ICOM launched their IC-7300 transceiver covering the HF bands & 6m back in 2016 and it certainly caused a stir at the time. ICOM have announced that as of the 1st of May 2024, global sales have passed the 100,000 mark!
They also mention that more than half of the sales have been in the USA.
Press release... https://www.icomjapan.com/news/4088/
Thanks to short wave listener Bill Smith, W1-7897 for sending on his reception report for April 2024.
Bill who is located near Douglas in Massachusetts in the United States is using a Yaesu FT-847 as a receiver on the 40 MHz (8m) band with a 5-element beam for the 50 MHz band about 6m above ground level.
40 MHz reception report from Bill Smith, W1-7897 for April 2024:
5th April 2024: PJ4MM (FK52) logged between 16:59 and 17:04 UTC calling CQ with no answers on 40.680 MHz in FT8. Signal strength -18 dB.
7th April 2024: PJ4MM called CQ from 19:53 UTC to 20:10 UTC with no answer and, then, from 21:02 to 21:22 UTC again with no answer on 40.680 MHz FT8. Signal strength ranged from -13 dB to -20 dB. My beam was pointed toward Australia which probably affected the signal strength.
9th April 2024: PJ4MM (FK52) called CQ at 15:07 UTC, at 15:28 UTC, between 15:38 and 15:43, and between 17:20 - 18:33 with no answer. Signal Strength varied from -3 dB to -20 dB.
29th April 2024: PJ4MM (FK52) logged calling CQ from 22:21 to 23:01 UTC on 40.680 MHz FT8. No Answers. Signal Strength ranged from -20 dB to -7dB on my 5 ele 6M Beam pointed towards South Africa,
30th April 2024: PJ4MM (FK52) logged between 22:17 and 22:41 UTC calling CQ on 40.680 MHz FT8. Signal strength ranged from -1 to -21dB. No answers to his CQ Calls.
RX: FT-847. Bill Smith, SWL W1-7897 Douglas, MA (FN42DA).
Thanks for the report Bill!
Considering the distance of about 3300kms, the likely propagation mode was one F2 layer hop to the south.
For more information on the 40 MHz band, go to https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html
As part of a challenge for 2024, I've decided to see how many QRSS signals I could capture on the 28 MHz band during the year. On the 30th of April, I got a screengrab of the 'Flying M' from Mauro, IK1WVQ in the NW of Italy.
I received this signal during the afternoon on the QRSS frequency of 28.1246 MHz USB. This is the same as the WSPR frequency and the only difference is that the audio frequency of the QRSS signals is about 400-500 Hz lower than the WSPR ones.
The signal is a little unusual in that it uses steps to generate the letter 'M rather than the usual morse identification. I think that Mauro was using 1-watt into a dipole antenna.
The map above shows the path and the distance was about 1500kms. The signal was almost certainly via Sporadic-E and it's pretty much the ideal distance for that mode of propagation.
Now that the Sporadic-E season has started, I should be able to receive more signals in the 500-1500km distance from my location. These are normally too close for the F2 layer propagation that has been there since the start of the year.
In summary... That brings the QRSS tally so far for 2024 up to 19-callsigns & 10 DXCC.
25th April 2024: MFJ Enterprises manufacture a wide range of products for the amateur radio market and their most recent catalogue comes to some 90-pages.
There has been a lot of talk online over the last few hours about the company 'closing down'. Needless to say, you'd have to take anything said on a forum with a pinch of salt as people are prone to just repeat rumours.
Gigaparts is one of the large US retailers of amateur radio equipment and they released the following statement... " Yesterday, MFJ Enterprises announced that they would be closing down their manufacturing facilities in Starkville, Mississippi effective May 17th, but would continue selling their wide selection of imported products including portable/mobile antennas, power supplies, clocks, and antenna switches. This closure also impacts all of their sub-brands: Ameritron, Hy-Gain, Cushcraft, Mirage and Vectronics. MFJ intends to continue to service and warranty these product lines for the foreseeable future."
MFJ was also one of the major advertisers in QST magazine.
