Conditions on 28 MHz - Mon 20th May 2019

Monday the 20th of May 2019 was a much more subdued day on 28 MHz with fewer signals heard on the band.

The morning was particularly poor with very weak signals. The evening was a bit better but the signals were never that strong.

As can be seen from the map above, there were a few double hop Sporadic-E signals from the Canary Islands, Sicily, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova.

It was the kind of day where you might hear plenty of signals on FT8 buried in the noise but very little elsewhere.

It was as if the footprint of the Sporadic-E was very patchy as it moved around.

Just three beacons were heard....
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 16:55 20 May IO51TU ES JN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 16:33 20 May IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 10:58 20 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain

DB0UM/B near the Baltic coast on the German-Polish border was an interesting one. It was a reasonable signal of about 529 when I heard it yet there were no FT8 spots on the map from that area to suggest the band was open. Lesson... FT8 spots don't show the full story, you need to tune around as well.

At the moment, the solar flux is at about 70 and it is really noticeable how poor the higher HF bands when there is no Sporadic-E about. There can be plenty of signals on 14 MHz but 18 MHz and above are very quiet.

In total, I uploaded 292 reports from 206 stations in 30 countries to the PSK Reporter website today.

A list of stations heard is shown below...

German Commercial Log-Periodic Antenna for 28 to 144 MHz

Thanks to a comment left on the blog by a reader named Phil, I came across this German Log-Periodic antenna which covers 28 MHz to 144 MHz.

This antenna manufactured by Anjo-Antennen is designed to cover the 10m, 6m, 4m and 2m amateur radio bands.

Specs below...
Logarithmic periodic dipole antennas (LPDA)
for amateur radio
LP028150S: for four amateur bands 10m, 6m, 4m, 2m

Technical details:
Four amateur bands - 10m, 6m, 4m, 2m band - with one antenna and one feeder
Gain: 10m 7.2dBi, 6m 7.2dBi, 4m 7.7dBi, 2m 7.4dBi
Length mechanical: 3.38m
Beamwidth:
10m band V = 72 ° / H = 167 °
6m band V = 70 ° / H = 149 °
4m band V = 73 ° / H = 164 °
2m band V = 80 ° / H = 167 °
Weight: 9,8kg
Wind pressure: 250N at 120km / h, 445N at 160km / h
Front to Back Ratio: 10m Band 8.2dB; 6m band 14dB; 4m band 17dB; 2m band 21dB
Connection: high quality N socket
Load capacity: 1kW CW, 2kW PEP

Comment... While this antenna is designed for the four amateur bands at 28 MHz, 50 MHz, 70 MHz and 144 MHz, it would also make an very good receive antenna for the low VHF bands. It should have similar gain and front to back figures for say 40 MHz, 60 MHz or even the broadcast band at 88 to 108 MHz.

Looking at the website, the VSWR at 40 MHz and 60 MHz looks as if it is in the region of 1:1.7

The product can be found on the company website at http://www.joachims-gmbh.de/detail_blatt/LP028150S.html

They also make other models which cover different frequency ranges.

The LP045150S covers 45 MHz to 150 MHz.

The LP045500S covers 45 MHz to 500 MHz.

The LP049073S covers 49 MHz to 73 MHz.

*****
Phil's original comment below...

Hi John

Conditions on 28 MHz - Sun 19th May 2019

Conditions on 28 MHz on Sunday the 19th of May 2019 were very similar to the previous few days.

In the morning, there was a weak Sporadic-E opening. The band closed in the early afternoon and the major opening came in the late afternoon and evening.

Sometime Sporadic-E seems random but it almost appears as if whatever is causing the Sporadic-E conditions at the moment is repeating itself every day.

As can be seen from the map below, there was very little double hop to the east.

The major opening started at about 15:00 UTC to the south and lasted until about 20:00 UTC.

The map below shows the European stations heard. The big difference here is that many of the FT8 signals from the east were buried in the noise. The ones from the south were often up to S9.

Beacons... These are the beacons heard which is perhaps suprisingly small considering there were S9 FT8 signals on the band and several band scans were done.

EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 18:57 19 May IO51TU ES JO55WM Denmark 
EI7GL 28245.3 DB0TEN/B 17:18 19 May IO51TU ES JO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 16:44 19 May IO51TU ES JN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 16:43 19 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 16:42 19 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 16:41 19 May IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar

It suggests perhaps that while the conditions were good at times, it was also very patchy. DB0TEN/B in the west of Germany was a reasonable signal but none of the other beacons in the northern part of Germany were heard.

I heard Italian stations calling CQ in cw yet I didn't hear any of the Italian beacons.

50 MHz... The MUF did get up to 50 MHz but when I did listen, I just heard some of the AM70 stations in Spain way down in the noise on cw.

EI...... I heard seven EI station on the band... a new record! :)

These are the stations heard on FT8 on 28 MHz on Sunday the 19th of May 2019...

Another opening to the South on 28 MHz - Sat 18th May 2019

Saturday the 18th of May 2019 was in many ways pretty similar to the previous day but with some subtle differences.

The 28 MHz band opened as early as 06:00 UTC but the signals were pretty weak.

As can be seen from the map below, there were plenty of stations heard in Eastern Ukraine and South Russia but most of these were at or below the noise level. The ones of interest from the east were... a) UN7MAU in Kazachstan which might be first I have heard from that country this year ...b) UA9CGL at the other side of the Ural Mtns and c) UA1OIZ up on the Artic coast, unusual to seem double hop Sporadic-E from up  there.

