Opening to Angola on 28 MHz - Thurs 16th May 2019

Thursday the 16th of May 2019 was really a day of two halves on 28 MHz.

In the morning, it was really quiet with nothing being heard. It reminded me of one of those days in November when the band can seem totally dead.

It was only really around 15:00 UTC that the Sporadic-E appeared on the band with stations in Italy being heard mainly.

Notes...

1) In terms of DX, several stations from Brazil were heard as well as SU9JG in Egypt and UW5EJXX/MM off the coast of Angola.

2) The last European station from Portugal was heard was at 18:46 UTC. UW5EJX/MM was the only signal on the band until it closed at 19:12 UTC.

3) The map below shows the European stations heard and the pickings were slim. The opening to Italy seemed to be reasonable while it was a lot more patchy to Spain.

This is reflected in the beacons heard on 28 MHz with just two from Italy
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 15:56 16 May IO51TU JN54AB Italy
EI7GL 28240.0 IZ8RVA/B 14:57 16 May IO51TUJN70LI Italy

Ever since the big opening last Sunday, it seems as if every day is getting progressively worse.

In total, I uploaded 117 reports from 83 stations in 17 countries to the PSK Reporter website.

These are the stations heard...

Joe Everhart N2CX Silent Key - RIP

Joe Everhart N2CX was well known figure in the amateur radio world for his work on QRP and home brew projects. As well as writing articles for amateur radio publications, he also presented a popular podcast with co-host George Heron N2APB called Chat With The Designers.

Over the last few months while out walking, I have been catching up on their podcasts since 2011. I was sorry to hear today that Joe N2CX had just passed away.

Message below from his co-host George N2APB

Drop in Sporadic-E on 28 MHz - Wed 15th May 2019

Conditions on 28 Mhz on Wednesday the 15th of May 2019 were very down on recent days with only a very modest opening to Italy and Spain.

The band opened weakly at about 08:00 and closed at about 15:00 UTC.

Even though the map below shows quite a number of stations, many were very weak indeed.

Notes...

1) Just two what might be called 'DX' stations were heard. I got just one transmission from TR8CA in Gabon while I managed to get the locator from HZ1SK in Saudia Arabia.

2) Just three other multi-hop signals were heard...two is the south of Russia and one in Greece.

3) There were two minor openings to Italy and Spain....

The openings tie in with the three beacons that I heard...
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 11:34 15 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28253.2 ED5YAU/B 11:10 15 May IO51TU ES IM98WN Spain
EI7GL 28227.1 IW3FZQ/B 08:30 15 May IO51TU ES JN55VF Italy

In total, I uploaded 139 reports from 116 stations in 27 countries to the PSK Reporter website.

The stations heard are shown below...

Opening on 28 MHz to Africa - Tues 14th May 2019

Tuesday the 14th of May 2019 was certainly quieter than previous days with weaker Sporadic-E openings to Europe.

The day on 28 MHz could be broken up into two halves.

In the morning, there seemed to be plenty of Sporadic-E over the south-east of Germany but this is over the horizon for me. I was getting just weak FT8 signals from the east that on a map looked good but in reality could hardly be heard.

In the afternoon, the 28 MHz band opened to the south at about 15:00 UTC with some reasonable signals. The MUF also extended up as far as 50 MHz.

The map below shows the FT8 signals heard on 28 MHz...

Notes...

1) The three signals heard from south of the equator were ZS6S in South Africa, ZD7JC on St Helena and PU1JSV in Brazil. Each one had a different footprint in NW Europe.
ZS6S was heard all over western Europe.
ZD7JC was heard just south of a line that was roughly 52 deg north.
PU1JSV was heard in Ireland and on the continent but not in the UK.

2) The map below shows Europe in more detail. The opening to Spain was good but seemed to be slightly long in that only the southern and eastern coast was mainly heard.

The beacons heard pretty much match the conditions...
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 17:20 14 May IO51TU IM76HD Gibraltar
EI7GL 28253.2 ED5YAU/B 15:58 14 May IO51TU IM98WN Spain
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 15:56 14 May IO51TU JN02SM Andorra

The regular ED4YAK/B near Madrid was missing this time out.

3) On 50 MHz, I worked the Balearic Islands...
EI7GL 50098.1 AM70URE/6 17:02 14 May IO51TUJM19LO Balearic Islands

In total, I uploaded 509 reports from 294 stations in 47 countries to the PSK Reporter website..

