The band was pretty much open from about 08:00 to 19:00 UTC.
These are the FT8 signals heard on 28 MHz on Thursday the 9th of May 2019...
Notes...
1) The most remarkable signal of the day was probably that of FR1GZ on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Looking at the heard list on PSK Reporter, he was received throughout Europe and I was the furthest away at 10,170 kms. I heard him at 12:06 UTC.
2) Nice opening to West Africa... S01WS in the Western Sahara, 5T5PA in Mauritania, 9G5AR in Ghana and TR8CA in Gabon.
3) In the late afternoon, there was an opening to Brazil although it seemed very localised.
4) The opening to Europe wasn't as extensive as previous days. The main areas that were open were Italy in the morning and Spain / Portugal in the afternoon.
The yellow line shows my limit for one hop Sporadic-E. Note that lack of double hop to the East.
Also practically nothing Poland or the centre of Germany which is packed with active stations. Lots of stations in the Netherlands were heard but they were weak. It really didn't open to PA.
The good conditions to Italy and Spain is reflected in the beacons that I heard...
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 16:19 09 May IO51TU
EI7GL 28253.3 ED5YAU/B 13:10 09 May IO51TU
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 10:26 09 May IO51TU
EI7GL 28241.6 F5ZUU/B 10:24 09 May IO51TU
EI7GL 28177.7 IW1AVR/B 09:52 09 May IO51TU
EI7GL 28227.4 IW3FZQ/B 09:44 09 May IO51TU
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 09:23 09 May IO51TU
EI7GL 28240.0 IZ8RVA/B 09:16 09 May IO51TU
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 09:09 09 May IO51TU
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 08:45 09 May IO51TU
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 08:43 09 May IO51TU
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 08:42 09 May IO51TU
The Solar Flux was at 75 today which is up a bit on the usual. That may have helped the F2 propagation at lower latitudes with the Sporadic-E then coupling into it.
FT8 V CW... As an experiment, I listened to some of the FT8 signals and made a note of how loud they sounded.
-20dB on FT8... Essentially inaudible.
-14dB on FT... Just about know there is a signal there. I don't think I could copy cw at that level.
-6dB to -8dB on FT... This to me is about the same level as a weak cw signal.
In total, I uploaded 366 FT8 reports from 337 stations in 33 countries on 28 MHz to the PSK Reporter website today.
These are the stations heard. 2000kms plus in bold.