Monday, May 11, 2020

Modest opening on 28 MHz to the South

Sunday 10th May 2020. Another day on 28 MHz with a modest Sporadic-E opening to the south. Most of the Sporadic-E signals were from Spain and Portugal with a weaker opening to Italy.

In terms of DX, FT8 signals from Brazil, the Canary Islands and ZD7JC on St.Helena were heard. 296 stations in 22 countries were heard on FT8.

Beacons... Just 3 beacons were logged which kind of reflects the modest conditions...

EI7GL IQ5MS/B 28218 IO51TU<ES>JN54AB 0805z 10 May (Italy) 
EI7GL IW3FZQ/B 28227.2 IO51TU<ES>JN55VF 0753z 10 May (Italy) 
EI7GL ED4YAK/B 28251.4 IO51TU<ES>IN80FK 0752z 10 May (Spain)

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Award: 5 Ocean Immortal Aviation Regiment 75

For the last week, I have been working the RP75* stations on CW on the HF bands from 17m to 80m for the various awards on offer to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War 2. While I was checking the numbers that I needed, I noticed that there was an associated aviation award for several of the stations worked.


The award issued by the Fifth Ocean Club is for the 'Immortal Aviation Regiment 75'.

The Fifth Ocean Club have an extensive list of free amateur radio awards and their website is here.. https://aviaham.hamlog.ru/diplom/

Although the website is in Russian, Google Translate does a pretty good job of changing the text into English.


Weak Opening to South America - Sat 9th May 2020

Saturday 9th May 2020. The 28 MHz seemed very quiet for most of the day with hardly any real Sporadic-E propagation. Late in the evening, there was an opening to Brazil as can be seen from the FT8 spots on the map.

Stations heard over 2,500kms...
Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PU5AGM 10m FT8 9542 km 21:14:59
PY2MIG 10m FT8 9183 km 21:16:29
PY2EPL 10m FT8 9183 km 21:07:14
PU2KKV 10m FT8 9182 km 21:17:29
PY2AE 10m FT8 9128 km 21:06:44
PU2PPP 10m FT8 9073 km 21:12:44
PU1JDX 10m FT8 8992 km 21:08:14
PU2RGN 10m FT8 8985 km 21:14:59
PU2VDV 10m FT8 8977 km 21:18:59
PY4GSS 10m FT8 8810 km 21:11:44
PT2VHF 10m FT8 8436 km 21:24:29
4Z5AV 10m FT8 4170 km 18:28:29
4X4DK 10m FT8 4120 km 18:29:44
5T5PA 10m FT8 3518 km 21:29:29
EA8AOC 10m FT8 2748 km 21:06:14

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Opening on 28 MHz - Fri 8th May 2020


Friday 8th May 2020. Another modest day on 28 MHz. The FT8 signals heard are shown above and the opening was mainly to the Iberian Peninsula.

Beacons... These were the beacons heard...
EI7GL F1VJT/B 28322.6 IO51TU<ES>JN33CI 1854z 08 May (France)
EI7GL ED4YAK/B 28251.4 IO51TU<ES>IN80FK 1844z 08 May (Madrid, Spain)
EI7GL C30P/B 28255.8 IO51TU<ES>JN02SM 1756z 08 May (Andorra)
EI7GL ZB2TEN/B 28167.1 IO51TU<ES>IM76HD 1713z 08 May (Gibraltar)
EI7GL OE3XAC/B 28188 IO51TU<ES>JN78SB 1434z 08 May (Austria)
EI7GL DL0IGI/B 28205 IO51TU<ES>JN57MT 1432z 08 May (Germany)

These are the stations heard on FT8 over 2,500 kms....

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PY2KNK 10m FT8 9306 km 17:26:14
PY2MIG 10m FT8 9183 km 18:11:29
PY2ANY 10m FT8 9160 km 17:46:14
PU2RGN 10m FT8 8985 km 16:37:14
HZ1SK 10m FT8 5273 km 17:01:44
EA8OM 10m FT8 2695 km 17:02:44

Brief opening on 28 MHz - Thurs 7th May 2020


Thursday the 7th of May 2020 was a good example of how unexpected Sporadic-E propagation can be on the 28 MHz band and above.

The FT8 frequency on 28 MHz was pretty quiet for most of the day with only weak signals heard. In the evening however, the band opened up with some very strong signals.

The map above shows the beacons heard and as you can see, the footprint is long in the East-West direction and narrow North-South.

These are the beacons heard...