MFJ released the following statement...
Thanks to the paid subscribers to the new EI7GL newsletter on Substack, I've used the funds to subscribe to a few amateur radio related organisations. Not only does this support them but I hope to give a bit of publicity to the various publications as well so others might subscribe.
In this post, we'll look at the Spring 2024 edition of the SPRAT magazine, the journal for the G-QRP club.
At first glance, it would be easy to assume that the G-QRP club is only a special interest group interested in just about operating at low power (5-watts or less) and nothing else. While that is no doubt true for some members, a large part of the club ethos is about experimentation with members building their own equipment.
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The Spring edition of SPRAT magazine has 44-pages including the covers. Here are a few of the items that I found of interest...
Back on the 8th of April 2024, I reported on the very first Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP) opening on the 144 MHz band from UAE to Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Since then, this has been pretty much a daily occurence and I have been keep a record of the openings.
On the 23rd of April 2024, A65BR in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reports that his 432 MHz signal was heard in Reunion by FR4OO via TEP. The distance was in the region of 5160kms.
Reports of TEP openings on the 70cms are incredibly rare and it's really interesting to hear about this new report. In this case, it was only a reception report but it shows the potential of the path at 432 MHz.
The composite image above shows reception of the Q65 signal at -17dB as heard by FR4OO.
TEP at 144 MHz is common enough for stations in the right location but stations using 432 MHz are really pushing the limits at what's possible. There are many different propagation modes on 70cms but surely one that allows 432 MHz signals to propagated by the ionosphere must be one of the more unusual ones.
It would be good to see more stations experimenting with TEP at 432 MHz and seeing what it possible.
A nice 17-minute video by Jacob Markham outlining his journey in learning morse code.
The cinematography is excellent. If you decide to learn more code then be sure to listen to the sound of the character and don't count or write down the dots and dashes. Google the Koch method.
If you have an interest in propagation or DX on the 50 MHz band, this is an important time of year.
Sporadic-E... At the end of April, we should see the start of the Sporadic-E season in the northern hemisphere. The initial openings should be on the 28 MHz band with stations about 1500-2000kms away being heard and worked.
It's only a matter of time before the openings extend up to the 40 MHz, 50 MHz and 70 MHz bands.
Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP)... The TEP season peaks around the Equinox but it extends until early May. The important thing to note here is that there is an overlap between the Sporadic-E season and the TEP season.
Normally stations in the norther part of Europe or the USA are too far north to reach the TEP zones which are roughly shown above. All that is needed is just one Sporadic-E hop for more northerly stations to reach this TEP zone.
What to look out for over the next few weeks...
The key point is to look to the south for the next few weeks to make the most of this overlap. Once the TEP season ends in early May, the Sporadic-E season will continue until August.
The fourth edition of the new newsletter is now up on Substack.
EI7GL Amateur Radio Newsletter #0004 - 19th April 2024
As we move further into April, the F2 layer propagation in the northern hemisphere is getting worse on the higher HF bands but in contrast, things are improving in the southern hemisphere.
On the 16th of April 2024, short-wave listener Tony Mann in Perth, Western Australia reports reception of the ZS6WAB/B in South Africa on 40.675 MHz. The distance was in the region of 8320kms.
Tony writes... "To my surprise the 40.675 MHz ZS6WAB beacon was received here in Perth, W. Australia again this autumn, on 16 April 2024, from 0630 to 0750 UTC. I guess his antenna must be beaming eastwards to be audible in CW mode. IC-R75, broadbanded horizontal 6m dipole (s) at 5m agl."
While this beacon in South Africa has been heard recently in Europe over similar distances, what makes this one of interest is that it's more of an east-west path and is a sure sign of improving F2 layer conditions in the southern hemisphere.
On the 28th of November 2023, Perri Moore KD9NGV launched a Pico-Balloon from Illinois in the United States with a solar powered payload that transmits a WSPR beacon on 28.1246 MHz.
Most of the Pico-Balloons launched from the USA tend to take a path closer to about 30 degrees north of the equator and cross areas like the north of Africa and south Asia. In contrast, the KD9NGV balloon seems to have covered a much wider area and has been reported at more northerly latitudes as shown on the map above.
