Another opening to North America on 28 MHz... Thurs 30th May 2019

Thursday the 30th of May 2019 was a bit more subdued on 28 MHz with several quiet patches during the day. Despite that it did open to Indonesia (YB5QZ) and the USA.

The opening to the USA was around 12:00 UTC as opposed to the usual evening time. Six stations in total were heard...KC1FOX, N1BRL, N1API, W2MGF, N2LD and NF3R.

The main opening to Europe was pretty much to Germany and the Nordic countries. The signals from Italy and Spain weren't great.

This is reflected in the beacons heard...
EI7GL 28207.1 ON0RY/B 12:59 30 May IO51TU ES JO20CK Belgium
EI7GL 28210.7 DB0FKS/B 12:57 30 May IO51TU ES JN49IT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28237.5 LA5TEN/B 12:53 30 May IO51TU ES JO59JP Norway
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 12:47 30 May IO51TU ES JN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28292.2 SK0CT/B 12:46 30 May IO51TU ES JO89XK Sweden
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 10:44 30 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28245.3 DB0TEN/B 10:42 30 May IO51TU ES JO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28298.1 SK7GH/B 10:39 30 May IO51TU ES JO77BF Sweden
EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 10:37 30 May IO51TU ES JO55WM Denmark
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 08:32 30 May IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28277.4 DM0AAB/B 08:31 30 May IO51TU ES JO54GH Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 08:29 30 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 08:28 30 May IO51TU ES JN54AA Italy
EI7GL 28215.8 SR5TDM/B 08:22 30 May IO51TU ES KO01KX Poland

The unusual one in there was ON0RY/B in Belgium at about 1,000kms. Short skip can suggest that the maximum usual frequency is higher and indeed that seemed to have been the case. Phil EI9KP reports hearing the OZ7IGY beacon on 40.071 MHz at about the same time.

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

Danish OZ7IGY 40 MHz beacon back on air... May 2019

Back in March of 2019, I had a post up about how OZ7IGY in Denmark was off-air for the foreseeable future.

Well now it is back on again!

On the 26th of May 2019, the keepers of the beacon network released the following...

"40 MHz on air and intermittent NMEA loss solved – 2019-05-26

The 40 MHz beacon is back into service.

OZ1BNN, OZ2M and OZ7IS"

The OZ7IGY beacon operates on 40.071 MHz.

Tip! The 10-metre version of the beacon operates on 28.271 MHz. If you can hear that at a good signal strength then there is a chance you might hear the 40 MHz one as well.

If you hear it then be sure to put it up on the DX Cluster to raise the profile and awareness of the new 8-metre band.

Opening to North America on 28 MHz... Wed 29th May 2019

The 28 MHz finally opened to North America on Wednesday the 29th of May 2019. It was only two signals but at least it was an opening! We should see a lot more pretty soon.

The day itself was pretty reasonable as can be seen from the map below...

From the Middle East, there was A41CK in Oman, A92AA in Bahrain and HZ1SK and 7Z1IS in Saudi Arabia.

Plenty of double hop from Russia as well as ZD7BG on St.Helena in the South Atlantic.

The two signals from North America were NO8D in Ohio and VO1NE in Newfoundland. Both seem to have been heard across Europe so it wasn't just my westerly location.

There are a few other interesting ones in there as well as the band opened up to the north. Iceland was heard, OY1CT in the Faroe Islands was heard on cw as well quite a number from the west coast of Norway. Note the one lone Russian station way up there near Murmansk inside the Artic circle.

The conditions to Europe were pretty good and again, several of the very low power beacons were heard as well as the usual ones...

