitoring the WSPR frequency for the 24 hours. I heard a total of 945 WSPR transmissions from 87 stations around Europe which is very encouraging as it looked a few week back that there was very little WSPR activity.

The map above shows what I heard. What makes it different from FT8 is that there is a wide distribution of FT8 stations spread across Europe that are trying to make contacts. WSPR however is concentrated in pockets of activity based around mainly the west of Germany, the Netherlands and the south of England.

What I found of interest was the short skip opening to the UK...

Distances of about 1000 to 2200 kms are pretty common on 28 MHz during Sporadic-E openings but the opening needs to be really intense for the skip distance to drop down to 500kms or less.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km
2021-05-13 04:58 EI2SBC IO63dj EI7GL IO51tu 28.126074 5 -27 -3 177
2021-05-13 09:38 MW0GRJ IO83kf EI7GL IO51tu 28.126038 5 -27 4 386
2021-05-13 10:10 G4SRD IO81wi EI7GL IO51tu 28.126088 10 -17 -1 435
2021-05-13 09:38 G4SDL IO83tk EI7GL IO51tu 28.126101 1 -21 1 441
2021-05-13 07:14 G4HZW IO83uh EI7GL IO51tu 28.12613 5 -20 1 442
2021-05-13 10:04 G7GXK IO90is EI7GL IO51tu 28.126099 0.2 -27 0 507
2021-05-13 10:38 2M0WHX IO75wv EI7GL IO51tu 28.126035 5 -16 0 529
2021-05-13 06:20 M0SDM IO92pv EI7GL IO51tu 28.126006 2 -26 1 533
2021-05-13 06:36 G8IOA IO92rp EI7GL IO51tu 28.126092 5 -16 -1 540
2021-05-13 06:30 M0NMA IO92sp EI7GL IO51tu 28.126077 5 -11 -1 546
2021-05-13 06:08 M0GBZ IO91vv EI7GL IO51tu 28.126143 0.5 -19 0 560
2021-05-13 09:44 G6JVT IO90st EI7GL IO51tu 28.126111 0.2 -26 -1 562
2021-05-13 10:16 G4NXH IO94hu EI7GL IO51tu 28.126101 0.1 -26 0 572
2021-05-13 06:40 G4KPX JO02dj EI7GL IO51tu 28.12607 0.005 -23 0 594
2021-05-13 06:18 M0XDC JO01dq EI7GL IO51tu 28.12607 5 -22 0 596

2021-05-13 12:28 G4EDR IO94uf EI7GL IO51tu 28.126091 5 1 2 601
2021-05-13 10:08 G3JKF JO00bs EI7GL IO51tu 28.126125 5 -27 0 603
2021-05-13 10:42 G3DVF IO95 EI7GL IO51tu 28.126179 0.2 -26 0 629
2021-05-13 08:10 G4NJJ JO02 EI7GL IO51tu 28.126076 0.2 -21 -3 640
2021-05-13 05:58 G0MBA JO01 EI7GL IO51tu 28.126046 0.2 7 0 645
2021-05-13 05:58 G0PKT JO01mt EI7GL IO51tu 28.126056 0.2 0 0 647
2021-05-13 06:38 G0FTD JO01mi EI7GL IO51tu 28.126112 0.2 -24 0 652
2021-05-13 09:34 GM1OXB IO87lp EI7GL IO51tu 28.126049 2 -6 0 729

The most unusual signal was that of EI2SBC (Shannon Basin Radio Club) which was 177kms to the north of me. I heard two WSPR transmissions...

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km
2021-05-13 04:58 EI2SBC IO63dj EI7GL IO51tu 28.126074 5 -27 -3 177
2021-05-13 14:58 EI2SBC IO63dj EI7GL IO51tu 28.126078 5 -26 -3 177

Propagation mode? At 177kms, tropo is a possibility even on 28 MHz but I don't think it was. I suspect is was either very short Sporadic-E or Sporadic-E back-scatter. They were running 5 watts which is reasonably high power level for WSPR so it's difficult to be sure.

QRSS: One of the advantages of listening to WSPR is that I can see any QRSS (very slow morse) signals as well as those signals are just below the WSPR ones.

The image above shows a screen grab I took early on Thursday morning. Most of those stations in the Uk were east of London and about 650kms from me.

As an example, the signal say from G0FTD in this image is probably weaker than -20dB and in reality is buried in the noise.

28 MHz report for Sat 8th May 2021

 

Saturday 8th May 2021: This was another day where the 28 MHz band seemed to be wide open with lots of Sporadic-E signals from Europe. I heard 358 stations on FT8 in 29 countries but that was only listening on the FT8 frequency for a few hours.

I spent most of the day monitoring the WSPR frequency instead and the chart of stations heard is shown above. As can be seen from the chart, I heard 3 stations running less then 100-milliwatts.

Beacons: These were the beacons heard.

EI7GL 28207.1 ON0RY/B 19:37 08 May IO51TU<ES>JO20CK Belgium

EI7GL 28243.0 F5ZWE/B 14:03 08 May IO51TU<ES>JN02TW France

EI7GL 28194.0 IW4EIR/B 13:04 08 May IO51TU<ES>JN54AS Italy

EI7GL 28240.0 IZ8RVA/B 13:01 08 May IO51TU<ES>JN70LI Italy

EI7GL 28227.2 IW3FZQ/B 13:00 08 May IO51TU<ES>JN55VF Italy

EI7GL 28173.1 IZ1EPM/B 12:57 08 May IO51TU<ES>JN35WD Italy

EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 11:02 08 May IO51TU<ES>JN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany

EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 10:23 08 May IO51TU<ES>JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany

EI7GL 28241.6 F5ZUU/B 08:12 08 May IO51TU<ES>JN24IL France

QRSS: The best thing about listening to WSPR is that I can monitor for QRSS signals as well as they just 500 Hz or so below the WSPR frequency. I managed to get one screen grab of ON4CDJ in Belgium.

The Sporadic-E season has well and truly started at this stage and you can expect to see lot of signals on the 10m band from now until late July.