By about 11:00 UTC, the Sporadic-E opening had pretty much finished with just weak signals being heard. After 14:00 UTC, it opened up again but this time mainly to the south.

This is reflected in the beacons heard...

EI7GL 28241.6 F5ZUU/B 17:11 18 May IO51TU ES JN24IL France
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 16:40 18 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 15:17 18 May IO51TU ES JN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 14:43 18 May IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 10:52 18 May IO51TU ES JN54AB Italy
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 08:15 18 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28227.2 IW3FZQ/B 07:13 18 May IO51TU ES JN55VF Italy

The opening to the south was much better than to the east with several contest stations from Spain heard on cw. TZ4AM in Mali was also present on 28.028 MHz working Europeans.

I also heard two of the illegal fisheries beacons on 28.169 and 28.209 MHz.

The map below shows the FT8 stations heard in Europe on 28 MHz...

EA8ZT in the Canary Islands was giving his locator incorrectly as IN28GD instead of IL28GD so ended up adrift out in the Atlantic :)

Lots of dots on the map but lot of gaps also. Same with the beacons... heard some of the usual ones but didn't hear many others. In other words, the band was open but only just at times.

The MUF went up to 50 MHz as well to the south and I worked AM70I and AM70E in Spain on cw.

The band opened to South America as well. My take off in that direction is great with a local hill so if I heard that many then it must have been good.

The list of stations heard on FT8 is shown below...

Illegal Fishing Buoys on 28 MHz in 2019

I have come across several of the illegal fisheries buoys 28 MHz while the band was open. These are used by fishermen in some countries to mark fishing nets in the ocean so that they can be retrieved at a later time.

While the fishing buoy isn't illegal, they shouldn't be transmitting in the 10 metre band.

See the reports below...

*****

3rd May 2019... This one was operating on 28.029.6 MHz and used the following sequence...

Carrier for 10 seconds ... followed by the letter 'K' in morse ... and then a gap of 30 seconds before repeating the sequence.

The graphic above shows what it looked like on the FT8 waterfall (note... not the FT frequency!)

The fishing buoy transmits... drifts upwards about 10 Hz for about 2-3 seconds... and then stays on a constant frequency before giving out its ID at the end.

At the time, the band seems to have been open to Portugal and Spain so perhaps it was down in that direction? Impossible to know for sure.

*****

18th May 2019... Found two while tuning in the beacon band.

28.169.5 MHz - This one was 200 Hz higher than the 10m beacon in Gibraltar. It had the same rapid drift of about 30 Hz as it switched on followed by a 10 second carrier. It then give an ID of 'FA' in morse although it might have been 'FI', it was hard to be sure as it was weak. It then stayed off for about 1 minute and 25 seconds before starting the sequence again.

28.209.8 MHz - This one gave the usual drift at the start of a 9 second carrier. It then gave an ID in morse as 'FI'. It then stayed off for 2 minutes and 20 seconds before starting the sequence again.

*****

19th May 2019... Another one

28.260 MHz - 7 second carrier followed by 'FI' (might be FA?) in morse. Then a 2 min 20 sec pause before starting the sequence again.

*****

21st May 2019...

28.219.6 MHz - ID is FI or FA

*****

Update : Thanks to Rob PE9PE for the following link. It looks as if it may be possible to get an idea of the location of a transmitter by using online SDR receivers and precise timing for direction finding. Link... https://www.rtl-sdr.com/kiwisdr-tdoa-direction-finding-now-freely-available-for-public-use/

Wide open to Spain on 28 MHz - Fri 17th May 2019

Thursday the 17th of May 2019 looked like it might be another mediocre day on 28 MHz as signals in the early morning were quite weak but it really came to life in the afternoon.

The strongest signals in the morning were from NE Germany and S Sweden and this is reflected in the beacons heard on CW...
EI7GL 28298.1 SK7GH/B 11:59 17 May IO51TU ES JO77BF Sweden
EI7GL 28292.2 SK0CT/B 11:58 17 May IO51TU ES JO89XK Sweden
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 11:40 17 May IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany

The two remarkable signals from the morning period were UA9MA (5,110 kms) and RW9USA (5,880 kms). RW9USA was back in the afternoon as well. These two were probably triple hop signals while there were plenty of the 'usual' double hop signals from E Ukraine and S Russia.

After the morning opening, things went quiet until it opened up to Italy in the afternoon. This was soon followed by Spain and it was wide open to the south by the late afternoon with very strong signals on the band.

This was reflected in the beacons heard...
EI7GL 28322.6 F1VJT/B 16:32 17 May IO51TU ES JN33CI France
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 16:30 17 May IO51TU ES JN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28240.0 IZ8RVA/B 16:26 17 May IO51TU ES JN70LI Italy
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 16:23 17 May IO51TU ES JN54AB Italy
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 16:21 17 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 15:54 17 May IO51TU ES JN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28253.2 ED5YAU/B 15:52 17 May IO51TU ES IM98WN Spain
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 15:48 17 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28227.2 IW3FZQ/B 15:47 17 May IO51TU ES JN55VF Italy  
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 15:45 17 May IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar

European stations heard on FT8 on 28 MHz on 17th May 2019

I didn't have the radio parked on the FT8 frequency all of the time as I made the best of the conditions to work eight of the AM70 special event stations in Spain on cw on 10, 12 and 15 metres.

Another interesting signal on the band was that of 9K2HS in Kuwait at 5,211 kms.

In total, I uploaded 435 reports for 28 MHz for 257 stations in 38 countries to the PSK Reporter website.

A list of stations is shown below...

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)