Beacons heard...
EI7GL 28298.1 SK7GH/B 21:04 29 May IO51TU ES JO77BF Sweden
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 19:36 29 May IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 19:31 29 May IO51TU ES JO55WM Denmark
EI7GL 28235.1 OY6BEC/B 19:28 29 May IO51TU ES IP62OA Faroe Islands
EI7GL 28237.5 LA5TEN/B 19:26 29 May IO51TU ES JO59JP Norway
EI7GL 28193.0 SQ4HWI/B 19:12 29 May IO51TU ES KO13ND Poland
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 16:36 29 May IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 14:15 29 May IO51TU ES JN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 11:20 29 May IO51TU ES JN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 11:19 29 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28241.7 F5ZUU/B 11:18 29 May IO51TU ES JN24IL France 
EI7GL 28227.2 IW3FZQ/B 11:15 29 May IO51TU ES JN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 11:12 29 May IO51TU ES JN78SB Austria
EI7GL 28265.1 DF0ANN/B 09:49 29 May IO51TU ES JN59PL Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28277.4 DM0AAB/B 09:47 29 May IO51TU ES JO54GH Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 09:43 29 May IO51TU ES JN78SB Austria
EI7GL 28322.7 F1VJT/B 09:14 29 May IO51TU ES JN33CI France
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 09:12 29 May IO51TU ES JN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28245.3 DB0TEN/B 09:09 29 May IO51TU ES JO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 09:08 29 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany

A new one for me was SQ4HWI/B in Poland which is running just 200 milliwatts! It's amazing hearing such a low power beacon from over 2,000 kms away on cw.

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

First Sporadic-E crossband contacts made from Ireland on 40 MHz...Sat 25th May 2019

Following on from news of the inter-EI activity on 40 MHz last weekend, here is a report of the first crossband contacts made on the 8-metre band via Sporadic-E.

Phil EI9KP has sent on the following (in Blue)...

*****
Saturday 25 May 2019.
I noticed there were strong Es signals from Europe on 10m and 6m.  I activated the 8m ‘beacon’ keyer on 40.250MHz (CW, call and locator, 30s cycle, 5W, Delta Loop, HP) but was unsure how to actually get feedback.   I posted a message on KST Chat but there was no immediate response.  Eventually I just started calling on 50.185 later on 50.250 just saying something like “have CW beacon running on 40.250 looking for reports, feedback XB on this frequency …).  I had about a dozen QSO’s in-band on 6m but those HAMs did not have receive capability for that unusual frequency.

At 1526 UTC in QSO with DG1VL on 50.250MHz, he listened on 40.250 and reported hearing my beacon 599 in JO61WB.  I subsequently changed the FT-857D to USB and we had a full 2-way cross band QSO 40.250 8m / 50.250 6m, with 59 signals.  This was my first 8m/6m cross band experience and I believe it is a first in EI cross band 8m/6m to Europe. 

At 1615 UTC in QSO with OK2KG (JN89JI), a similar experience XB 8m/50.250, first getting a beacon reception report then switching 8m to SSB for a 2-way QSO, with a 53 signal report.

Both stations were using their 6m Yagi for receive so not really optimized for 8m, however, it was just an amazing experience and totally unexpected on “Day 1” of my experiment!

Sunday 26 May 2019.
At 1424 UTC in QSO with DK7ME (locator JN47TN) on 50.250, excellent 59 signals both ways.    He reported hearing my beacon on 40.250MHz and I switched to SSB for a 2-way QSO 8m/6m.  I heard EI4GNB’s beacon earlier on the day and asked Carlos to listen on 40.300MHz; he subsequently reported hearing Tim’s beacon in IO63WE.  That’s interesting in a way as the 40MHz ‘zone’ at the time seems to cover EI East Coast to West Coast, a much wider area than I am used to on 6m propagation, it’s just an initial observation. Great for him catching 2 EI beacons in a day!

S57UHX (locator JN65UN) was following the above QSO unfortunately 6m propagation faded out so we did not have QSO on 6m, however, he reported (by email) receiving the 40.250MHz beacon 51.

*****

What Sp-E skip distances to expect on 40 MHz?? 

Conditions on 28 MHz - Tues 28th May 2019

Tuesday the 28th of May 2019 was similar to previous days on 28 MHz with plenty of Sporadic-E signals on the band. What was notable was that the band open for most of the day with good signals from about 05:00 UTC to 22:30 UTC.

There are the signals heard on FT8.....

Another feature of the day was the intensity of the signals. Many of the FT8 signals were up to S'9' and this is reflected in the number of beacons heard.

