Noctilucent clouds visible from Cork... Sat 7th July 2018

I took this photo of noctilucent clouds from my house in Cork on the south coast of Ireland at about 23:08 UTC on Sat 7th July 2018. This was just after midnight local summer time and about 130 minutes after sunset.

To the naked eye, they looked a bit like a bright cloud on the horizon and a 5 second exposure on the camera was needed to bring out the detail shown above.

My location is just below 52 degrees north so they would certainly have been visible by anyone further north. I could still see them faintly at about 00:00 UTC which was 1am local time, roughly 3 hours after sunset.

Noctilucent clouds exist at a height of about 80 kms above the earths surface, way above where normal clouds exist. Some propose that they may have a bearing on VHF propagation on paths near the poles... example... Europe to Japan on 50 MHz.

Reception of the OZ7IGY beacon on 40 MHz - Fri 6th July 2018

Both 28 MHz and 50 MHz were wide open on Friday the 6th of July 2018 with plenty of strong Sporadic-E signals on the bands. One of the best things about monitoring FT8 signals on 28 MHz is that I can get a very good idea of where the band is open to.

Since I started listening in mid-May, the 28 MHz band has been open every day but openings from Ireland to Denmark are the exception rather than the norm. Openings from Ireland to the South to Spain / Portugal or the South-East to Italy/Germany seem a lot more common.

Today was an exception and as soon as I saw FT8 spots from near Copenhagen on 28 MHz, I listened on 40.071 MHz for the OZ7IGY beacon.  As can be see from the decoded PI4 spots below, I was hearing the 40 MHz beacon from about 13:20 UTC till 21:00 UTC with some gaps.

The 40 MHz signal was never that strong although my use of an indoor 50 MHz antenna probably has a lot to do with that.

This is currently the only signal in Europe on the 40 MHz band.

OZ7IGY beacon decodes below... (Signals stronger than -10dB sigal to noise ratio in bold)

EI DMR registrations at the end of June 2018

As of the end of June 2018, there were 126 DMR registrations allocated to EI callsigns. It had looked as if the growth in digital registrations had begun to taper off at the end of 2017 but it continued to grow in 2018.

Opening to Japan on 50 MHz...Fri 29th June 2018

I saw a note on G3XBM's blog today that 6m was open to Japan from the UK. I checked the online FT8 log of local station Tom EI4DQ on 50 MHz and sure enough, there was an opening from Ireland to Japan as well.

Several other EI stations on 50 MHz such as EI3KD and EI7BMB had similar FT8 spots to Japan.

What I found interesting was that I heard nothing like this on 28 MHz with a vertical half-wave and I was listening all day.

Usually 28 MHz is better than 50 MHz and it opens earlier and closes later. Nothing on 10m this time though.

Was the path only open to the higher frequency signals? Was it a case that beams and high power were needed to exploit this opening on 50 MHz?

Interesting opening to the USA on 10m - 27th June 2018

When I checked the PSK reporter this morning, I noticed that I had heard one lone signal on FT8 on 28 MHz from the USA overnight. It turned out to be NF3R in Pennsylvania who was heard at 2:54am local time here.

As can be seen from the chart above, NF3R was being heard all across the USA. The interesting thing is that I was the only station in Europe to hear NF3R in the early hours of the 27th.

At 5156 kms, it was probably three Sporadic-E hops across the Atlantic. I guess that's the thing with Sp-E, you can never tell when and where it will open to.

Illegal fishery buoy on the 28 MHz FT8 frequency

Anyone that uses 28 MHz on a regular basis will have heard illegal driftnet fishing buoys which give out a short carrier followed by an id in morse.

Over the last few days, I have heard one on the FT8 frequency of 28.074 MHz (USB). It is shown below in the waterfall plot as a short narrow carrier in amongst all the FT8 signals.

It is a solid carrier for about 10 seconds and is then followed by the letters E H in morse code. (Something like a 10 second dah followed by dit.....dit dit dit dit ). It transmits every 2m 30s.

I only noticed it in the last few days so I presume that it was only recently switched on.

As for the location, these are the FT8 signals I was hearing at the time....