By the 16th of December 2023, it had gone around the world once! By the 19th of February, it had gone around the world three times. By mid April 2024, it has gone around the globe multiple times and the red dots on the map show where it was when I received some of the WSPR signals over the last few weeks.
It then went silent as darkness fell. Once daylight broke again on the 8th of April, it was over the North Sea and GM4WJA started to report it.
At the time of the screen grab, LA3FY/2 in Norway was hearing it and it continued then over Scandinavia. It has since crossed over Russia and at the time of writing is up over the far north of Canada.
KD9NGV Payload... The actual payload pre-launch is shown below.
The 28 MHz WSPR signal is generated by a Si5351 clock generator and the power output is just 9 milliwatts... 0.009 watts!
The antenna is a vertical half-wave dipole made of #36 enamelled wire. The top half is from the balloon to the U4B tracker (QRP Labs) and the lower half hangs below the tracker. Three Powerfilm MPT 3.6-75 in a vertical triangle provide the power. The complete payload weighs 12 grams.
The balloon is described as a "silver SAG Balloon with Helium.".
In conclusion... I have noticed these WSPR pico-balloons many times on the 28 MHz band before but they are nearly always flying over some exotic location. It was just unusual to have one pass so close and be line of sight.
It was sad to hear about the passing of Bernd, DL7APV who was a well known figure on the VHF & UHF bands. As can be seen from the image above, he built an impressive antenna array for the 432 MHz band which allowed him to make contacts with many radio amateurs around the world by bouncing signals off the moon.
The array for 70cms was made up of 128 x 11-element Yagi antennas which had a calculated gain of 33.7 dBd. He first got a licence in 1975, made his first moon bounce contact on 432 MHz in 1983, got DXCC on 432 MHz in 2012 and finally worked all 50 US states in 2016, all from his home in Germany.
Bernd was also a very active FM-DXer and built an impressive 8 x 9-element array for the 88-108 MHz band.
With the recent demise of CQ magazine in the US, I've decided to start looking at what other amateur radio publications are out there. Thanks to the paid subscribers to the new EI7GL newsletter on Substack, I'll use the funds to subscribe to a few amateur radio related organisations. Not only does this support them but I hope to give a bit of publicity to the various publications as well so others might subscribe.
In this post, we'll look at the May 2024 edition of the Practical Wireless magazine.
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Practical Wireless is a monthly UK based radio magazine and describes itself as ..."aimed at the licensed radio amateur and caters for the amateur radio hobby."
Some of the articles that I think might be of interest are...
The full index of contents can be seen below...
The magazine can be purchased in the UK and Ireland in large newsagents.
Online versions and subscriptions can be purchased via the Pocketmags website... https://pocketmags.com/eu/practical-wireless-magazine
Or the Mymagazinesub website... https://www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/practical-wireless
If you're a member of your local library then it may be available for free online via the Pressreader platform... https://www.pressreader.com/magazines/m/practical-wireless
There have been many remarkable Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP) openings recently on the 144 MHz band from Namibia to Europe. This all started off when a group was established on WhatsApp where individuals in Europe and Africa exchanged messages to try and co-ordinate the tests.
The problem with evening type TEP is that the signals are often very distorted at 144 MHz and modes like FT8 often don't work. To address this issue, the group decided to try the Q65 mode which has been a huge success. They picked the frequency of 144.190 MHz to carry out these TEP tests.
The choice of frequency is important because it was just a frequency chosen to carry out TEP tests, it's NOT the official Q65 frequency.
The problem now is that as news of the TEP contacts has spread, European stations are starting to work each other on 144.190 MHz with Q65. The problem here is that they are blocking the weak TEP signals from Africa.
The organisers of the TEP tests moved the frequency to 144.192 MHz to avoid the interference from EU to EU contacts but the central message is that the area around 144.190 MHz should be left clear for only TEP contacts from Europe to Africa.
In terms of sequence, Africa always transmits first, Europe always second.