Aurora Alert for the 15th to 16th of May 2019

Aurora Alert! Due to some Coronal Mass Ejections on the sun in recent days which were facing towards the Earth, we may get some aurora on the 15th and 16th of May 2019.

Radio wise, it may result in the following...

1) HF...Poor conditions on the HF bands except for a possible short enhancement when the particle front arrives.

2) Sporadic-E... It may well result in poor Sporadic-E conditions.

3) VHF... It may result in good auroral propagation on 50 MHz, 70 MHz and 144 MHz. If you have a directional antenna, point it North.

Some data from European Magnetometers here... https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/auroral-activity/magnetometers
Alert message for North America.

Another opening to South-East Asia on 28 MHz - Mon 13th May 2019

Monday the 13th of May 2019 was in many ways similar to the previous day except the Sporadic-E conditions weren't as intense.

It did however open to South-East Asia with Thailand and Indonesia being heard. Others include RA9DZ from the other side of the Ural Mountains in Russia, UN8GEQ in Kazakhstan with plenty more double hop Sporadic-E signals as well.

These are the stations heard on FT8 on 28 MHz on Monday the 13th of May 2019...

Notes...

1) No DX south... No sign of any opening from here to Africa or to South America although I did notice that a lot of stations in Poland were working Brazil.

2) Europe... The map below shows Europe in more detail. It was pretty poor to the south while the main opening was to the east.

3) Double Hop... The yellow line shows my single hop Sporadic-E limit. Notice the big cluster of double hop signals from Eastern Ukraine and South Russia.

4) Not Sunday... All days are not the same! While the signals did not seem as strong on Sunday, there were also probably fewer stations on air as it was a Monday.

Beacons... These are the beacons heard today...
EI7GL 28215.7 SR5TDM/B 18:57 13 May IO51TUKO01KX Poland
EI7GL 28245.3 DB0TEN/B 14:31 13 May IO51TUJO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 13:54 13 May IO51TUJO55WM Denmark
EI7GL 28220.1 5B4CY/B 13:51 13 May IO51TUKM64PR Cyprus
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 13:10 13 May IO51TUJO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 10:22 13 May IO51TUJN58KR Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 10:18 13 May IO51TUJN78SB Austria
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 09:39 13 May IO51TUJN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany 
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 09:38 13 May IO51TUJN54AA Italy  
EI7GL 28241.7 F5ZUU/B 09:34 13 May IO51TUJN24IL France
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 09:32 13 May IO51TUJN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 09:31 13 May IO51TUJN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany

Five of the seven German beacons were heard. 5B4CY/B in Cyrpus was double hop and a first for 2019.

Overall as reasonable day with lots of activity albeit with weaker signals. The band seemed to be open continuously from about 08:30 UTC to 21:00 UTC.

A total of 951 reception reports from 821 stations in 46 countries were uploaded to the PSK Reporter website.

A list of the stations heard is shown below...

Opening to Indonesia on 28 MHz - Sun 12th May 2019

28 MHz was pretty much wide open for most of the day on Sunday the 12th of May 2019 with widespread Sporadic-E on the band.

As well as there being a very good opening to central Europe, it was also notable as being the first day in 2019 when I heard the USA, India and Indonesia.

The FT8 signals heard on the 28 MHz band are shown below...

Notes...

1) Africa...ZS4JAN in South Africa, TR8CA in Gabon and UW5EJX/MM off the coast of Angola were all heard.

2) USA...N2LD in New Jersey was the sole US station heard. The distance was 5084 kms so it was probably triple hop Sporadic-E.

3) South America.... I only heard two stations from Brazil and they were at 15:19 and 16:27 UTC. I know there were others in the UK and Europe who heard a lot more but not from here.

4) Indonesia... YB1BML was heard at 13:57 UTC, a distance of 12,281 kms. I can only assume that it was via Sporadic-E at my end and at some stage, the F2 layer in the ionosphere was involved? What was unusual was that while he was heard by plenty in Europe, nobody in the UK seems to have heard him. The UK seems to have been in a skip zone while his signal did land here on the south coast of Ireland.

Stations hearing YB1BML on 28 MHz on 12th May 2019

5) India... The station in India was VU2OT. I could see him working European stations but I never heard the locator from him so it wasn't uploaded to the PSK Reporter website.