I would guess either the western Med or out in the Atlantic but it's very difficult to know.

Links...
1) IARU Region 1 page on 28 MHz driftnet buoys

New page for 40 MHz...

At the moment, there is very little material or information on the web about any type of 40 MHz activity. As it is likely to become a new amateur band in Ireland, I have set up a page on this blog so that people can have a look at the information that I have already.

You can see it here... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

Another big opening on 10m to North America... 20th June 2018

Wednesday the 20th June 2018 was another busy day of FT8 signals on 28 MHz with plenty of Sporadic-E signals being heard including China and Thailand.

Later in the day, it opened to North America. Florida with it's southerly path seems to be the location that I hear first or most often.

The real interesting ones this time though were the signals from Arizona and New Mexico.These are the first multi-hop Sporadic-E signals I have heard from that area this summer on 10m FT8.

I have also noticed that sometimes, I might be the only person hearing a station in my general area. For example, only a Spanish station and myself heard one of the Arizona stations on 10m.

I'm only using a vertical half-wave so it's not like I have any kind of huge antenna array, it's just that I am further west than the other UK and European stations.

The faded markers in the graphic above are I believe stations monitoring at the time I made the map. When the band was open, there were many others.

Opening on 28 MHz to North America... Sat 16th June 2018

There was another nice opening to North America on Saturday the 16th of June 2018 with quite a number of stations being heard on the FT8 digital mode. The signals seem to have been there at various times from about 13:00 to 23:00 UTC.

The signals were almost certainly via multi-hop Sporadic-E. If you listen to one particular station then it just looks as if the band is just open to the United States. However if you look at a plot of many stations received over time, patterns emerge.

The station in Newfoundland at about 3200 kms was probably double hop Sporadic-E... 2 x 1600 kms.

The bulk of the stations in the east of the USA at about 5,000 kms were probably triple hop... 3 x 1700 kms.

The stations in Texas, Arkanas, Louisana and Oklahoma at about 7,000kms were probably four hops... 4 x 1300 kms.

What is interesting is the skip zone going from Alabama to Missouri at about 6,500 kms. It was a bit too long for triple hop (3 x 2200) and too short for four hops (4 x 1600 kms) on this particular day.

CEPT not in favour of 50-54 MHz Primary allocation

CEPT...The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations is meeting in Estonia from the 12th to 15th of June 2018 to discuss a wide variety of radio and technical regulatory topics.

One of the items on the agenda was whether there should be a primary allocation for radio amateurs from 50 to 54 MHz in Region 1 which includes Europe.

Sylvain Azarian F4GKR who is a member of the IARU Region 1 Executive Committee is at the meeting and is Tweeting updates.

On Thurs 14th June, he said..."CEPT countries not in favor of more than 2MHz secondary at this stage of the discussions on the 6m band. "

CEPT countries not in favor of more than 2MHz secondary at this stage of the discussions on the 6m band. #hamradio

— sylvain azarian (@sylvain_azarian) June 14, 2018

In a message yesterday, he said that the Swiss and French administrations had objected on the grounds of interference...

Switzerland and France presented the results of their simulation showing that #hamradio activity has a high level of probability to generate harmful interferences to other services in the 50 to 54 MHz band.

— sylvain azarian (@sylvain_azarian) June 13, 2018

CEPT meeting day 3 : we should now try to draft some common position on 6m while WPT discussion start in a different room#hamradio pic.twitter.com/Fx12P6SYPI

— sylvain azarian (@sylvain_azarian) June 14, 2018

SIRIO 5/8 ground plane antenna for 40 MHz

The Italian firm SIRIO manufacture vertical antennas that cover 36 to 60 MHz. The TORNADO 35-42 model covers 35 MHz to 42 MHz which would tune nicely to the new 40 MHz (8 metre) band.

Mount Snowdon worked on 145 MHz...

I made an interesting contact this morning when I worked Dave, GW8NZN/P on the summit of Mt.Snowdon on 145.400 MHz FM. The distance was 200 miles / 323 kms and it turned out that the mid point for the path was over the east coast of Ireland.

