Backscatter on 40 MHz - 19th May 2021

Wednesday 19th May 2021: The day started with a comment by Joe, EI3IX on a Facebook post that he wasn't hearing the new EI1CAH 40 MHz beacon even though he is only 64kms from it. That set me off checking why that was the case and I ended going down a rabbit hole that saw me on the 8-metre band for most of the day!

Both the EI1CAH (40.016 MHz) and the EI1KNH (40.013 MHz) beacons are about 200kms from my location with plenty of hills and mountains in the way. I listened early on the morning of the 19th and I couldn't hear either beacon although I did get a meteor burst from EI1CAH so I knew that it was still operational.

A few hours later, I tried listening again and I found I could now hear EI1CAH all of the time! What had changed? As the signal was buried in the noise with a Signal to Noise ratio of -26dB, my initial thought was that it might be tropo? However, I couldn't rule out that it may have been to Sporadic-E backscatter either.

It was only later when I saw the signal improve to -6dB over the space of a few minutes then I knew it was Sporadic-E related. While there are no doubt slight tropo enhancements at 40 MHz, large changes like this are almost certainly due to Sp-E.

Later when I checked the EI1KNH beacon near Dublin, I could that as well. At that stage, I was 100% sure it was backscatter. Lloyd, EI7HBB reports hearing both beacons by backscatter as well.

Backscatter Sporadic-E: What is it? Refer to the diagram below...

The signal from the EI1CAH beacon (TX) is being propagated forward by an intense Sporadic-E region about 100-110kms above the Earth. The signal is then being reflected off something maybe 500kms or so away... maybe a range or mountains? The signal then returns by pretty much the same path and I hear it at my location (RX).

I've heard backscatter via Sporadic-E several times before on 10m and 6m. Back in the 'old days' when everyone was on either on SSB or CW, I remember beaming South to work stations in the UK on 50 MHz.

The signals seem to have a certain characteristic in that they are pretty constant but just at a very low level. This is what I was hearing... EI1CAH was a weak but constant signal for most of the time with the occasional jump.

The truth is that backscatter is probably there all of the time during Sporadic-E openings but we're not aware of it as the signals are so weak. When there is an intense Sporadic-E with the skip distances much shorter (e.g. <700kms), signals get a LOT stronger.

Imagine a signal being reflected off a distant mountain range which is 1500kms away which is a pretty normal skip distance for Sporadic-E at 40 MHz. Now imagine the range reduces to 500kms under intense Sporadic-E like there was on the 19th of May. Obeying the inverse square law, the transmitted signal at the mountain range would appear 9.5dB stronger. But crucially, this also applies to the reflected path resulting in an additional 9.5dB enhancement. This adds up to a 19dB improvement overall in signal which is a really big jump. 

Back in the 'old days' with SSB/CW, backscatter via Sporadic-E was something that was observed on an occasional basis. Now that we have digital modes like FT8 and PI4, we are 'hearing' signals that are much much weaker.

Assumptions about Propagation: It is for me a reminder that we should always question our assumptions about a propagation mode when we hear a weak signal. Is a weak signal from someone say 200-400kms away on 28/40/50 MHz really tropo, short skip Sporadic-E or via Sporadic-E backscatter?

When we look at those FT8 or WSPR maps at the end of the day, how were we hearing all of those stations in the 200km-500km skip zone? Meteor Scatter? Tropo? Back-Scatter? I think the real picture is a lot more complicated than we assume.

Practical Application: It's all very well wondering about the propagation mode but most people will want to know what is the practical application? Imagine say you are a serious 50 MHz station and you want to work a new country which is only 400kms away and there are mountains in the way. You should never assume that just pointing your beam at a wanted station will always result in a stronger signal. If the signal is weak but constant then it may be via backscatter and you'll have to look for the direction which gives the strongest signals.

Addendum

For Reference: This map from DXMaps shows the suggested maximum usable frequency (MUF) at around 12:00 UTC on the 19th of  May.

It clearly shows one area over the south of England. Note however that this map is generated by users reports and areas of Sporadic-E out over the ocean are not shown. There could be an intense area to the west of Ireland and it would go unreported.

This was the Jet Stream at the time...

Changes in the direction of the Jet Stream are associated with Sporadic-E openings.

Data: Just for my own benefit, I've kept a list of the PI4 decodes below.

