RSGB Cricket World Cup Radio Marathon 2019

The RSGB are currently holding a Radio Marathon in association with the 2019 Cricket World Cup Championships which are being held in England and Wales. There are numerous GB19 stations now on the bands until the 14th of July 2019.

Award details below....

Special stations in England and Wales will represent the 11 venues and 10 participating countries of the Cricket World Cup. In addition England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man will have a number of Cricket HQ stations.

Awards will be available for numbers of QSOs with the activating special stations. A QSO with a special callsign will be valid for awards on three different modes: CW, Phone and Digital; this will apply on each band: 160m, 80m, 40m, 30m (not SSB), 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m & 10m. The maximum number of qualifying QSOs, for award purposes, with each special callsign will be 26; that is 8 SSB, 9 CW and 9 Digital.

All QSOs must be made between 30 May 2019 and 14 July 2019 inclusive.

Awards will be: 
a. Bronze – 50 QSOs 
b. Silver – 125 QSOs 
c. Gold – 250 QSOs 
d. Platinum – 500 QSOs
e. Worked all Cricket Grounds – at least one QSO with each of the eleven GB19 cricket ground callsigns
f. Worked all Teams – at least one QSO with each of the ten GB19 team callsigns
g. SSB Half-Century – 50 QSOs on SSB; SSB Century – 100 QSOs on SSB
h. Datamodes Half-Century – 50 QSOs on digital modes; Datamodes Century – 100 QSOs on digital modes
i. CW Half-Century – 50 QSOs on CW; CW Century – 100 QSOs on CW

More info on the RSGB website and on this one... https://cricket2019.hamlogs.net/

100th Anniversary of RCA Coastal Station in the USA

Back on the 23rd of May 2019, I came across this special event station on CW on 14 MHz... WA1WCC/100RC

Not the easiest call sign to send or read considering the length! :)

The station was marking the 100th anniversary of the RCA takeover of the Maritime Coast Station at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

In November 1919, RCA acquired the assets of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, which then ceased doing business in the US. 

At the outset, RCA consisted of only five radio stations, in various stages of completion, and Chatham was one of them. Chatham would later become RCA's flagship coastal station WCC, known as "Marine Radio Central".

WA1WCC is commemorating the founding of RCA in a year-long celebration.

Watch for WA1WCC / 100RCA on the bands during 2019. 

From what I can see on the DX Cluster, all activity is on CW. More information on their website and QRZ page...
https://www.wccara.com/
https://www.qrz.com/db/wa1wcc

Conditions on 28 MHz - Tues 4th June 2019

Tuesday the 4th of June 2019 was marginally better than the previous day on 28 MHz but the pickings were still slim.

The map below shows the signals heard on FT8 on 28 MHz and again, most were buried in the noise.

There is one odd coloured dot on the map from IZ3JJD in the north-east of Italy. For some reason, PSK Reporter didn't record him as a 28 MHz contact, in fact it recorded no band data. I have never seen that before.

Poor conditions on 28 MHz - Mon 3rd June 2019

Monday the 3rd of June 2019 was pretty dire on 28 MHz with just weak signals on the band. The 'opening' in the morning was really weak and just a few signals were actually above the noise. In the afternoon, the band was really quiet.

The map actually makes it look a lot better than it actually was. The majority of those dots are from stations buried in the noise.

Junkers F-13 Award

The Junkers F-13 was the first all-metal passenger aircraft and its first flight was on the 25th of June 1919.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary, there have been ten German stations on air since the 1st of January 2019 using the DF13 callsign.

There is an award for making 10 contacts and I have been working them since the 19th of May on cw...

The activity period finishes on the 30th of June 2019...

Award details below...

Delta Loop antenna for 40 MHz

Phil EI9KP has very kindly sent on details of the Delta Loop antenna that he built for the new 40 MHz / 8-metre band.

The Delta Loop is a very popular antenna on the HF bands and can be used with success at the lower VHF bands as well.

The dimensions of the Delta Loop for 40 MHz are shown below...

Some key points...

Opening to South America on 28 MHz... Sun 2nd June 2019

I wasn't around for a lot of Sunday the 2nd of June 2019 but I did have the radio on monitoring the FT8 frequency on 28 MHz.

When I was around, the band was very quiet early in the morning and in the afternoon. There was a late opening to the Caribbean but I didn't hear the signals here.

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

Conditions on 28 MHz - Sat 1st June 2019

Saturday the 1st of June 2019 was reasonably quiet on 28 MHz with lots of weak FT8 signals on the band. It seems as if each day at the moment is quieter than the previous one.

The map below shows what was heard. It would be pretty good for say the 1st of April but this was the 1st of June at what is supposed to be the peak of the Sporadic-E season.

As expected, not that many beacons were recorded...
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 12:05 01 Jun IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28237.5 LA5TEN/B 10:19 01 Jun IO51TU ES JO59JP Norway
EI7GL 28292.2 SK0CT/B 09:48 01 Jun IO51TU ES JO89XK Sweden
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 09:45 01 Jun IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 09:44 01 Jun IO51TU ES JN78SB Austria

Conditions on 28 MHz - Fri 31st May 2019

Conditions on 28 MHz on Friday the 31st of May 2019 were certainly down on previous days. It was one of those days where there a lot of very weak signals but the band actually sounded pretty quiet for a lot of the time.

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

The lone station in the USA was WW2DX in Maine which seems to be one of these super DX stations with multiple beams.

Spanish URE 70th Anniversary Award - April 1 to June 9, 2019

On April 1st 2019, the national society for radio amateurs in Spain (URE - Unión de Radioaficionados Españoles) celebrated its 70th anniversary. To commemorate this event, the URE,  is promoting an award scheme with 14 special event stations on the air from April 1 to June 9, 2019  using the special AM70 prefix.

I had read about this award scheme some weeks back but I didn't give it much attention. Then Jim, EI8GS was telling me about it on the local VHF net last Tuesday evening and how he was working them on SSB and FT8. After that. I could feel I was on a slippery slope :o)

I've been working the stations on CW on 80m, 40m, 30m and 20m over the last few days and the Gold award is shown above. It has been fun working them on the lower bands and checking through my logbook, I noticed that I haven't really used the bands below 28 MHz since April 2017 except for the occasional Irish contest.

It has also been interesting to see how the propagation path between Ireland and Spain (1000-1500kms) gets very difficult above 14 MHz. The Sporadic-E season should help out with the higher bands over the next few weeks.

The award website is https://70aniversario.ure.es/

Update :  1st June 2019
Finally managed to work AM70D on cw on 21 MHz for a clean sweep from 10m to 80m.

Update : 25th April 2019
Platinum award below...

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.