EI7GL DK0TEN/B 28257.8 IO51TU<ES>JN47NT 1924z 07 May (Germany)
EI7GL OE3XAC/B 28188 IO51TU<ES>JN78SB 1922z 07 May (Austria)
EI7GL DB0ANN/B 28265 IO51TU<ES>JN59PL 1919z 07 May (Germany)
EI7GL DB0FKS/B 28210.7 IO51TU<ES>JN49IT 1915z 07 May (Germany)
EI7GL ON0RY/B 28207.1 IO51TU<ES>JO20CK 1914z 07 May (Belgium)
EI7GL DL0IGI/B 28205 IO51TU<ES>JN57MT 1913z 07 May (Germany)

The unusual ones were ON0RY/B (5-watts) in Begium because at 900kms, it's a sign of short skip and a high MUF (Maximum Usable Frequency). This was indeed the case as 50 MHz was also open and the MUF reached as high as 88 MHz as well.

DB0FKS/B runs just 1-watt into a DV27 vertical (mobile whip) so conditions need to be really good for it to be heard.

Thursday, May 7, 2020

Opening to Indonesia on 28 MHz - Wed 6th May 2020


Wednesday 6th May 2020. This was one of those days where most of the FT8 signals heard on 28 MHz were weak and buried in the noise. Yet when I looked at the PSKReporter website at the end of the day, I had heard Indonesia, Brazil and Puerto Rico.

The 4th & 5th of May have been pretty quite in terms of Sporadic-E from here and there seems to be a slight lull in the openings.

FT8 stations heard over 4,000kms on the 6th of May...

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
YC1JGE 10m FT8 12431 km 10:22:59
YB1BML 10m FT8 12281 km 10:28:44
PP5JR 10m FT8 9663 km 16:36:44
PY2RPM 10m FT8 9229 km 16:41:14
PU1KAQ 10m FT8 8928 km 16:25:14
PY1SX 10m FT8 8915 km 16:29:59
PP2RON 10m FT8 8586 km 16:36:29
PT2AP 10m FT8 8462 km 16:42:14
WP3R 10m FT8 6261 km 21:29:59
HZ1SK 10m FT8 5273 km 15:23:59
4Z1DZ 10m FT8 4103 km 15:12:14

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

VHF & UHF Trans-Atlantic path between Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean opens up - May 2020

Back in early April of 2020, there was an amazing opening on the 144 MHz and 432 MHz bands across the Atlantic from Cape Verde Islands to the Caribbean.

............

On the 5th of May 2020, the trans-Atlantic path opened again...


These are some of the FT8 reports for D4VHF on the PSKReporter website...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
FM5CS D4VHF 2m FT8 3861 km 22:40:26 (Martinique)
KP4EIT D4VHF 2m FT8 4393 km 22:28:58 (Puerto Rico)
D4VHF FG8OJ 2m FT8 3867 km 13:00:44 (Guadeloupe)
D4VHF J69DS 2m FT8 3865 km 12:30:14 (St.Lucia)
FM5CS D4VHF 2m FT8 3861 km 11:56:26 (Martinique)
D4VHF 9Y4D 2m FT8 4006 km 04:34:14 (Trinidad)
9Y4D D4VHF 2m FT8 4006 km 04:12:56
D4VHF FM0LU 2m FT8 3867 km 02:28:14 (Martinique)
FM0LU D4VHF 2m FT8 3864 km 01:35:56 (Martinique)


QSO between D4VHF and J69DS...

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Russian 'Victory-75' Award... May 2020


There are a large number of Russian RP75* stations active on the HF bands at present to mark the 75th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

I worked RP75AO on CW on 3-bands so far. More info below...

To commemorate 75th anniversary of the Victory in WW II, the Union of Russian Radio Amateurs (SRR), is conducting "Victory-75" special on-the-air event in May 2020. Special memorial stations with number "75" in their callsigns will be active.
Dates May 2 (starts at 00.00 UTC) - May 9 (ends at 11.59 UTC)

The award website is https://pobeda.srr.ru/

Although the website is in Russian, they have a PDF there with the rules in English.

Victory-75 Award - 75 pts (38 contacts required)

Hero Cities Award - 7 cities required

Peaceful Skies Award - 150 pts (75 contacts) required

Cities of Military Glory - 12 cities required

FT8 signals heard in local EI 144 MHz contest


Monday 4th May 2020. There was a EI local contest on the 144 MHz band which lasted for a total of two hours. For the first hour on 145 MHz FM, I worked just one station outside of my own IO51 square.

For the second hour, I left the radio listening on the FT8 frequency. There was very little activity locally but I heard 10 stations in total.