Updated Beacon list for the 40 MHz and 60 MHz bands... May 2021

I have now updated the beacon list for the 40 MHz and 60 MHz bands.

If you hear them then please spot on the DXMaps website or DXSummit DX Cluster.

For more information on the 40 MHz band, go to https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

New 40 MHz propagation beacon in the West of Ireland - EI1CAH

17th May 2021: There is now a new 8-metre propagation beacon in the west of Ireland using the callsign EI1CAH and it is operating on 40.016 MHz. The locator square is IO53CK.

This new beacon is designed to compliment the existing EI1KNH beacon which is situated near the east coast of Ireland. While EI1KNH has a superb take off the East, it is blocked by mountains to the West. By contrast, the new EI1CAH beacon has a good take off to the West and is poor to the East.

The EI1CAH beacon runs PI4 every second minute as well as CW. Its power is approximately 25 watts and the antenna is a horizontal dipole running roughly NW/SE.

The beacon keepers are using a QRPLabs Ultimate 3 (previously used on EI0SIX) to generate the 40 MHz signal and it has a matching internal QRPLabs 6m low pass filter which was modified to cut in closer to the 8-metre band.

They are using a NXP MRF101 based power amplifier to generate the required output power.

Analysis: This new 8-metre beacon is an excellent addition to the European suite of 40 MHz beacons and will be very useful in exploring Sporadic-E and F2 propagation paths across the Atlantic.

Site Profile: The graphic below shows the elevation profile for the EI1CAH beacon site.

There are some serious hills to the East which will block off a lot of low angle propagation paths. A typical Sporadic-E signal may be down around 5 degrees which as the image shows will be blocked by the local hills.

This is the likely maximum range due to one hop Sporadic-E...

As you can see, under short skip Sp-E conditions, reception of this beacon may be possible in say the SE of England, Belgium, Netherlands, N France and the fast west of Germany. As the antenna is running NW-SE, the signal towards Spain will be poor.

What is key however is the low elevation to the West ...towards South America, the Caribbean and North America.

Under multi-hop Sporadic conditions, this 8-metre beacon will be heard across the Atlantic and the most likely people to hear it are those out around the 4000km mark in Nova Scotia and Maine. There is also the potential that it will be heard anywhere in the eastern half of the USA.

Likewise, it will reach the Caribbean at times and will certainly make it down to Brazil and Argentina.

Solar Maximum: Around the time of the Solar Maximum, there should be some East-West openings and this 8-metre beacon could be heard anywhere in the Americas.

Value of a 40 MHz beacon: The real value of this beacon is that there is a huge 20 MHz gap between the 28 MHz and 50 MHz bands. As the maximum usable frequency (MUF) for Sporadic-E and F2 propagation rises, it can be very difficult to know where exactly or how high it is.

By having a beacon at 40 MHz, it will allow serious 50 MHz stations to monitor the rising MUF and be ready for any potential 6-metre opening. 

I think this beacon will be of real value as we get close to solar maximum and North American stations are checking for a 6-metre opening to Europe.

Thanks to Tim, EI4GNB and Tony, EI7BMB in getting this beacon up and running.

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

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.

Suggestions for getting rid of monitor interference ...by EI4GNB

Sometimes the interference you can see on the waterfall display can come from your own monitor. In this post, Tim EI4GNB suggests some ways to reduce it.

I have been reminded of just how VGA displays can mess with radio signals. See the two waterfall displays when my radio is on 40 MHz / 8-metres. 

A) The photo above show the waterfall when the display has a refresh rate of 59 & 60 Hz.

B) The photo below shows the waterfall when the refresh rate is at 30 Hz.

Also note I have reduced the 'waterfall zero' in WSJTx to make the lines more faint, but I assure you they are strong QRM.

This only seems to be a problem with VGA + Cables, and some other ops have noted this also, fixing with more robust leads with better shields. HDMI and inbuilt laptop displays seem to avoid this.

Some people never see this, as the bands they work are not harmonically effected, but for me, it's seems to appear worst on 8m when using a refresh rate of 60 Hz or 59 Hz. I mistook it for the usual ISM stuff on 40 MHz, but it's 100% caused by my VGA display!