EI7GL 28240.0 IZ8RVA/B 22:03 28 May IO51TU ES JN70LI Italy
EI7GL 28210.7 DB0FKS/B 14:47 28 May IO51TU ES JN40IT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28265.1 DF0ANN/B 14:44 28 May IO51tu es JN59PL Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 12:20 28 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28322.6 F1VJT/B 08:04 28 May IO51TU ES JN33CI France
EI7GL 28241.7 F5ZUU/B 07:51 28 May IO51TU ES JN24IL France
EI7GL 28180.4 I1M/B 07:49 28 May IO51TU ES JN33UT Italy
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 07:46 28 May IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar
EI7GL 28321.7 I3GNQ/B 06:20 28 May IO51TU ES JN55VJ Italy
EI7GL 28321.5 IZ1KXQ/B 06:19 28 May IO51TU ES JN35TB Italy
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 06:15 28 May IO51TU ES JN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 06:14 28 May IO51TU ES JN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 06:13 28 May IO51TU ES JN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28237.5 LA5TEN/B 06:11 28 May IO51TU ES JO59JP Norway
EI7GL 28227.2 IW3FZQ/B 06:10 28 May IO51TU ES JN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 06:10 28 May IO51TU ES JN54AA Italy
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 06:08 28 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 06:06 28 May IO51TU ES JN78SB Austria

The interesting beacons in there are the very low power ones. IW3FZQ/B is reported to be 5 watts into a full size J-pole vertical and is easy to hear. IZ1KXQ/B on the other hand is supposed to be 100 milliwatts into an inverted vee antenna. If I can hear those weak ones around 28.321 MHz then conditions must be good.

The mystery beacon on 28.319 MHz with the huge chirp also made an appearance. It was heard while F1VJT/B was a reasonable signal so perhaps it is in the Italian Alps west of Turin? Later in the evening when it was dark, I heard F1VJT/B again but there was no sign of the chirpy beacon. I was wondering if it was solar powered? It might explain the huge chirp.

These are the FT8 signals heard on 28 MHz in Europe with the main opening to Spain, Italy and the southern half of Germany.

50 MHz... There were some very strong signals on 50 MHz and I heard an Italian station on cw at 599 +10dB.... and that was with my antenna in the attic.

There were plenty of signals on CW and SSB and I managed to work a few of the AM70 stations in Spain on cw.

43 MHz... I also had a listen on the Italian CB at 43 MHz. I heard some very weak signals....a very weak voice and something that sounded like a data packet burst.

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

Inter-EI activity begins on 40 MHz...

In April of 2018, Irish (EI) radio amateurs gained access to much of the low VHF spectrum including 40 MHz. Some short distance contacts were established in November of 2018.

Over the winter months, several EI stations have been busy getting ready for the new 8-metre band and this has now resulted in more inter-EI 40 MHz activity.

Thanks to Phil EI9KP in Co Sligo who has sent on the info on all the activity.

Both Phil EI9KP and Tim EI4GNB run manned beacons on the band. Over the weekend of Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th of May 2019 , they both managed to hear each others beacons at a distance of about 208 kms.

This is all the more impressive as the Dublin mountains block a lot of the signals from the west of Ireland getting into Bray where EI4GNB is located.

Here is a report from Phil EI9KP....

In EI there are two manned beacons running i.e. On air when supervised in the shack.  Info below by coincidence Tim and I are using the Yaesu FT-857D in ‘beacon mode’ for this purpose. An interesting set-up which allows us to switch to SSB for in band and cross band QSO.

EI9KP in Aclare, Co. Sligo (locator IO54MB): FT-857D, chosen freq.: 40.300MHz, mode CW, power 5W, antenna: Delta Loop horizontally polarised.  Site agl: 200m.

EI4GNB in Bray, Co. Wicklow (locator IO63WE): FT-857D, chosen freq.: 40.250MHz, mode CW, power 5W, antenna: 2 element quad horizontally polarised.

Saturday 25 May 2019:  Listening on 8m band I heard fragments of CW on 40.300MHz, some searching on the web pointed me to EI4GNB and I asked him to turn the antenna north west and  confirmed report 515 via KST Chat.  I activated my beacon on the same frequency and he confirmed report 555 after a few trials due to local QRM.