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
M0BKV 2m FT8 294 km 14:06:14
EI9KF 2m FT8 279 km 14:48:29
EI4GGB 2m FT8 205 km 14:46:29
EI9GO 2m FT8 95 km 14:12:14
EI3ENB 2m FT8 94 km 14:49:44
EI2HIB 2m FT8 91 km 14:53:14
EI8KN 2m FT8 90 km 14:55:59
EI4KP 2m FT8 89 km 15:00:14
EI4GEB 2m FT8 79 km 15:00:59
EI6FM 2m FT8 14 km 14:49:14

The antenna in use was a home made Slim Jim half-wave in the attic of my house so it's still suprising just how far you can get with FT8 on 144 MHz.

Monday, May 4, 2020

Opening to India & Indonesia on 28 MHz - Sun 3rd May 2020


Sunday 3rd May 2020. A slightly unusual day on 28 MHz...

1) There was a Sporadic-E opening to Europe but it has a distinctive 'long' feel to it. Most of the signals seemed to be 1200kms or further away. You can see on the map where the one hop Sp-E stops in a line from about the south of Italy up to the Slovak Republic at about the 2,300km limit. Anything beyond that is probably double hop.

2) Indonesia and India made it through, always unusual on 10m at the bottom of the sunspot cycle.

3) Nothing from South Africa or South America which seemed a bit unusual. This was possibly due to the fact the the Sporadic-E was very much to the east and not to the south.

4) In total, I heard 37- stations in 41 countries.

Beacons... Despite the strong FT8 signals, I only heard 5 beacons and this was despite doing quite a number of scans...

EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 12:12 03 May IO51TUJN78SB Austria
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 12:10 03 May IO51TUJN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28241.6 F5ZUU/B 12:07 03 May IO51TUJN24IL France
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 12:05 03 May IO51TUJN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28194.0 IW4EIR/B 12:04 03 May IO51TUJN54AS Italy

There seems to be a distinct lack of beacons in the eastern part of Europe so perhaps that accounts for the low number heard.

These are the signals over 2,400kms away...

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Comparison of EI & GI stations for the Spanish IARU-95 award

The Spanish IARU 95th Anniversary award scheme was held in April of 2020 and they made a huge number of contacts across the world. The top 42 countries are shown below....


The Republic of Ireland (EI) was in 36th place with 279 stations making at least one contact with one of the AM*WARD special event stations. If we assume perhaps 30 or so busted calls due to the fact they were heard incorrectly on say CW or to a lesser extent SSB, then that brings the total down to about 250. That would probably be a significant proportion of the number of active EI call signs.

Northern Ireland (GI & MI) finished slightly ahead but the difference is only about 2%.

It seemed a bit strange that Scotland (GM & MM) would finish behind the Rep of Ireland (EI) considering the higher amateur radio population. As the chart shows, there were more amateurs active in Scotland (335) but they made fewer contacts overall. Perhaps the more northerly location made contacts harder?

Comparison of EI & GI/MI contacts... To compare the number and type of contacts made by the Irish stations, I did up a chart showing those those managed at least two contacts. This eliminates most if not all of the busted call signs.

The chart shows that the those making two contacts were identical except that more EI stations were using CW.

If we look at the number of EI & GI/MI stations that work at least 5 of the 10 special event stations then an interesting pattern develops...

On SSB, slightly more GI/MI stations worked half of the special event calls (41 Vs 38).

On CW, there were clearly more EI calls (20 Vs 11)

On the digital modes (which was most likely FT8), there were clearly more GI/MI stations (22 Vs 13).

Why the difference? Perhaps it's due to the numbers of novice and intermediate licence holders in Northern Ireland whereas there are no such licence classes in the Republic of Ireland. Maybe just a statistical fluke?

Saturday, May 2, 2020

Faroe Islands 10m beacon heard for the first time in 2020

Friday 1st May 2020. The Sporadic-E season seems to be full swing at the moment with openings every day on 28 MHz.

The map for FT8 looked pretty identical as the 30th of April with most of Europe covered and a small opening to the Caribbean and South America.

A total of 16 beacons were heard and are listed below.

The unusual ones were....

OY6BEC/B in the Faroe Islands. This is the first logging of this beacon this year for me which seems late. Last year in 2019, I heard it on the 10th. 24th & 26th of April.

PI7ETE/B in the Netherlands is always a nice one to hear. First off, it's about 1,000kms away and it's a sign of short skip and a high MUF. Second, it only runs 300 milliwatts to a small vertical in an attic of a house! When I hear that beacon then I know conditions on 28 MHz must be good.

EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 20:25 01 May IO51TUJO55WM Denmark
EI7GL 28298.0 SK7GH/B 20:24 01 May IO51TUJO77BF Sweden
EI7GL 28277.3 DM0AAB/B 20:22 01 May IO51TUJO54GH Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28227.2 IW3FZQ/B 18:20 01 May IO51TUJN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28241.6 F5ZUU/B 15:08 01 May IO51TUJN24IL France
EI7GL 28235.0 OY6BEC/B 15:06 01 May IO51TUIP62MB Faroe Islands
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 10:00 01 May IO51TUJN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28301.8 PI7ETE/B 09:33 01 May IO51TUJO22QD Netherlands
EI7GL 28194.0 IW4EIR/B 09:30 01 May IO51TUJN54AS Italy
EI7GL 28245.2 DB0TEN/B 09:06 01 May IO51TUJO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28241.6 F5ZUU/B 08:31 01 May IO51TUJN24IL France
EI7GL 28251.4 ED4YAK/B 08:30 01 May IO51TUIN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28322.6 F1VJT/B 08:27 01 May IO51TUJN33CI France
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 08:26 01 May IO51TUJO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 08:25 01 May IO51TUJN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 08:23 01 May IO51TUJN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany

Spanish IARU 95 Award - April 2020


The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) marks its 95th anniversary in 2020 and the national society for Spain (URE) have a special award scheme to celebrate the event.

Contacts can be made using any mode or band from 160 meters to 6 meters with the 10 different AMxWARD special stations. The special station callsigns are: AM95WARD - AM1WARD - AM2WARD - AM3WARD - AM4WARD AM5WARD - AM6WARD - AM7WARD - AM8WARD - AM9WARD

The award scheme runs from the 15th April 2020 at 0000z to 30th April 2020 (2359z). There are diplomas in PDF format awarded as follows (For European stations)...

SILVER DIPLOMA - Work 5 AM*WARD stations

GOLD DIPLOMA - Work 7 AM*WARD stations on at least 3 different bands (i.e. work 7 stations on 3 bands)

PLATINUM DIPLOMA - Work 10 AM*WARD stations on at least 3 different bands (i.e. work all 10 stations on 3 bands. This was later reduced to 9 as it was felt 10 was too hard.)

The award website is... https://iaru95.ure.es/

The Spanish National Society (URE) run award schemes like this every year or so and their award websites are excellent. As award schemes go, they really set the Gold standard.

Update 2nd May 2020... The award activation came to an end on the 30th of April and I managed 75 contacts on CW.


I worked 9 of the 10 stations on the 8 bands from 10m to 80m and I worked all 10 stations on 3 bands for the Platinum award (shown below).

The problem one of course was AM9WARD in Ceuta and Melilla on the north coast of Africa. They were always in demand with big pile ups and with the activity spread out over SSB and FT8 as well, they were always going to be a problem.

I missed the first 3 days of the award activation but I doubt if I would have worked much more from the start.

Awards below...


Friday, May 1, 2020

First contact made on 40 MHz between Ireland and Lithuania - 29th April 2020


On Wednesday the 29th of April 2020, EI4GNB in Ireland managed to complete a digital  FT8 contact with LY2YR on 40.220 MHz on the new 8-metre band. Not only was this an EI-LY first but it was also the very first contact made between any two countries on the band.

EI4GNB was located in IO63WE while LY3YR was in KO24OS. The distance was approximately 2,039 kms and the mode of propagation was Sporadic-E.

Tim - EI4GNB was using a YAESU FT 857D with about 30 watts through a low pass filter for 8-metres. The antenna was a 2-element Quad about 8 metres above ground level.

Gintas - LY2YR was using a YAESU FT2000 and a Hexbeam for 50 MHz.

EI4GNB reports that there was quite an amount of fading on the signals and they were just able to complete the contact on FT8.


Another screen shot below...


The map below shows the contact appearing on the DXMAPS website...


It should be noted that while Lithuania does not have an official allocation at 40 MHz, the licensing authorities in the country kindly gave LY2YR special permission to carry out experiments on 40.220 MHz and 40.680 MHz.

This is a model that could perhaps be copied by other interested radio amateurs in other countries. It may be a lot easier to get special permission to use spot frequencies for a limited period of time rather than a general allocation.

It is hoped that there will be activity from Slovenia very soon and hopefully this will generate more interest in this VHF band.

Links...
1) For more information on the new 8-metre band, see the 40 MHz page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

Another opening to the North & South America on 28 MHz - Thurs 30th April 2020


Thursday 30th April 2020. This was another day where there was another big opening on 28 MHz to Europe and beyond.

A total of 734 stations in 56 countries were heard on FT8 on the band.

As the map above shows, there was a reasonable opening to South America and the Caribbean. I heard 23 stations from Brazil alone which might the highest number so far this year.