Screen set to 59 Hz

Screen set to 30 Hz

It's like WHACK-A-MOLE, as if you switch to a refresh rate to clean up one band, then you may see the lines again on another band. So, I have several profiles in my display control panel to switch between.

I know I should move to HDMI, but I run 4 PCs here through a KVM, sharing a monitor, keyboard and mouse between them, so that is not an option for me.

People having QRM issues on 40 MHz / 8m might want to try messing with their display settings to see if things improve.

Tim, EI4GNB

Thanks to Tim for the above tips! Remember that interference like this may apply to any radio band. A quick way to check is to turn off your monitor for 10 seconds and then turn it back on. If your monitor is causing interference to your radio then you should see a 10 second gap in the interference lines.

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.

Contact between Ireland & Croatia on 40 MHz - 7th May 2021

Tim, EI4GNB reports making a FT8 contact on 40.680 MHz with 9A5CW in Croatia during the big Sporadic-E opening on the 7th of May 2021.

The screen composite below shows the FT8 contact from Tim's station.

While this wasn't the first 40 MHz contact between Ireland and Croatia, I think it may have been the first time 9A5CW has worked Ireland on this new amateur radio band.

This is the screen from 9A5CW...

It's good to see activity on the increase on 40 MHz from Croatia.

For more information on the 40 MHz amateur radio band, go to https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

Opening on 28 MHz after Aurora - Wed 12th May 2021

Wednesday the 12th of May 2021 was an unusual day. The first half of the day seemed to be dead on 28 MHz with very little happening which was probably due to an aurora in progress. From about 18:00 UTC onwards, it sprung into life. This is what I heard on FT8 up until 18:30 UTC...

Once it was obvious that the signals were getting stronger, I moved over to monitoring for WSPR signals...

A total of 20 stations were spotted from the northern part of Europe. What was unusual was that the band just seemed to stay open up till midnight and then stayed open overnight.

What was also unusual for me was that I was hearing the SE of the UK which is about 650kms away for several hours. These are some weak QRSS signals I got a grab of...

What was unusual was just steady the signals were. Normally with short skip on 28 MHz, the signals are fading. QRSS signals come in and fade away. On the 12th, the QRSS signals from the UK just seemed to be there at a pretty consistent level for hours. They never got that strong as can be seen from the WSPR reports below but the QRSS signals never really faded out either.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR    drift km
2021-05-12 20:48 G0MBA JO01 EI7GL IO51tu 28.126053 0.2 -25 0 645
2021-05-12 18:48 G0PKT JO01mt EI7GL IO51tu 28.126062 0.2 -23 0 647
2021-05-12 19:48 G0PKT JO01mt EI7GL IO51tu 28.126062 0.2 -28 0 647
2021-05-12 20:48 G0PKT JO01mt EI7GL IO51tu 28.126064 0.2 -21 0 647
2021-05-12 20:58 G0PKT JO01mt EI7GL IO51tu 28.126063 0.2 -23 0 647

This was the day of the season where the band seems to stayed open to Europe overnight.

A connection with the aurora event or just coincidence?

Report on 40 MHz activity on the 8th of May 2021 ...by EI7HBB

Lloyd, EI7HBB reports that he was active on the 40 MHz band on the 8th of May and caught the extensive Sporadic-E opening. He managed to work S50B in Slovenia twice on SSB during the day as well as hearing S57RW and S5/M0MPM on FT8.

LLoyd also reports managing to complete a 40 MHz / 50 MHz crossband SSB contact with Hugo, ON6ID in Belgium at a distance of about 900kms. ON6ID was on 50.145 MHz and EI7HBB was on 40.680 MHz and the contact took place at 15:22 UTC. He also wonders if this was a first EI-ON crossband contact for 8-metres?

LLoyd was also heard in the Netherlands at a distance of about 1000 kms.

Modest day on 28 MHz - 11th May 2021

 

After the big Sporadic-E openings over the weekend, Monday the 10th of May was pretty subdued on 28 MHz with just 7 stations heard on WSPR. Tuesday the 11th of May was however somewhat better with 29 stations heard on WSPR on 10 metres.

It was nice to hear the ZB2TEN WSPR beacon eight times which I think might be running 200mW rather than the 100mW listed. 'Hear' might be a bit misleading in that the strongest signal was -24dB which is about 10dB lower than what I could hear by ear. It just goes to show the power of WSPR fir digging out those weak signals.