Propagation type?  Was it purely ground wave (diffracted) or tropo or something else?  We are not sure, the distance is a good 205km.  Tim reports experiencing similar propagation on 6m receiving EI3KD from time to time.  I’ll be watching his beacon signal over the next month or so.

The next day, Phil managed to make a two way SSB contact with Andrew EI3FEB in Co Galway, a distance of about 65 kms.

Again, I'll let Phil outline the contact...

Sunday 26 May 2019:  I had a sked with Andrew EI3FEB in Headford, Co. Galway (locator IO53KL).  On a test previous week on 40.250MHz we could not make contact, not even hearing a blip, it appeared our antennas were not correctly aligned for ground wave.  

Both Andrew and I are using a Delta Loop in Horizontal Polarisation;  the delta loop has a noticeable null on the tips, this time we were aligned broadside.  Success:  a 2-way SSB QSO with 5/1 reports both ways.  Distance is 65km, diffracted signal (one hill in the path).

If you are in the UK, have listen for the beacons if there is tropo about. Likewise, these signals should be easily heard on the continent when there is Sporadic-E.

Both EI9KP and EI4GNB can be contacted through their respective QRZ pages. Also look for them on the ON4KST chat page.

More information about the new 40 MHz band can be found here... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

Photo of Phil's Delta Loop...

Conditions on 28 MHz - Mon 27th May 2019

Conditions on 28 MHz on Monday the 27th of May 2019 were quieter than the weekend with most signals coming from an easterly direction.

Sporadic-E signals in the early morning were weak and the opening didn't really start properly until about 11:00 UTC.

What was obvious from the FT8 signals and beacons heard was that it was confined to specific areas. Nothing from Denmark and the north of Germany but plenty just a little bit south.

These were the beacons heard...
EI7GL 28200.0 OH2B/B 18:20 27 May IO51TU ES KP20DH Finland
EI7GL 28292.2 SK0CT/B 18:10 27 May IO51TU ES JO89XK Sweden
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 13:10 27 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28207.1 ON0RY/B 13:10 27 May IO51TU ES JO20CK Belgium
EI7GL 28210.7 DB0FKS/B 13:09 27 May IO51TU ES JN49IT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28215.7 SR5TDM/B 13:06 27 May IO51TU ES KO01KX Poland
EI7GL 28265.1 DF0ANN/B 13:03 27 May IO51TU ES JN59PL Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28245.3 DB0TEN/B 11:41 27 May IO51TU ES JO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany

The unusual signal in that lot is ON0RY/B in Belgium which shows the skip got as short as 1000kms in that direction.

No Spanish or Italian beacons were heard which shows that propagation was further north.

These are the FT8 signals heard on 28 MHz on Monday the 27th of May 2019...

Conditions on 28 MHz - Sun 26th of May 2019

Sunday the 26th of May 2019 got off to a much quieter start in comparison to recent days with just weak signals heard in the morning. It wasn't until about 10:00 UTC that the 28 MHz came to life.

Despite the late start, it turned out to be a pretty good day for propagation although the multi-hop wasn't as good as Saturday.

As shown on the map below, there were several interesting signals in there. VU2RTX in India, A92GF in Bahrain and HZ1SK in Saudi Arabia.

Notes...

1) KI5BLU made an appearance in the evening using his US call and locator in Dallas, Texas. As outlined in this post, he was probably operating a remote station in the Caribbean.

2) The opening to Europe was mainly to the east and south-east with strong signals from Italy.

There wasn't much evidence of the short skip of yesterday and it seemed to be about 1200 kms plus on Sunday.