6) Double Hop... Closer to home, these are the stations heard in Europe...

The yellow dashed line shows my approx limit for one hop Sporadic-E. Note all the double hop signals. Interesting to hear Russian stations on the shores of the Caspian Sea and EK1KE in Armenia.

The strongest signals were from the east today and it was wide open into Germany.

Beacons.....A fair number of beacons were heard including all seven of the German ones.
EI7GL 28253.3 ED5YAU/B 22:34 12 May IO51TUIM98WM Spain
EI7GL 28269.0 SV6DBG/B 19:37 12 May IO51TUKM09KQ Greece
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 18:36 12 May IO51TUJO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 17:43 12 May IO51TUJN54AA Italy
EI7GL 28215.8 SR5TDM/B 16:39 12 May IO51TUKO01KX Poland
EI7GL 28322.6 F1VJT/B 13:52 12 May IO51TUJO33CI France 
EI7GL 28301.8 PI7ETE/B 13:46 12 May IO51TUJO22QD Netherlands
EI7GL 28277.4 DM0AAB/B 13:44 12 May IO51TUJO54GH Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28245.3 DB0TEN/B 13:42 12 May IO51TUJO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28227.4 IW3FZQ/B 13:41 12 May IO51TUJN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 13:40 12 May IO51TUJN78SB Austria
EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 12:27 12 May IO51TUJO55WM Denmark
EI7GL 28265.1 DF0ANN/B 12:25 12 May IO51TUJN59PL Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 11:20 12 May IO51TUJN58KR Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28235.1 OY6BEC/B 11:17 12 May IO51TUIP62OA Faroe Islands
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 10:04 12 May IO51TUIN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 08:29 12 May IO51TUJN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28292.2 SK0CT/B 08:26 12 May IO51TUJO89XK Sweden
EI7GL 28298.1 SK7GH/B 08:25 12 May IO51TUJO77BF Sweden
EI7GL 28237.5 LA5TEN/B 08:07 12 May IO51TUJO59JP Norway
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 08:03 12 May IO51TUJN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany

What is interesting about the cw beacons is that conditions have to be good to hear them, especially the low power ones.

One example is PI7ETE/B in the Netherlands which is only running 300 milliwatts to a vertical.

Another interesting one was F1VJT/B in the south-west of France running just two watts to a Diamond CP6 vertical.

Hearing beacons via double hop is especially challenging as the signals tend to be weaker. SV6DBG is listed as being two watts into a 5/8 vertical.

In total, I uploaded 1123 FT8 reception reports from 976 stations in 58 countries on 28 MHz to the PSK Reporter website.

These are the stations heard on FT8 on 28 MHz on Sunday the 12th of May 2019...

Sporadic-E on 28 MHz - Sat 11th May 2019

Saturday the 11th of May 2019 was a pretty modest day for Sporadic-E on 28 MHz or at least it was from here on the south coast of Ireland.

The opening tended to be confined to a reasonably small area as it moved around. It never really opened to the south from here and the vast majority of signals from to the east were in the region of 1500 to 2000 kms.

These are the FT8 signals heard on 28 MHz on Saturday the 11th of May 2019...

Notes...

1) A92GE in Bahrain was heard at 07:37 UTC but didn't get uploaded to the PSK Reporter website.

2) Relatively small numbers of double hop today in Romania, Turkey, Lebanon, Cyprus and Russia.

3) The main opening was to the east and the strongest of the signals were from there.

4) There was very little Sporadic-E to the south from here for most of the day.

5) Looking at PSK Reporter, the was an opening from South America to mostly Scotland and across to Denmark. It looks as if the signals went over my head here and landed further north.

Nothing was heard from South America here all day.

Beacons..... These are the beacons heard on Sat 11th of May...
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 19:56 11 May IO51TUJO73CE  Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28298.1 SK7GH/B 18:54 11 May IO51TUJO77BF Sweden
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 13:54 11 May IO51TUJO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 10:02 11 May  IO51TUIN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 10:01 11 May IO51TUJN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 09:31 11 May IO51TUJN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 09:29 11 May IO51TUJN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 09:28 11 May IO51TUJN78SB Austria

Outside of that, I head some strong DL stations calling CQ contest on cw.

In total, I uploaded 369 reports from 241 stations in 33 countries to the PSK Reporter website.

These are the stations heard on FT8 on 28 MHz (2000kms plus in bold)...