It still amazes me that I am listening to a signal coming from their little SOTABEAMS WSPRLite transmitter shown above into a wire antenna.

When there were no WSPR signals for a while, I switched over to monitoring FT8 and it seemed to be mainly the south of Spain, the south of Germany and the north of Italy. The only signal of note was 9G5FI from Ghana.

144 MHz beacon on Hawaii heard in California - Apr 2021

Back in April of 2021, there was an opening on 144 MHz between Hawaii and California, a distance of approximately 4074 kms.

 Timestamp Call MHz SNR Drift Grid Pwr Reporter RGrid km az Mode
 2021-04-24 11:00   KH6HME/B   144.277007   -31   0   BK29go   20   N3IZN/2   DM13ji   4074
 2021-04-24 10:58   KH6HME/B   144.277007   -31   0   BK29go   20   N3IZN/2   DM13ji   4074
 2021-04-24 10:56   KH6HME/B   144.277008   -29   0   BK29go   20   N3IZN/2   DM13ji   4074
 2021-04-24 10:48   KH6HME/B   144.277008   -31   0   BK29go   20   N3IZN/2   DM13ji   4074
 2021-04-24 10:46   KH6HME/B   144.277008   -29   0   BK29go   20   N3IZN/2   DM13ji   4074

The reports shown above are from Chris Arnold, N3IZN in California who heard the WPSR transmissions on 144 MHz from the KH6HME beacon on a mountain in Hawaii.

The tropo duct across the eastern Pacific usually opens up several times a year and allow signals from 144 MHz to the microwave bands to propagate through it. It's probably one of the best long distance VHF paths in the world.

28 MHz Report for Sun 9th May 2021

Sunday 9th May 2021: While the 9th didn't seem to be as good as the 7th & 8th, there were still lots of Sporadic-E signals on 28 MHz for most of the day. Again, I spent most of the day on WSPR with the receive map for me shown above.

This time, I heard 7 stations running 50mW or less.

(y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km
2021-05-09 10:56 G4KPX JO02dj EI7GL IO51tu 28.126063 0.005 -6 
2021-05-09 09:06 DJ4RH JN49bx EI7GL IO51tu 28.126088 0.01 -23 
2021-05-09 10:06 PD0KT JO33le EI7GL IO51tu 28.126094 0.01 -23 
2021-05-09 09:56 OZ0RF JO65fr EI7GL IO51tu 28.125994 0.02 -23 
2021-05-09 08:36 DL1WER JN58cd EI7GL IO51tu 28.126116 0.05 -18 
2021-05-09 08:54 DK9ES JO31 EI7GL IO51tu 28.12608 0.05 -24 
2021-05-09 18:04 ON4LUK JO11  EI7GL IO51tu 28.126197 0.05 -23 

When the skip went short, I managed to get two QRSS (very slow morse) plots from two stations east of London, about 600kms from me.

I also spent some time monitoring the FT8 frequency and I heard 279 stations in 36 countries.

Guest Post: 40 MHz band on 7th & 8th May 2021 ...by F1EIT

Thanks to José, F1EIT for the following information which forms the basis of this post.

Friday May 7th was surely a great day for the S55ZMS beacon with the first 40 MHz spots but also

for 8m Sporadic-E activity that increased on the 8th .

Joan EA3ERE put the first spots (PI4) for EI1KNH on the 23rd of April but I heard nothing on CW.

On the 7th of May, Michel, F6HTJ heard the EI1KNH beacon on CW but I still heard nothing!

Finally today the 8th of May, both Michel and myself heard the EI1KNH beacon on CW and we also were able to hear the S55ZMS beacon in Slovenia at the same time.

I have a lot of QRM in the 40 MHz ISM band (Industrial, Scientific, Medical) and sometimes also on the beacon frequency.

I am still using my 50MHz Hentenna with an ICOM 575A. I am also working on a 40MHz wire halo based on the G3XBM (10m) design and am also looking at building a YU7EF 4-element Yagi.

José, F1EIT

Info from DXMaps website...