Thanks to Roger, EI8KN for sending on details of the activity of the 7P8EI team on the 50 MHz band.
6m operation from Lesotho – 7P8EI
From the 19th March to the 31st March 2024, I was fortunate to be part of the thirteen-strong EIDX Group dxpedition to the Kingdom of Lesotho. The callsign was 7P8EI; incorporating the usual Group suffix. We had approximately ten days of operating from the Molengoane Lodge, Nazareth, Lesotho. The locator was KG30VO.
The HF stations achieved around 53,000 contacts during the ten days.
We only had a basic setup for 6m consisting of an IC-7300, running around 60 watts to a Diamond HB9CV. No rotator. Software was MSHV.
We experienced TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) openings on 24th to 27th March, and again on 29th March.
573 contacts in total were made consisting of 481 unique’s.
Thirty-five DXCC were worked, with the majority being in Europe (98%) with Italy the highest country (28%). Seven stations were worked in Africa, and five in Asia.
Only one G station was worked – G7RAU. Dave must be very happy!
The openings did not extend to EI unfortunately.
Roger Greengrass EI8KN / G4NRG
In a follow up to my recent post about lightning scatter at 1296 MHz, Kadri TA1D got in touch to say that he saw another example at 144 MHz. He wrote a post about it on his blog in Turkish and that is linked from the bottom of this post.
He has kindly given me permission to publish a version in English here. I'm using Google Translate for most of this post with a few corrections so a few errors may creep in.
John, EI7GL
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Contribution of lightning to Radio Communications at 144 MHz ...by TA1D
Towards the end of summer 2021, I was operating from my summer QTH station in the North Aegean in Turkey / Turkiye. It was raining with lightning one day when I was communicating with Meteor Scatter on 144 MHz and I decided to check if the SV2JL/B beacon station in Greece on 144.450 MHz could be heard during the hours when lightning was concentrated in the middle of the Aegean Sea.
I turned my antenna to the west and started listening on 144.450 MHz. At that time, the sound of the CW beacon could be very faintly heard with some fading (QSB). Sometimes it became unreadable and rose again, but overall, the signal level was very poor.
While I was listening, I also had the computer monitoring with the MSK144 mode and sometimes, the morse signal appeared clearly on the screen as short and long lines.
I noticed that I was also hearing the static crashes from the lightning and these can be seen on the screen shot above.
I noticed that I could hear the radio signals of SV2JL/B very faintly during each lightning strike. When the static crash was at a red level, the morse signals became loudly audible before dropping back down to a lower level.
I realised that I had witnessed an interesting physical event and it was possible due to my position and situation.
Is it of any use to radio amateurs? Yes, it can be useful. We can make use of meteor scatter with the MSK and FSK modes to make contacts using short pings and bursts. We could also make use of the short scatter signals from lightning strikes.
Thanks to lightning, we are listening and sending like meteor scatter communications. Lightning strikes at the appropriate angle between the two stations during our meteor scatter style QSOs may help us communicate.
In conclusion; This physical phenomenon that I have noticed and determined can be effective in amateur radio communication.
There may be articles written by people who witnessed similar events on different web pages, but I have not come across them yet.
Meteorite: Pieces of Stone, Soil, mineral and ice floating or orbiting in space.
TA1D Kadri K.Mehmet Başak
Links...
1) The full original article is on the TA1D website... http://ta1d.com/?p=226
On the 9th of April 2024, 3B8FA in Mauritius made the first Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP) contact on the 144 MHz band from that country when he completed a contact with A65BR in the UAE. As the screen grab shows above, there was also a path to A71XX in Qatar.
This screen capture below from Oleg, A65BR shows the contact on the Q65 mode.
FR4OO on Reunion Island also had the same TEP as the previous day to A65BR, A71XX and 9K2GS.
Just to keep the report as complete as possible, there was also a path from FR5DN to Qatar...
The Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP) openings from Namibia to Europe on the 144 MHz continued on the 8th of April 2024. The reports from the PSK Reporter website are shown above.