Sporadic-E on 28 MHz - Fri 10th May 2019

The amount of Sporadic-E on Friday the 10th of May 2019 was a lot lower than previous days with the main opening being south to Spain. Even though it might seem from the map below that there was a widespread opening, that really wasn't the case.

The 28 MHz band was open from about 08:30 to about 16:00 UTC but the signals were weak for most of that time.

Notes...

1) Brazil.... There was a late opening to Brazil with two stations heard between 19:32 UTC and 20:07 UTC. Local sunset here was 20:13 UTC.
193200 -10 -0.0 1716 ~  VE3LTG PY2LCD -17
194330 -15 -0.1 1795 ~  VE3XN PY2LCD +02
194400 -16 -0.1 1795 ~  VE3XN PY2LCD +02
194400 -13 -0.3 2104 ~  CQ PU5MFI GG36
200130 -15 -0.1 1969 ~  VA3VU PY2LCD GG66
200700 -13 -0.4 2104 ~  CQ PU5MFI GG36

2) Europe... These are the stations heard ...

Some of the double hop Sporadic-E signals from Ukraine and Russia were a bit unusual in that there was no no major activity from the one hop area / half way point at the time.

It might look from the map as if there was an opening to England and the Netherlands but that wasn't the case. That's the thing with FT8, it shows all the very weak signals buried in the noise.

The main opening was to Spain and this is reflected in the number of beacons I heard...
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 11:27 10 May IO51TUIM76HD Gibraltar
EI7GL 28253.3 ED5YAU/B 10:34 10 May IO51TUIM98WM Spain
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 10:05 10 May IO51TUIN80FK Spain

In total, I uploaded 247 FT8 reports from 152 stations in 23 countries to the PSK Reporter website. Without FT8, the band is essentially dead.

These are the stations heard on FT8 (2000kms plus on bold)

Low Band VHF Log-Periodic Aerials from Antenna Products Corporation

Thanks to some info from Rob PE9PE, I came across this commercial antenna website in the USA ... https://antennaproducts.com/

Part of their wide range of products includes log-periodic directional antennas for the low VHF band of about 30 to 80 MHz.

The general principle of a log-periodic antenna is that they give a modest amount of gain over a very wide bandwidth as opposed to a typical Yagi which has more gain but only a narrower bandwidth.

While these commercial products are perhaps outside the budget of the typical radio amateur or scanner enthusiast, they do give some idea on the performance to expect from this type of antenna.

Some models...

Model : TLP-20 (pictured above)
Range : 20 MHz - 1000 MHz
Boom Length : 5.1m
Gain : Approx 2 to 6dBd
Link : https://antennaproducts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/TLP-20-1.pdf

Model : LP-102
Range : 30 MHz - 88 MHz
Boom Length : 4.5m
Gain : Approx 5.4 dBd
Link : https://antennaproducts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/LP-102.pdf

Model : TLP-28 
Range : 28 MHz - 100 MHz
Boom Length : 4.1m
Gain : Approx 3dBd
Link : https://antennaproducts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/TLP-28100225.pdf

The website of the company is https://antennaproducts.com/

Opening to the Indian Ocean on 28 MHz - Thurs 10th May 2019

Another interesting day on 28 MHz with lots of DX heard on the band. Besides the Sporadic-E opening to Europe, there were signals from Brazil, Africa, Israel and Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.

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 IO51TUIM76HD Gibraltar
EI7GL 28253.3 ED5YAU/B 13:10 09 May IO51TUIM98WN Spain
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 10:26 09 May IO51TUJN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28241.6 F5ZUU/B 10:24 09 May IO51TUJN24IL France
EI7GL 28177.7 IW1AVR/B 09:52 09 May IO51TUJN44BN Italy
EI7GL 28227.4 IW3FZQ/B 09:44 09 May IO51TUJN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 09:23 09 May IO51TUJN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28240.0 IZ8RVA/B 09:16 09 May IO51TUJN70LI Italy 
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 09:09 09 May IO51TUJN54AA Italy
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 08:45 09 May IO51TUJN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 08:43 09 May IO51TUJN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 08:42 09 May IO51TUJN78SB Austria

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.

Sporadic-E opening on 28 MHz - Wed 8th May 2019

Wednesday the 8th of May 2019 was another busy day on 28 MHz with a pretty widespread Sporadic-E opening to Europe. There were also a few interesting double hop Sporadic-E signals with a very short suprise opening in the evening to the west.