Date & time Spotter QRG Mode DX km Prop. Comments SFI A K E.MUF

2021-05-08 14:43:17 F1EIT (JN03SJ) 40.670 CW S55ZMS (JN86CR) 1207 JN03SJ<ES>JN86CR CW 519 growing

2021-05-08 16:27:52 EI7GL (IO51TU) 40.670 CW S55ZMS/B (JN86CR) 1860 IO51TU<ES>JN86CR 

2021-05-08 16:13:15 G7PUV (JO00AT) 40.670 CW S55ZMS/B (JN86CR) 1265 JO00AU<ES>JN86CR Beacon 579

2021-05-08 14:41:02 F6HTJ (JN12KQ) 40.670 CW S55ZMS/B (JN86CR) 1143 JN86cr<ES>JN12kq 8m beacon

2021-05-07 18:10:43 F5JRX (JN26AC) 40.670 CW S55ZMS (JN86CR)934 JN26AC<>JN86CR 529 on BIGWHEEL 

2021-05-07 17:34:48 F4CXO (JN26PP) 40.670 CW S55ZMS (JN86CR) 831 JN26PP<ES>JN86CR HRD 559 

2021-05-07 14:15:01 F1EIT (JN03SJ) 40.670 CW S55ZMS (JN86CR) 1207 JN03SJ<ES>JN86CR BCN CW+PI4 

2021-05-07 14:46:10 F6HTJ (JN12KQ) 40.670 CW S55ZMS/B (JN86CR) 1143 JN86cr<ES>JN12kq 8m beacon 

Date & time Spotter QRG Mode DX km Prop. Comments SFI A K E.MUF

2021-05-08 14:32:37 F1EIT (JN03SJ) 40.013 EI1KNH (IO63VE) 1228 JN03SJ<ES>IO63VE CW529rising 

2021-05-08 14:59:02 OE3FVU (JN78VE) 40.013 CW EI1KNH/B (IO63VE) 1638 59 - 51 with heavy QSB 

2021-05-08 14:51:27 S57RW (JN65UM) 40.013 CW EI1KNH/B (IO63VE) 1666 559 in jn65um 

2021-05-08 14:31:54 F6HTJ (JN12KQ) 40.013 CW EI1KNH/B (IO63VE) 1346 IO63ve<ES>JN12kq 8m beacon 

2021-05-08 14:12:36 F4CXO (JN26PP) 40.013 CW EI1KNH/B (IO63VE) 1095 JN26PP<ES>IO63VE HRD 539 QSB 

2021-05-08 13:55:44 IW4BET (JN54QL) 40.013 CW EI1KNH/B (IO63VE) 1602 579 io63ve<es>jn54ql 

2021-05-08 11:11:52 S50B (JN65XU) 40.013 CW EI1KNH/B (IO63VE) 1659 

2021-05-07 15:42:38 IZ0CBD (JN61FP) 40.013 EI1KNH (IO63VE) 1891 JN61FP<>IO63VE 558 very clear 

2021-05-07 18:23:22 IK0OKY (JN61ES) 40.013 CW EI1KNH/B (IO63VE) 1876 JN61ES<ES>IO63VE 559 hrd 

2021-05-07 15:45:20 9A3TN (JN85UH) 40.013 CW EI1KNH/B (IO63VE) 1931 JN85UH<AUE>IO63 

2021-05-07 15:12:43 F6HTJ (JN12KQ) 40.013 CW EI1KNH/B (IO63VE) 1346 IO63ve<ES>JN12kq 8m beacon 

2021-04-23 13:42:28 EA3ERE (JN11CX) 40.012 PI4 EI1KNH (IO63VE) 1394 JN11<ES>IO63 PI4 -9 dB 1396 km 

For more information on the 40 MHz band, visit https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

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.

PSK Reporter website passes 20 Billion Reception Records

On the 8th of May 2021, the PSK Reporter website hit another milestone when it passed the 20 Billion reception records mark. As the image shows above, it was recording almost 1000 reception reports per second on Saturday afternoon as it whizzed past 20 billion.

The vast majority of these reception records are of course due to the hugely popular FT8 mode.

The chart above shows the most popular modes over a 2-hour period just after the site passed 20 billion.

The reception reports for FT8 are 46 times the size of those for FT4.

In terms of software used in the last 7-days, the WSJT-X suite is still the largest with 23,741. The next largest is JTDX at 9,935 which seems to becoming more popular. I think when I checked this a year or two back, WSJT-X was a lot more dominant.

The PSK Reporter website can be found here... https://pskreporter.info/