Another good day for Sporadic-E on 28 MHz - Fri 24th May 2019

Friday the 24th of May 2019 pretty much carried on from the previous day. It only closed for a few hours before opening up again as early as 04:30 UTC which is really early.

The map below shows the signals heard on 28 MHz. As well as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Brazil made an appearance after being absent for a few days.

The skip was shorter on Friday with plenty of stations in the west of Germany and the Netherlands making it through.

The large number of beacons in Europe heard in a short period of time just shows that the band was wide open...
EI7GL 28267.5 OH9TEN/B 12:32 24 May IO51TU ES KP36OI Finland
EI7GL 28322.6 F1VJT/B 07:56 24 May IO51TU ES JN33CI France
EI7GL 28321.7 I3GNQ/B 07:48 24 May IO51TU ES JN55VJ Italy
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 07:41 24 May IO51TU ES JN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 07:38 24 May IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28277.4 DM0AAB/B 07:37 24 May IO51TU ES JO54GH Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28265.1 DF0ANN/B 07:35 24 May IO51TU ES JN59PL Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28245.3 DB0TEN/B 07:32 24 May IO51TU ES JO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28215.8 SR5TDM/B 07:29 24 May IO51TU ES KO01KX Poland
EI7GL 28210.7 DB0FKS/B 07:25 24 May IO51TU ES JN49IT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28207.1 ON0RY/B 07:22 24 May IO51TU ES JO20CK Belgium
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 06:38 24 May IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 06:37 24 May IO51TU ES JN78SB Austria
EI7GL 28227.1 IW3FZQ/B 06:36 24 May IO51TU ES JN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28241.7 F5ZUU/B 06:35 24 May IO51TU ES JN24IL France
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 06:34 24 May IO51TU ES JN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 06:32 24 May IO51TU ES JO55WM Denmark
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 06:30 24 May IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28298.1 SK7GH/B 06:29 24 May IO51TU ES JO77BF Sweden
EI7GL 28292.2 SK0CT/B 06:28 24 May IO51TU ES JO89XK Sweden
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 06:02 24 May IO51TU ES JN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 06:00 24 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28237.5 LA5TEN/B 05:59 24 May IO51TU ES JO59JP Norway 
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 05:58 24 May IO51TU ES JN54AA Italy
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 05:56 24 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany

The ones to note there are ON0RY/B in Belgium because it's close at about 1,000kms and OH9TEN/B because it is way up in the north of Finland.

The main opening finished at about 19:30 UTC.

A list of stations heard on FT8 on 28 MHz is shown below....

Mystery beacon on 28.319 MHz?

Saturday the 25th of May 2019. I came across this mystery beacon on 28.319.0 MHz which gave out the following message...

VVV  VVV  PALIAR  MICRO  BEACON  ALPI  K

Besides the lack of a callsign, there was huge drift on the signal.

If you examine the spectrum to the left, you can see that the signal started high and then drifted about 300-400 Hz as it sent out its message.

It was quite difficult to decode with the chirp and the signal was weak and buried in the noise.

I'm assuming it is a beacon in the Italian Alps but I don't know. I was hearing other very low power Italian beacons around the same time.

Any ideas??

Slovak Ice Hockey World Championship 2019 Award

The 2019 Ice Hockey World Championships are being held this year in Slovakia and there are two special event stations OM2019IIHF and OM83IHWC on air for it. I first came across the unusual callsign on FT8 on 28 MHz during a Sporadic-E opening.

Update 24th May 2019 : I have been working them on cw on the lower HF bands and I finally worked the 12th station on 28 MHz today for the Gold award as shown above.

As award programmes go, it has been pretty good. There has been a reasonable amount of activity and they have been been on a lot of bands. The website is nice, clean and easy to navigate. As can be seen from the graphic above, it's easy to keep track of what you have worked and how many more are left for each level.

They are active until the 31st of May 2019. Details below...

*******

ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2019 AWARD

On the occasion of the 83rd Ice Hockey World Championship, which is held this year in Slovakia, the Slovak Amateur Radio Association (SARA) organizes the activity of special stations OM2019IIHF and OM83IHWC.

Two special stations OM2019IIHF and OM83IHWC will be active from 1 to 31 May 2019 on HF and VHF bands.

You can obtain three classes of award:

Opening to Pakistan & SE Asia on 28 MHz - Thurs 23rd May 2019

Thursday the 23rd of May 2019 was a really good day for Sporadic-E propagation into Europe with some interesting multi-hop as well.

The map below shows what was heard on FT8 on 28 MHz with the three best DX signals being YF3FBV in Indonesia (12,779kms), HS0ZIV in Thailand (9,868kms) and AP2MKB in Pakistan.

There were also a lot of double hop signals from Russia and Ukraine as well as some triple hop ones from Kazakhstan.

The band opened at about 07:00 UTC and stayed more or less open until 20:00 UTC. It finally fizzled out as late as 22:50 UTC with OG0C in the Aland Islands in the Baltic being one of the last signals heard.

Notes...
1) Skip Zones... The yellow line shows my one hop Sporadic-E limit. The skip zones are pretty clear to see if you ignore the one off stations. Going east from my location, the skip zone extended as far as central Germany. Then there is a mass of stations as far as the east of Poland where my one hop limit kicks in.