The band was open pretty much all the time from about 08:00 to 17:00 UTC.

This is a map of the FT8 signals heard on Wednesday the 8th of May...

Notes...

1) At 10:43 UTC, I heard just one weak transmission from A41ZZ in Oman, a distance of just over 6,000 kms. He seems to have been heard by quite a number of stations in the UK.
104345 -23  1.5 1404 ~  HG8IT A41ZZ -10

2) This is a map of the closer stations heard in Europe....

The yellow line shows the limit of one hop Sporadic-E for me. As can be seen, there were a number of stations that were double hop. The one in Turkey was a bit unusual in that I don't hear too many of them.

The single-hop Sporadic-E to Europe was pretty widespread. Lots of signals from Spain today. At times, I was hearing Spain and Poland at the same time. At other times, I was only hearing specific areas. The map represents all the stations heard over the course of the day.

3) There was a suprise opening in the evening when I heard these four signals...
190000 -13  0.1  924 ~  CQ VP2ETE FK88
190030 -12  0.1  924 ~  EA8TH VP2ETE +05
190130 -13  0.1  924 ~  CQ VP2ETE FK88
190215 -12 -0.0 2270 ~  CQ ZP9CTS GG22

Just four transmissions in the space of two minutes... VP2ETE in Anguilla and ZP9CTS in Paraguay.

The signals were heard at about 19:01 UTC while my sunset was at 19:09 UTC... coincidence???

What was interesting was just who heard these two stations. The map below shows how hit and miss it was...

On the left are the stations that heard VP2ETE... Canary Islands, one on Portugal, three in Germany and me. On the right are the stations that heard ZP9CTS.

Beacons...These were the beacons that were heard today...
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 14:54 08 May IO51TUJN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28265.1 DF0ANN/B 14:52 08 May IO51TUJN59PL Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 14:48 08 May IO51TUJN78SB Austria
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 14:08 08 May IO51TUJN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28257.7 DK0TEN/B 14:07 08 May IO51TUJN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 12:16 08 May IO51TUJO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28227.4 IW3FZQ/B 10:21 08 May IO51TUJN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 10:20 08 May IO51TUJN02SM Andorra 
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 09:45 08 May IO51TUIN80FK Spain

There was another short opening to NE Spain in the late evening and C30P/B was heard again at 21:38.

As for other signals, I heard RP74K on cw at some stage and gave him a call. I got ES?? back and then he disappeared in QSB.

Looking ahead, how long before the first multi-hop opening to the USA???

In total, I uploaded 459 reports from 429 stations in 40 countries today to the PSK Reporter website.

These are the stations heard. 2000kms plus in bold...

IARU adopt IRTS band plans for 40 MHz and 60 MHz

In April of 2018, the Irish regulator Comreg gave Irish radio amateurs access to most of the low VHF spectrum from 30 to 49 MHz.

In May of 2018, the Irish Radio Transmitters Society (IRTS) published a provisional draft for two bands at 40 MHz and 60 MHz.

In July of 2018 after a period of consultation, the IRTS published a formal band plan for the new bands.

In February of 2019, the IRTS announced that they would be presenting a paper proposing that the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU - Region 1) adopt the new 40 MHz and 60 MHz bands.

On the 5th of May 2019, the IARU published the minutes of the meeting in April. See newsletter HERE.

With respect to the new 8-metre and 5-metre bands, it says the following...

5.3 40 MHz / 60 MHz (C5_02):

Background:
• IRTS (Ireland) has now access to those two bands.
• There are also beacons in other countries

 Proposal:
• Incorporate the proposed 40 MHz and 60 MHz Bandplan in the VHF Handbook

Recommendation: 
VIE19_C5_Rec_05: To add the 40 MHz and the 60 MHz Bandplan in the VHF Handbook in a separate dedicated section.
17 in favour, 1 Abstention (RSGB)

While it is a small step, it does give the new 40 MHz and 60 MHz bands formal status within the IARU. It will hopefully raise the awareness of the bands with other national societies who may well in turn try to get small allocations.

Sporadic-E opening to Russia on 28 MHz - Tues 7th May 2019

On the two previous days of the 5th and 6th of May, the 28 MHz band was quiet in the morning and opened up in the late afternoon. In contrast, Tuesday the 7th of May 2019 was pretty much the opposite with the main opening in the morning and quiet in the afternoon.