As can be seen from the list, this was quite a good opening and the one big change was the path to SV1DH near Athens in Greece. The horizontal spread of stations at the northern end of the circuit was in the region of 800kms.
At 144 MHz, the signals need to cross the Geomagnetic Equator at nearly 90 degrees for TEP and it gets a lot more difficult the further the station gets from 90 degrees. That's why it is interesting to see SV1DH listed.
The optimal TEP path from Athens is probably down to Zimbabwe but there are no stations active there on 144 MHz.
Alex, SV1NZX reports... "V51JH heard SV1 and a smattering of other stations; ZD7GWM was cqing on 144.300 but sadly no copy from EA stations. SV1DH worked V51WW quite easily."
Felice, IZ8FFA reports working V51WW with 100W to a 12-element home made LFA Yagi on a 7m book.
On the 8th of April 2024, a little bit of amateur radio history was made with the first ever TEP contacts on the 144 MHz band in the Indian Ocean.
Over the last few decades, Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP) contacts on the 144 MHz (2m) band have been reported from South America to the Caribbean area, from the southern part of Africa to the Mediterranean area and from the north of Australia to Japan. This is as far as I know, a first for the Indian Ocean.
Inspired by the recent TEP contacts from Namibia to the south of Europe, other radio amateurs are trying other potential TEP paths. On the 7th of April 2024, A65BR in the UAE reported reception of the signal of FR4OO on Reunion Island... see previous post. On the 8th of April, three successful contacts were made as shown above.
The contacts are similar to other recent TEP contacts... made in the late evening, approx 5200km north-south path, equidistant from the Geomagnetic Equator and using Q65 to handle the distortion and weak signals.
The first contact was made by Oleg, A65BR around 16:30 UTC...
Oleg, A65BR writes... "Today TEP to FR on 2m was amazing. Q65 QSO with FR4OO done. Never try before, looks like we have permanent channel via TEP on 2m. Signals are huge, CW can be easy."
Oleg continues... "Today a QSO took place without any problems, the opening lasted 2.5 hours, the signal rose to -2 dB, FR4OO also worked 9K2GS and A71XX. Tomorrow 3B8FA will join their side, I hope it will grow together. It all started at 16.20 utc, (20.20 local Umm Al Quwain) and until 23 pm. It’s interesting to try at 70 cm.
Alex, SV1NZX reports... "FR4OO completes with 9K2GS, A65BR and A71XX on 2m. FR5DN hears A71XX for one period. Congratulations to all stations!!"
As Alex mentions, the signal from a second Reunion Island station (FR5DN) was also heard in Qatar (A7).
These are the spots from the DX Cluster...
Analysis... If the recent TEP openings to Europe are anything to go by, these openings in the Indian Ocean should be almost a daily occurrence for the few weeks around the equinox. This path is probably there year after year but it just takes someone at either end of the circuit to try it.
Back on the 1st of December 2023, Ireland’s first satellite, EIRSAT-1 was launched onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The EIRSAT-1 control team revealed recently that the satellite was almost lost.
Shortly after launch, the satellite was rotating at 5 degrees per second taking 72 seconds to do a full rotation which was in line with expectations. However, that rotation speed increased and it was soon doing 30 degrees per second taking 12 seconds to do a full rotation. By the time the control station in Dublin had established contact with it, it was spinning at 50 degrees per second and getting faster.
In an interview, Eirstat-1 engineering manager Prof David McKeown said... “If it keeps spinning faster and faster, you won’t be able to communicate with it and you’ll lose the mission. The faster it gets, the harder it is to make it slow down again. Once it gets to a certain speed you can’t even send the commands to it to slow it down. This was very worrying. If it went on, that would have been curtains for us.”
To get a handle on what was going on, the control team had to do simulations on the ground and came up with a solution to slow down the rotation.
Prof McKeown continues... “It is so much work, so much time over so many years. You get a mixture of relief and happiness. It is absolutely a technical success. We took no shortcuts. It was years of testing and it’s years of work that has paid off. We couldn’t be happier with the way things are working. All the critical systems are healthy. We have got data back from one of our payloads.”
