Good opening to South Africa on the 40 MHz band - 21st Jan 2023

Saturday the 21st of January 2023 was another busy day on the 40 MHz (8m) band with plenty of activity. I picked out a few notable paths.

South Africa (ZS)... There were three ZS stations on the band... ZSWAB, ZS6OB & ZS4TX. They accounted for some of the longest paths seen on the day.

Here is a list of the longest FT8 paths as reported on the PSK Reporter website...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
ZS6OB K9MU 8m FT8 14292 km 15:04:29
ZS6WAB WB0DBQ 8m FT8 14273 km 15:24:59
ZS6WAB K9MU 8m FT8 14252 km 15:38:59
ZS6WAB KA9CFD 8m FT8 14215 km 15:13:29
ZS6WAB N8PUM 8m FT8 13959 km 15:42:28
ZS6WAB VE3DS 8m FT8 13308 km 15:04:43
ZS4TX OH7PS 8m FT8 9927 km 11:21:29
ZS4TX EI9KP 8m FT8 9834 km 11:11:26
ZS6OB GM0SXQ 8m FT8 9671 km 11:13:26
ZS4TX EI3KD 8m FT8 9604 km 15:26:44
ZS6OB OH7PS 8m FT8 9576 km 11:17:29
ZS6OB EI9KP 8m FT8 9573 km 11:48:11
ZS6WAB MM0AMW 8m FT8 9426 km 15:21:59

This is the FT8 map for ZS6WAB as a sample...

Besides the signals from South Africa reaching North America, they extended well into Northern Europe. It's not that unusual for stations in the south of Europe to hear South African signals on the 40 MHz band but this time, there were reports from stations in Scotland.

It was interesting to see that OH7PS in Finland (KP20AF) reporting reception of both ZS4TX and ZS6OB on FT8.

OH7PS
Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
ZS4TX 8m FT8 9927 km 11:21:29
ZS6OB 8m FT8 9576 km 11:17:29

LA9BN in Norway (JP40CN) reports reception of ZS6WAB on the DX Cluster.

I'm not sure if the ZS stations were reported this far north before on 8m? It feels like a new barrier has been breached when we start seeing reports from the JP/KP locator squares in the north of Europe.

Mexico... XE2OR in Mexico reports reception of the Irish 8m beacon EI1CAH/B and EI2IP. XE2OR is just across the border from Texas but it's further west than recent other reports from the USA.

Trans-Continental in North America... There was also an opening on the 40 MHz band across North America.

WM2XCC is one of the experimental US 8m stations located in California.

Analysis... With the solar flux up around 210, it's probably no great surprise that the F2 layer maximum usable frequency (MUF) is reaching as high as the 40 MHz band. Most of the signals reported are probably via the F2 layer in the ionosphere but for the South African stations then there was probably some TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) as well. As for how much is TEP and how much is F2 for those North-South paths???

I have included below the spots from the DX Cluster and the PSK Reporter spots.

Link... For more info on the 8m band, see my 40 MHz page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

Addendum... 1) Report from Vincent, F5OIH...

Additional info... DX-Cluster spots in order of callsign...

Big opening on 40 MHz between Europe and South Africa - Thurs 7th Apr 2022

Thursday 7th April 2022: There was an extensive opening on the 40 MHz band and it was great to see so many stations active. The map above shows the FT8 activity on the band.

Up to now, the only station active from South Africa seemed to be ZS6WAB so it was a pleasant surprise to see two more ZS stations operating on the 8m band.

Borut, S50B in Slovenia reports working both ZS6OB and ZS4TX bringing his total now to three South African stations worked. 

G9PUV on the south-east coast of England managed to exchange signal reports with two stations in South Africa. Even though the signals at 40 MHz were quite strong, no successful contacts were made at 50 MHz when Paul was using his amateur radio callsign G7PUV.

ZS6WAB was heard in Slovenia, Chad and Croatia.

Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
S58P 8m FT8 7928 km 14:59:11
TT8SN 8m FT8 4300 km 14:58:11
9A5CW 8m FT8 7848 km 14:37:28

ZS6OB was heard over a much wider area including Portugal (HC02), Slovenia, Croatia, England, Belgium, France and Hungary.

Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
HC02 8m FT8 7949 km 14:42:59
9A3TN 8m FT8 7983 km 14:42:59
S50B 8m FT8 8098 km 14:42:58
9A5CW 8m FT8 8033 km 14:42:58
S59F 8m FT8 8104 km 14:26:29
G0CHE 8m FT8 8979 km 14:17:14
G4EFE 8m FT8 9060 km 14:17:12
G7PUV/A 8m FT8 8956 km 14:16:45
G9PUV 8m FT8 8964 km 14:16:43
ON5CD 8m FT8 8849 km 14:07:14
G4FTC 8m FT8 9037 km 14:06:44
F5BZB 8m FT8 8196 km 14:05:44
HA2NP 8m FT8 8173 km 13:55:44

ZS4TX was heard in Greece, Slovenia, Portugal, Croatia, England, France and Hungary.

Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
SV1DH 8m FT8 7458 km 14:48:44
S50B 8m FT8 8415 km 14:48:43
HC02 8m FT8 8158 km 14:45:45
S59F 8m FT8 8419 km 14:45:14
9A3TN 8m FT8 8311 km 14:08:56
G9PUV 8m FT8 9243 km 14:00:13
F5BZB 8m FT8 8466 km 13:58:14
HA2NP 8m FT8 8509 km 13:57:44
9A5CW 8m FT8 8349 km 13:53:43

As can be seen from the reports about, the best conditions seemed to have been around 14:00 UTC. I suspect the opening was due to afternoon TEP with some F2 layer propagation.

Radio amateurs in South Africa first got an allocation at 40 MHz back in 2015. After some initial interest, interest seemed to fizzle out due to the small numbers and a lack of activity.

Now with the increased level of activity and interest in the 40 MHz band in Europe, some long range paths are beginning to open up.

As more stations get active on the 40 MHz band, it's likely that more people will put up dedicated antennas tuned for the 8m band resulting in better signal reports. Up to now, most were pressing their 28 MHz or 50 MHz antennas in service with limited results.

Spots from the DX-Cluster...

Spotter Freq. DX Time Info Country

TT8SN 40675 ZS6WAB 14:59 07 Apr 22 JK72MC<>KG46 CQ ... +32 dB South Africa

ON5QRP-@ 40680 ZS6WAB 14:47 07 Apr 22 +06 QSB South Africa

ON5QRP-@ 40680 ZS6OB 14:42 07 Apr 22 +6db South Africa

S50B 40680 ZS6OB 14:32 07 Apr 22 ssb 8m South Africa

F4CXO 40680 ZS6OB 14:32 07 Apr 22 JN26PP<>KG44DE 53 in JN26 South Africa

F4CXO 40675 ZS6WAB/B 14:14 07 Apr 22 JN26PP<>KG46RB 559 South Africa

F4DNP 40675 ZS6WAB/B 14:11 07 Apr 22 Good conditions in JN38. South Africa

EA3ERE 40675 ZS6WAB/B 14:11 07 Apr 22 JN11CX<>KG46 CW 559+ South Africa

EA3ERE 40680 ZS6OB 14:05 07 Apr 22 <ES> FT8 +24 dB cq South Africa

ON5QRP-@ 40680 ZS6OB 14:03 07 Apr 22 +30db South Africa

HA2NP 40680 ZS4TX 14:03 07 Apr 22 JN97SG<TEP>KG30BX 0dB HRD South Africa

HA2NP 40680 ZS6OB 14:02 07 Apr 22 JN97SG<TEP>KG44DE -10 HRD South Africa

ON5QRP-@ 40680 ZS4TX 14:01 07 Apr 22 QSO G9PUV South Africa

G7PUV 40675 ZS6WAB/B 13:54 07 Apr 22 JO00AU<TEP>KG46RB 599! South Africa

TT8SN 40680 S59F 13:48 07 Apr 22 JK72MC<>JN65UU +30 dB Slovenia

TT8SN 40680 ON5QRP 13:47 07 Apr 22 JK72MC<>JN29UQ +12 dB Belgium

ON5QRP-@ 40680 ZS6OB 13:47 07 Apr 22 QSO G9PUV South Africa

EA3ERE 40680 ZS6OB 13:44 07 Apr 22 <ES> FT8 cq South Africa

EA3ERE 40675 ZS6WAB/B 13:33 07 Apr 22 JN11CX<>KG46 CW 549 South Africa

ON5QRP-@ 40680 ZS6OB 13:11 07 Apr 22 -6 ft8 South Africa

F4CXO 40675 ZS6WAB/B 13:09 07 Apr 22 JN26PP<>KG46RB 519 South Africa