Just beyond the one hop limit is the area that is hard to get into, especially on bands likes 50 MHz. Ironically, the further east you go, it gets easier as the double hop contacts appear.

2) Wide open... It was one of those days which you might say that the band was 'wide open'. There were signals coming in from several directions at once and several were quite strong.

3) Beacons... These were the beacons heard from all over Europe...

EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 18:14 23 May IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar
EI7GL 28241.6 F5ZUU/B 13:35 23 May IO51TU ES JN24IL France 
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 12:32 23 May IO51TU ES JN54AB Italy
EI7GL 28200.0 OH2B/B 12:05 23 May IO51TU ES KP20DH Finland
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 11:29 23 May IO51TU ES JN78SB Austria
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 10:55 23 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28237.5 LA5TEN/B 10:53 23 May IO51TU ES JO59JP Norway 
EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 10:52 23 May IO51TU ES JO55WM Denmark
EI7GL 28292.2 SK0CT/B 10:51 23 May IO51TU ES JO89XK Sweden
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 10:19 23 May IO51TU ES JN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28227.2 IW3FZQ/B 09:50 23 May IO51TU ES JN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 09:49 23 May IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28215.7 SR5TDM/B 08:32 23 May IO51TU ES KO01KX Poland
EI7GL 28253.2 ED5YAU/B 08:28 23 May IO51TU ES IM98WN Spain
EI7GL 28298.1 SK7GH/B 08:24 23 May IO51TU ES JO77BF Sweden

4) No DX to South? ..... No sign of any signals to South America or Africa for the last few days. They seemed to be there every day and then they suddenly stopped. Not sure why.

In total, a whopping 1022 reports from 769 stations in 53 countries were uploaded to PSK Reporter which is a sure sign of a good day.

These are the stations heard on FT8 on 28 MHz...

New High-Performance 10 watt 10 Band SSB/CW kit from QRP-LABS...

Update May 2019 : Hans Summers G0UPL of QRP Labs gave a presentation at the recent Hamvention in Dayton, Ohio about his new QSX transceiver.

The links are up on the QRP Labs website HERE

Just open the slides in PDF format and listen to the podcast from about 51 minutes in.

*****

Original post August 2018

Hans Summers G0UPL of QRP-LABS produces a range of really stunning high quality kits at very modest prices. His current QCX model which is a 5 watt mono-band CW transceiver has sold over 5000 units to date and sells for just $49.

Conditions on 28 MHz - Wed 22nd May 2019

The conditions on 28 MHz on Wednesday the 22nd of May 2019 differed from previous days in that the Sporadic-E seemed to be further north.

After a quiet start to the day, the first real opening was up towards the Baltic states at about 10:30 UTC. The beacon near Oslo was heard as well as one way up in the north of Finland.

EI7GL 28267.5 OH9TEN/B 12:27 22 May IO51TU ES KP36OI Finland 
EI7GL 28237.5 LA5TEN/B 10:45 22 May IO51TU ES JO59JP Norway

That Finish beacon was around the 2,500 kms mark for me so was possibly double hop.

The other suprising signal from around that time was UN7FW in Kazakhstan, the best DX heard on the day with a distance of about 5,418kms, probably triple hop Sporadic-E.

After a quiet period, the band came back to life around 16:00 UTC again and the main signals were from N Italy and Austria.

These were the beacons heard...

EI7GL 28240.0 IZ8RVA/B 18:11 22 May IO51TU ES JN70LI Italy 
EI7GL 28227.2 IW3FZQ/B 17:13 22 May IO51TU ES JN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 17:03 22 May IO51TU ES JN78SB Austria

What was obvious was that the footprint of the Sporadic-E was relatively small. Despite several scans, I didn't hear any of the beacons in Germany or Spain which is unusual.

These are two odd calls I noticed that didn't get uploaded to the PSK Reporter website...

183830 -18 -0.6 2231 ~  CQ TA6CQ/1
183845   5  2.0 1698 ~  CQ IQ8YXBIKE

These are the stations heard on FT8 on 28 MHz today...

Conditions on 28 MHz - Tues 21st May 2019

Tuesday the 21st of May 2019 was in many ways identical to the previous day with only mostly European stations being heard.

Just like Monday, the morning was very quiet or at least it sounded that way. I had the radio turned on in the background and it seemed as if there was nothing. When I looked at the screen at 12:14 UTC, I had decoded 24 stations on FT8.

That's the thing about FT8, it's digging out signals that are buried in the noise. The map below shows a lot of stations but many are very weak indeed.

The opening on the 28 MHz band started at about 14:30 UTC. Just like Monday, the main opening was to the south towards Spain and this is reflected in the beacons that I heard...

EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 15:11 21 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain 
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 15:08 21 May IO51TU ES JN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 15:02 21 May IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28253.2 ED5YAU/B 15:00 21 May IO51TU ES IM98WN Spain

And just like Monday, it seemed to be very patchy again. I heard the DB0UM/B beacon in NE Germany but none of the other German ones.

50 MHz..... Conditions on 50 MHz seemed to be better than the previous day. I could heard AM70URE/6 calling CQ as well as an IK5 station. I managed to work AM70O on cw and he was by far the strongest signal that I heard on the band.

I wasn't around for the end of the opening on 28 MHz but it seems to have fizzled out at about 19:30 UTC.

These are the stations on FT8 on 28 MHz that were heard...

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...