It's probably proves the point that no two days of Sporadic-E on 28 MHz are the same.

The main opening started in the morning at 08:00 UTC. By 12:30 UTC, signals were starting to get weak and it pretty much closed around 14:30 UTC.

There was a very weak opening in the evening to South America.

This is a map of the FT8 signals heard on 28 MHz on the 7th of May 2019...

Notes...

1) Just one lone signal from South Africa with ZS6S being heard around 10:00 to 10:30 UTC.

2) Very little from Spain today.

3) What was exceptional today however was the amount of double hop Sporadic-E and especially to Russia.

The yellow line shows my limit for one hop Sporadic-E. All those signals to the east in Russia and Ukraine are double hop Sporadic-E. The most interesting ones are those to the east of Moscow. It's more unusual to hear those double hop signals from that far north than say Cyprus or Israel to the south-east.

Also heard but not uploaded to the PSK Reporter site was 4L6QL in Georgia (shown as a pink dot on the map) and RP74K in Russia.

4) Three signals were heard from Israel... 4X1PF, 4Z64EURO and 4X64O. The last two didn't get uploaded to PSK Reporter because of the longer call signs.

5) Another interesting signal was A61FJ in the United Arab Emirates at 6073 kms. It was possibly triple hop Sporadic-E although it may have been one hop Sp-E plus one F2 hop.

6) Two unusual signals from the Slovak Republic didn't get uploaded either were OM2019IIHF and OM83IHWC.

7) Two very weak signals from South America were heard around 20:00 UTC... ZP9CTS in Paraguay and LU9DO in Argentina.

Beacons... These were the beacons heard today
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 11:31 07 May IO51TUJN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28227.4 IW3FZQ/B 10:49 07 May IO51TUJN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 10:47 07 May IO51TUJN78SB Austria

As we head towards mid-May, things should start to get more interesting as the number of multi-hop openings increase. Some of the openings should also get more intense allowing the higher bands like 50 and 70 MHz to open more and the skip distances on 28 MHz to shorten.

For the 7th of May in total, 341 reports from 286 stations in 36 countries was uploaded to the PSK Reporter website.

Stations heard list below (2000kms plus in bold)

Late opening on 28 MHz - Mon 6th May 2019

Monday the 6th of May 2019 was in many ways similar to the previous day in that the 28 MHz band was quiet for most of the day and only really opened up in the late afternoon.

The main Sporadic-E opening started at about 15:30 UTC and what was unusual was that it didn't close until about 23:00 UTC.

The main opening was to the south towards Spain with most of the strong signals from there.

These are the FT8 signals heard on Monday the 6th of May 2019...

Notes...
1) The band opened to South America again although I heard a lot less traffic than on the 5th of May.

2) I noticed that some of the stations in the UK had double hop Sp-E down to the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. There were no signals here though.

3) This is the map of Europe in more detail...

It shows the areas where the main openings were... to Spain / Portugal and to N.Italy/S.Germany.

The yellow line shows my one hop Sporadic-E limit. I heard just three stations that were double hop.

Beacons...While FT8 hears signals that are buried in the noise, hearing the beacons on cw is another matter. If you start hearing there then you know conditions are reasonable.

These are the beacons heard and they more or less concur with the areas heard on FT8...

EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 19:27 06 May IO51TUJN78SB Austria 
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 19:25 06 May IO51TUJN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28265.1 DF0ANN/B 19:22 06 May IO51TUJN59PL Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28210.7 DB0FKS/B 18:51 06 May IO51TUJN49IT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28207.1 ON0RY/B 18:44 06 May IO51TUJO20CK Belgium
EI7GL 28257.7 DK0TEN/B 18:41 06 May IO51TUJN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 17:52 06 May IO51TUJN02SM Andorra 
EI7GL 28253.3 ED5YAU/B 15:53 06 May IO51TUIM98WN Spain 
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 15:46 06 May IO51TUIN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 15:44 06 May IO51TUIM76HD Gibraltar

The ED4YAK/B beacon near Madrid is one of the most consistent here and I heard it near the start of the opening and it was there for a lot of the evening. I also heard it at 23:05 UTC which was just after midnight local Summer time.

The one of interest in there for me is ON0RY/B in Belgium. This is reasonably close at about 1000kms which shows that the skip distance is getting shorter.