These are the beacons heard....
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 16:56 26 May IO51TU ES JN54AA Italy
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 16:46 26 May IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar
EI7GL 28321.7 I3GNQ/B 15:43 26 May IO51TU ES JN55VJ Italy
EI7GL 28321.5 IZ1KXQ/B 15:38 26 May IO51TU ES JN54AC Italy
EI7GL 28269.0 SV6DBG/B 15:18 26 May IO51TU ES KM09KQ Greece
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 15:16 26 May IO51TU ES JN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28227.2 IW3FZQ/B 15:13 26 May IO51TU ES JN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28220.1 5B4CY/B 15:12 26 May IO51TU ES KM64KU Cyprus
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 13:24 26 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28265.1 DF0ANN/B 13:23 26 May IO51TU ES JN59PL Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 13:19 26 May IO51TU ES JN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28237.5 LA5TEN/B 12:15 26 May IO51TU ES JO59JP Norway
EI7GL 28245.3 DB0TEN/B 12:14 26 May IO51TU ES JO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 12:13 26 May IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28292.2 SK0CT/B 12:11 26 May IO51TU ES JO89XK Sweden

Some of the interesting ones in there are the double hop signals from 5B4CY/B in Cyprus and SV6DBG/B in Greece.

The low power Italian beacons I3GNQ/B and IZ1KXQ/B were heard again.

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

The mysterious signal of KI5BLU on 28 MHz... Pt.2

Back on the 26th of April 2019, I had a post up about the signal from KI5BLU in Texas and how unusual it was that he was being heard in Europe on 28 MHz. It was pretty obvious at the time that he couldn't have been transmitting from Dallas, Texas.

Fast forward to today Sunday the 26th of May 2019 and KI5BLU has made a re-appearance on the 28 MHz band.

At about 20:00 UTC, I was checking who I had heard on FT8 on 28 MHz. I noticed that there was a single line heading off to the west to none other than KI5BLU.

When I see lone signals coming from the USA, I get suspicious.

I noticed that G8IXN in Cornwall and MW0ZZK in the NW of Wales had also heard him. And sure enough, neither of them had heard any other station from the USA at that time.

What was interesting though was that MW0ZZK had heard Columbia and Venezuela and G8IXN had heard Columbia and Puerto Rico during the evening. This suggests that there were some conditions to the Caribbean area.

Just after I had heard KI5BLU, I checked the sent-receive list for KI5BLU for the last 15 minutes...

Notice how no-one in the USA was hearing him! Wherever he was, KI5BLU certainly wasn't transmitting from Dallas, Texas.

I then had a look at one of the locals in Dallas...KG5SW. He was hearing other local FT8 stations on 28 MHz around Dallas but not KI5BLU. Again confirming that KI5BLU was not transmitting from Dallas, Texas.

I then checked KP4EJ in Puerto Rico and what he had heard. Again, he heard KI5BLU and no-one else from the USA. He was also hearing European stations so that again confirms that there were conditions from this part of the world.

At this stage, it was obvious that KI5BLU was not transmitting from the USA but was giving out his callsign and locator on 28 MHz FT8 as if he was.

Then lo and behold, the sent-receive map for KI5BLU changes completely about 30 minutes later. All the US stations appear and Europe disappears. Notice the skip zone around Texas also.

Conclusion .....KI5BLU would seem to be using a remote station, possibly in the Caribbean. He is using his US call and locator which is confusing people when they hear and work him. They think the band is open to the USA when it's obviously not.

When KI5BLU was being heard in Europe, he was on the remote station.

When he logged off the remote station and used his own station at home, all of the US stations appeared on his list.

I'm not sure what the legal situation is but I would have thought that there would be a requirement to use the proper callsign when operating remote from another country?

Italian QRSS beacons heard on 28 MHz - Sat 25th May 2019

The Sporadic-E conditions on 28 MHz on Saturday the 25th of May 2019 were really good with plenty of strong signals on the band. This also meant that very low power signals could be heard as well.

Up around 28.321 to 28.322 MHz, there seems to be a cluster of low power Italian beacons which also give out their ID in very slow morse code i.e. QRSS where one dot is anything from 3 to 6 seconds in length.

DL8WX has a very good beacon list and he has these two on 28.321 MHz...

IZ1KXQ/B 28.32145 JN54AC La Spezia hills "v v v" QRSS-6:"SP", 17s off 100mw inv vee
I3GNQ/B 28.32157 JN56VJ Tencarola, PD 28 s off, QRSS-3: "GB", tx: 2N1711 200mw CB vertical

I heard both of these signals at the same time and they were about 150 Hz apart...