On my end, I was using 5w & 50w into a home made vertical antenna in the attic of my house. Dave was using 5w from a Yaesu FT60 handheld and a Moonraker MRW222 telescopic whip. Obviously being on the summit of the highest mountain of Wales at 1085m helps a lot but I thought it was an interesting contact on FM all the same.

After the contact, I came across the SOTAWATCH website which has lots of information about current and upcoming summit activations. It's worth keeping a watch on it if you want to try to make some distant contacts. The website is http://www.sotawatch.org/

Photos from Ham Radio 2018 in Friedrichshafen, Germany

Ham Radio is a 3 day event held from 1st to 3rd June 2018 in Friedrichshafen, Germany and showcases products for amateur radio enthusiasts. It is currently the largest one in Europe.

I came across this photo gallery which gives a flavour of what the 2018 event was like.

Multi-hop Sp-E opening to the United States on 10m...3rd/4th June 2018

At the moment, I have the HF rig tuned to the FT8 digital mode frequency of 28.074 MHz more or less all the time with the reception spots being uploaded to the PSK reporter website.

On Sunday the 3rd of June, there was a very strong Sporadic-E opening to Europe. Later in the day, there was an interesting multi-hop opening to the United States. What was unusual was just how late the opening was with many of the signals being heard at 2am local time on the 4th of June.

Looking at some plots for other local stations, it looks as if 50MHz was open as well so it must have been a pretty good opening.

As it turned out, I was too busy to get near the radio but it's interesting to see just how good FT8 performs. This digital mode seems to a critical mass of users on 28 MHz that makes the mode useful for monitoring propagation where as there is an obvious shortage of stations on modes like WSPR.

Big Sporadic-E opening on 28th May 2018

Monday the 28th of May 2018 was one of those days when there was plenty of Sporadic-E signals in Europe from 28 MHz to 144 MHz. This is what I heard on FT8 on 28 MHz...

What is of particular interest here is the sheer number of stations from the UK and the Netherlands that were heard... i.e. approx 500 to 1000 kms range.

This is where monitoring FT8 signals on 28 MHz can be very useful. If you are hearing 28 MHz signals that are 500-1000 kms distant then the MUF (Maximum Usable Frequency) is probably much higher.

This turned out to be the case as there were Sporadic-E signals all the way up to 144 MHz. Looking at the DX cluster, there was an opening from Ireland to the south of Italy in the evening. I also came across an Italian radio station on 104.9 MHz while I was checking to see if BBC Radio 4 was coming in from Wales.

The OZ7IGY beacon on 40.071 MHz from Denmark was also in for about an hour.

As a tool for checking propagation, FT8 is proving very useful.

Multiple DAB signals heard under lift conditions

About 10 years ago in 2008 when the first trials of DAB radio (Digital Audio Broadcasting) began in Ireland, I purchased a PURE EVOKE-2XT to listen to the transmissions. This radio had the added feature that it has an aerial socket on the back which allowed me to connect a 7 element log-periodic, an old TV aerial that covers 175 to 230 MHz.

At the time, this allowed me not only to hear the local Irish DAB signal but also signals from North West Wales under very good lift conditions. From what I remember, DAB hadn't rolled out to the South of Wales or Cornwall yet in 2008.

Considering that most of the local Irish DAB signals can be heard already on Band 2 FM band, I didn't really bother with DAB for years.

I tried it out again over the last few days and the DAB signals from the UK have been really strong. Most of the signals I have heard were around 230-350 kms distant in West Wales, South Wales, Devon and Cornwall.

In total, I managed to pick up 11 different DAB muxes...

MUX Mux ID
10B 211.64 MHz Somerset
10C 214.36 MHz Devon
10D 215.07 MHz ????
11A 216.92 MHz SDL National
11B 218.64 MHz Cornwall
11D 222.06 MHz D1 National
12A 223.93 MHz Swansea SW Wales
12B 225.64 MHz BBC National DAB
12C 227.36 MHz DAB Ireland Mux1
12D 229.97 MHz Mid & West Wales
12D 229.97 MHz Plymouth

I counted at least 60 radio stations that I could listen to when conditions allowed. In contrast to FM signals from the UK which have to compete with strong local signals, the DAB signals are completely clear and the quality is excellent when the signals are strong.