Caribbean... The most interesting part of the opening was probably the opening to the Caribbean. North-South propagation is the norm on 28 MHz when the solar flux is low but it's when the signals start going East-West that it gets interesting.

These are the FT8 signals from that region with Venezuela, Guadaloupe, Puerto Rico and Haiti heard....

NP4TX 10m FT8 3888 miles 22:20:29
YV4DYJ 10m FT8 7056 km 22:00:00
HH2AA 10m FT8 6624 km 21:56:44
FG4ST 10m FT8 6105 km 20:40:14
YV5MBI 10m FT8 7023 km 20:39:29

North-South Divide... It was interesting to see how the signals from HH2AA in Haiti seemed to have a northerly cut off. None of the stations in the north of the UK seemed to hear him.

Stations hearing HH2AA on FT8 on 28 MHz - 6th May 2019

As for the mode of propagation to the Caribbean? One hop Sporadic-E to the west and then F2? Multi hop Sporadic-E?

I suspect Sp-E and then F2 but that's the thing about 28 MHz, there are times when you can't be certain.

The Solar Flux was down at 72 which is very low.

In total, I uploaded 304 FT8 reports from 188 stations in 30 countries to the PSK Reporter website.

These are the stations heard (2000kms plus in bold)...

Commercial Log-Periodic Antenna for 30 to 70 MHz

One of the challenges of listening to Low Band VHF signals is having an antenna that performs well on a wide range of frequencies. One solution is the Log-Periodic antenna.

This 7 element Log-Periodic from M2 Antenna Systems is very much a high product aimed at commercial, scientific and commercial agencies rather than the hobbyist and probably has a price to match. It does however give some insight into that is required to cover the whole spectrum from 30 to 70 MHz.

Some notes and observations...

1) Boom... The boom is 157 inches in length which is about 4 metres.

2) Gain... Even though the Log-Periodic has 7 elements, the gain is very modest at about 4dBd. Note that this is true gain in free space and is honest. They haven't inflated the figures by adding on ground gain to make the antenna look better.

3) Compromise... The modest gain is the price of having a wide band antenna. With a 7 element Yagi, all 7 elements are in use and the gain may be up around 10dbd. With a Log-Periodic, only about 2 to 3 of the 7 elements are active at any particular frequency in the 30-70 MHz range.

4) Phasing harness... Note the phasing harness above the boom which goes back and forth between elements. This is part of the additional complexity of a Log-Periodic as opposed to a Yagi with its parasitic elements.

5) Balun... This antenna has a 4 to 1 Balun at the front and this performs two functions...
a) This is to match a balanced antenna to an unbalanced coax feed
b) It also transforms the 200 Ohm feed impedance of the Log-Periodic down to about 50 Ohms.

More information on the antenna can be found at the following link...

1) 30-70LP7 on M2 Antenna Systems website

Big opening to South America on 28 MHz - Sun 5th May 2019

Sunday the 5th of May started off reasonably quiet with just a selection of weak signals from around Europe. At about 16:00 UTC, there was a good opening to South America which lasted until about 20:30 UTC.

This is a map of the FT8 signals heard on 28 MHz...

Notes...

1) My take off to the south-west isn't great as I have a hill in the way. If I can hear this many stations from South America then it must have been a really good opening.

2) TR8CA in the Gabon made an appearance on the band. There are probably lots of openings to Africa but the problem is that there are very few stations there to work.

3) Interesting to see some signals further west than the usual north-south paths. Four stations were heard in Puerto Rico as well as FG5GH/FWI on what I assume was Fortuna and Wallis Islands.

195715 -14  0.0  489 ~  AM70URE/9 <KP4JFR> 73
195915 -16 -0.0  489 ~  AM70URE/9 <KP4JRS> 73
195930 -16 -1.3 2415 ~  LU2JLS <FG5GH/FWI> R-05
200115 -10 -0.0  489 ~  AM70URE/9 <NP3YL> 73

4) Mode of propagation? I was hearing the south of Spain at the same time as South America so it was probably the usual one hop Sporadic-E to the south and then F2 to South America.

The Solar Flux index today was 72.

A total of 92 reports were uploaded to the PSK Reporter website from 68 stations in 25 countries.

This is a list of stations heard. 2000kms plus in bold.