The 'fuzzy' part of the trace is where the beacon was giving out its ID in normal speed morse where as the dots and dashes are the slow QRSS morse part. Each beacon gives out a code for the QRSS part instead of a full call sign.

As can be seen from the time stamp, these are the two signals over a period of about 15 minutes.

Pretty amazing considering they are only 100 and 200 milliwatts.

Big opening on 28 MHz - Sat 25th May 2019

Saturday the 25th of May 2019 was another big day for Sporadic-E on 28 MHz. Just like the previous day, the band opened early in the morning with signals from Russia appearing as soon as 06:00 UTC.

The map below shows the signals heard on FT8 during the day.

Notes...

1) Double Hop...There were a large number of double hop Sporadic-E signals from the east, especially from the south of Russia. On the map above, you can make out the skip zone which is around Belarus and the west of  Ukraine. This is roughly 2,300 to 2,800 kms from me.

2) FG... FG5FI in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean was an interesting one. He was heard at about 22:00 UTC and the only station in the UK to hear him was G8IXN in Cornwall.

3) Strong signals... What was slightly unusual was the intensity of the opening with plenty of strong signals on the band. As can be seen from the map, there were a large number of stations heard from the Germany and the Netherlands.

The very good conditions were reflected in the number of beacons heard...

EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 17:34 25 May IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar
EI7GL 28210.7 DB0FKS/B 16:17 25 May IO51TU ES JN49IT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28207.1 ON0RY/B 13:56 25 May IO51TU ES JO20CK Belgium
EI7GL 28220.0 5B4CY/B 13:53 25 May IO51TU ES KM64ku Cyprus
EI7GL 28227.1 IW3FZQ/B 13:50 25 May IO51TU ES JN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28231.1 F5ZEH/B 13:48 25 May IO51TU ES IN88VA France
EI7GL 28241.6 F5ZUU/B 13:43 25 May IO51TU ES JN24IL France
EI7GL 28265.0 DF0ANN/B 13:39 25 May IO51TU ES JN59PL Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 13:35 25 May IO51TU ES JO55wm Denmark
EI7GL 28285.1 DB0MFI/B 13:32 25 May IO51TU ES JN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28322.0 IW0HK/B 11:06 25 May IO51TU ES JN52WD Italy 
EI7GL 28180.4 I1M/B 10:55 25 May IO51TU ES JN33UT Italy
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 10:43 25 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 10:42 25 May IO51TU ES JN54AA Italy
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 10:39 25 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 10:33 25 May IO51TU ES JN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 10:31 25 May IO51TU ES JN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28322.6 F1VJT/B 10:27 25 May IO51TU ES JN33CI France
EI7GL 28321.7 I3GNQ/B 10:17 25 May IO51TU ES JN55VJ Italy
EI7GL 28321.5 IZ1KXQ/B 10:11 25 May IO51TU ES JN54AC Italy
EI7GL 28301.8 PI7ETE/B 08:01 25 May IO51TU ES JO22QD Netherlands
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 08:00 25 May IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28245.3 DB0TEN/B 07:58 25 May IO51TU ES JO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28215.8 SR5TDM/B 07:57 25 May IO51TU ES KO01KX Poland
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 07:55 25 May IO51TU ES JN78SB Austria

Some of the unusual ones in there are...
DB0FKS/B running just 1 watt.
ON0RY/B is close at about 1000 kms.
5B4CY/B is double hop.
F5ZEH/B in Brittany was a new one for me. It was a big signal and unusual because it is just over 500 kms away.
IW0HK/B near Rome on 1 watt.
I1M/B was a new one heard this year at 2 watts.
I3GNQ/B is supposed to be just 200 milliwatts.
IK1KXQ is even lower with 100 milliwatts.
PI7ETE is 300 milliwatts.

You know when you start hearing signals that are below 1 watt then conditions must be good.

There was also lots of activity on the SSB part of the band with plenty of activity on CW for a big contest.

50 MHz... I had a quick listen up there and the band was open. I heard one beacon in Poland with several SP and OK stations on CW and SSB.

EI7GL 50415.3 SR5TDM/B 15:20 25 May IO51TU ES KO01KX Poland

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

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