With the signals up around 220 MHz, it also seems to be a good way to keep an eye on how good tropo conditions are.

The list of radio stations received via DAB is shown below...

IRTS release proposed band plans for 40MHz and 60MHz

The Irish Radio Transmitters Society have just released their proposed band plans for the new VHF bands around 40 and 60 MHz. The following item was in the IRTS news on Sunday the 20th of May 2018....

*****

Spectrum News
Following a spectrum award by ComReg the entire 4m band (69.9 - 70.5 MHz) is now available to Irish licensees.

At the last IRTS Committee Meeting a sub-committee was convened to develop band plans and propagation beacons for additional spectrum included in the spectrum award.

IRTS is now consulting amateur licensees on two band plans covering 40 - 44 MHz and 54 - 69.9 MHz. More details including draft band plans can be downloaded from the IRTS website, www.irts.ie/downloads

Please send any comments as soon as possible to “newspectrum /at/ irts /dot/ ie” to arrive not later than 30th June 2018.

*****

At present, there is a Danish beacon on 40 MHz while the UK one is non-operational. Slovenia has an allocation for a beacon band at 40 MHz but have no beacon on this band. South Africa is the only country outside of Ireland to have a allocation for users at 40 MHz.

There is currently no active beacon on 60 MHz as the UK one is non-operational.

A copy of the proposed band plan is shown below...

FT8 on 28 MHz... Tues 15th May 2018

There were plenty of FT8 signals on the 10 metre band on Tuesday the 15th of May 2018 although noticeably fewer than previous days.

This is what was heard from about 8am till about 7pm....

That pretty much represents what could have been heard anyway as the band was hardly open at 8am and it closed in the late afternoon. Other than some signals from South America, the only DX as such was a station in Western Sahara.

I think the spot from Liberia was bogus one as the callsign looked wrong. Almost as if something wasn't decoded properly.

There were fewer European stations as well with nothing coming from Scandinavia.

Overall, I heard 187 stations in 28 countries on Tues 15th of May.

I'll continue until I have a weeks worth of data and review it then.

FT8 on 28 MHz... Mon 14th May 2018

Another day full of FT8 signals on the 10 metre band. As such, it was pretty similar to previous days with some slight differences.

It opened to South America again but only to Brazil this time. A cluster of stations from the centre of Asiatic Russia came through.

Lots of signals from Europe again via Sporadic-E...

There was an opening on 50 MHz as well and I heard the beacon in Denmark. I also heard the Danish beacon on 40 MHz which was interesting considering that this is in the new Irish allocation of 30 to 49 MHz.

Over the 24 hours, I heard 583 separate stations in 52 countries.

Reception of OZ7IGY beacon on 40 MHz - Mon 14th May 2018

At about 09:00 UTC this morning, I noticed that I was hearing FT8 signals on 28 MHz from Denmark. Later, I heard the OZ7IGY beacon on 50.470 MHz so I knew that the Sporadic-E conditions were well above 40 MHz.

I listened on 40.071 MHz and eventually heard the OZ7IGY beacon down in the noise. The distance was 1390 kms.

In terms of equipment, I was using a Yaesu FT-817 and a simple indoor 2 element beam in the attic for 50 MHz. The beam is pointing roughly 120 deg where as the OZ beacon is at 65 degrees so it is some bit off. I suspect on 40 MHz, it may be behaving as a shortened dipole so it certainly wasn't optimal.

I also noticed that the noise level on the FT817 seemed to drop off as I tuned below 45 MHz so I suspect it might not be the most sensitive on 40 MHz. Still though, the signal was heard which was a positive step.

The signal itself alternates between a morse code ID and a digital PI4 signal which almost sounds like someone playing a bugle! :o)

The beacon has an erp of 10 watts on 40 MHz and the website is http://www.oz7igy.dk/

Now that there is an allocation in Ireland, hopefully we might hear a few more signals on the 8 metre band.