Poor day on 28 MHz - Sat 4th May 2019

The conditions on 28 MHz on Saturday the 4th of May 2019 were pretty poor with mostly weak signals heard on the band. The map below shows what was heard but it bears little resemblance to what it actually sounded like.

It was one of those days where you could hear really weak signals buried in the noise and you wouldn't take much notice. You could then look at the screen after an hour and discover you had decoded a bunch of FT8 signals.

It was almost as if the band was just about open but not quite. I did a scan of the beacon band at one stage and heard ED4YAK/B near Madrid but it disappeared as soon as I heard it. That's the kind of day it was.

I could see that some of the stations in the UK managed to hear Brazil but there was nothing here.

I did a scan of the lower bands as well and 24 MHz, 21 MHz and 18 MHz all sounded pretty quiet. It's amazing hearing nothing on 18 MHz and then going just 4 MHz lower to 14 MHz and hearing Russian contest stations at 599+.

According to the PSK Reporter website, I uploaded 92 reports from 68 stations in 25 countries.

These are the FT8 signals heard on FT8 on Saturday the 4th of May 2019...
All single hop Sporadic-E. 2000km plus in bold.

Big opening on 28 MHz - Fri 3rd May 2019

There was another big Sporadic-E opening on 28 MHz on Friday the 3rd of May with the MUF extending up as far as 50 MHz as well.

The band was pretty much open for a full ten hours from about 09:00 to 19:00 UTC.

The opening was especially good to the south with strong signals from Spain and Portugal. I heard a lot of traffic from South America as well which isn't the best direction from here due to a local hill.

The map below shows the closer signals in more detail. Some of the signals not uploaded to PSK Reporter are shown as extra pink dots.

Notes...
1) The single hop limit is shown by a Yellow dotted line. The signals to note here are the double hop ones to Western Sahara, Greece, Israel, Bulgaria and Ukraine. However on closer inspection, there aren't that many to the east.
2) There was single hop Sporadic-E into Germany but the number of stations for a country of that size was low.
3) While it was a widespread opening with different areas of Europe being heard at the same time, most of the signals were modest. The signals from the south however was especially strong.
4) I wasn't listening on the FT8 frequency all of the time. I did tune around a few times and I did work some of the Spanish AM70 stations on cw. However, the radio was probably on the FT8 frequency for at least 90% of the day so it's a good reflection on what was happening on the band.

Beacons...These are the beacons that I heard and they reflect the very good conditions to the south. The ED4YAK beacon near Madrid was noticeably the strongest of the lot.

EI7GL 28253.3 ED5YAU/B 18:24 03 May IO51TUIM98WN Spain
EI7GL 28215.7 SR5TDM/B 18:21 03 May IO51TUKO01KX Poland
EI7GL 28298.1 SK7GH/B 17:45 03 May IO51TUJO77BF Sweden
EI7GL 28241.7 F5ZUU/B 15:39 03 May IO51TUJN24IL France
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 13:27 03 May IO51TUJN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 13:25 03 May IO51TUIN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 13:17 03 May IO51TUIM76HD Gibraltar

The band was also open much further south with 9J2BO in Zambia being heard on cw.
EI7GL 28025.1 9J2BO 13:22 03 May IO51TU<>KH44CP Zambia

The special event AM70 stations in Spain were really strong and I worked AM70O, AM70R, AM70P and AM70L on cw.

I heard someone on RTTY as well which seemed unusual, especially for 28 MHz.

One odd signal was an illegal fishing buoy on 28.029 MHz.

50 MHz... I did check 50 MHz at one stage and I heard a beacon in Portugal.
EI7GL 50035.6 CS5BALG/B 15:34 03 May IO51TUIM67AH Portugal

While I was there, I didn't hear any other signals except for the FT8 frequency.

According to the PSK Reporter website, I uploaded 456 reports for 28 MHz from 311 different stations in 41 different countries. A list is show below.

RSGB Presentation on VHF baluns by GM3SEK

At the 2018 RSGB Convention, Ian White GM3SEK gave a presentation on VHF baluns and that has now been put up on YouTube.

It is perhaps not the most exciting of subjects but it is required viewing for anyone with an interest in build their own VHF and UHF antennas.

There are some good nuggets of info in there including how to feed a beam properly and what pitfalls to avoid.

It's interesting to note that GM3SEK does not recommend the use of the Gamma match which is used in a huge number of antenna designs.

Video below...

These are Ian's websites...
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek/
https://gm3sek.com/