Two stations from the USA were also heard which follows on from the single US reception report the previous day. These multi-hop trans-Atlantic openings will become more common as we move further into May and June.

Beacons..... The number of beacons I log during the day on 28 MHz is usually a sign of how good conditions were...

EI7GL C30P/B 28255.8 IO51TUJN02SM 1952z 30 Apr
EI7GL ED4YAK/B 28251.4 IO51TUIN80FK 1950z 30 Apr
EI7GL LA5TEN/B 28237.4 IO51TUJO59JP 1453z 30 Apr
EI7GL OE3XAC/B 28188 IO51TUJN78SB 1452z 30 Apr
EI7GL SB7W/B 28211.2 IO51TUJO66IA 1421z 30 Apr
EI7GL DB0TEN/B 28245.2 IO51TUJO42UV 1418z 30 Apr
EI7GL DB0UM/B 28279 IO51TUJO73CE 1236z 30 Apr
EI7GL OZ7IGY/B 28271 IO51TUJO55WM 1234z 30 Apr
EI7GL DM0AAB/B 28277.3 IO51TUJO54GH 1210z 30 Apr
EI7GL SK7GH/B 28298 IO51TU<>JO77BF 1209z 30 Apr
EI7GL SK0CT/B 28292.2 IO51TUJO89XK 1208z 30 Apr
EI7GL DK0TEN/B 28257.8 IO51TUJN47NT 1055z 30 Apr
EI7GL DL0IGI/B 28205 IO51TUJN57MT 1053z 30 Apr
EI7GL IW3FZQ/B 28227.2 IO51TUJN55VF 1024z 30 Apr
EI7GL IW4EIR/B 28194 IO51TUJN54AS 1014z 30 Apr

Other than SB7W/B in Sweden, most of the rest are the usual beacons.

These are the stations on FT8 that were over 2,500 kms...

Thursday, April 30, 2020

Opening to Denmark on 40 MHz - Thurs 30th April 2020


There was another opening on the 40 MHz band to Denmark on the 30th of April with the OZ7IGY beacon on 40.071 MHz been heard for about 70 minutes. The beacon was also spotted by EI3GYB.

This was the 4th opening so far this month and the Sporadic-E season has just started.

During the months of May to July, there will be many more openings so I'll probably just keep a note of the number of opening I hear per month rather than reporting each one individually.

PI4 Decodes (lowest -22dB)...

Big opening on 28 MHz - Wed 29th Apr 2020


Wednesday 29th April 2020. As the map shows above, there was an extensive Sporadic-E opening on 28 MHz with 689 stations from 46 countries being heard on the band.

The unusual one was the short opening to North America. More later.

First off, here is the map for Europe...

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Opening to Denmark on 40 MHz - Wed 29th April 2020


Wednesday 29th April 2020. There was another opening on the 40 MHz band to Denmark and this was probably the best opening so far for 2020.

There was Sporadic-E on 28 MHz during the late morning to central Europe. In the early afternoon, the propagation moved north and the OZ7IGY beacon on 28.271 MHz appeared.

Not long after that, the OZ7IGY beacon on 40.071 MHz came up out of the noise. The PI4 decodes are shown below...

Opening to the Caribbean on 28 MHz - Tues 28th April 2020


Tuesday 28th April 2020. The map above shows the FT8 heard on 28 MHz, not bad for the bottom of the sunspot cycle.

The main Sporadic-E opening was to the south to Spain and Portugal with a weaker opening towards Italy and the south-east.

The main point of interest for me was the opening to the Caribbean and the northern part of South America. North-South paths to the likes of South Africa and Brazil are very common but it's the East-West paths that are more unusual.

In total, I heard 191 stations in 27 countries which actually sounds low considering how long the band was open for.

These are the stations over 3,000kms...

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Opening on 28 MHz - Mon 27th Apr 2020

Monday 27th April 2020. A pretty modest day on 28 MHz with a hint of more to come.

The main Sporadic-E opening was to the south to Spain and Portugal.

There was a weak Sp-E opening to Germany but I was unable to hear any of the German beacons. This suggests that the band in that direction was just about open on 28 MHz and the Sp-E footprint was probably small and patchy.

In line with the conditions, just two beacons were heard...

EI7GL 28292.2 SK0CT/B 13:18 27 Apr IO51TUJO89XK Sweden 
EI7GL 28251.4 ED4YAK/B 11:30 27 Apr IO51TUIN80FK Spain

The most notable signal of the day for me was actually hearing MW0ZZK in the NW of Wales. I could actually hear his FT8 signal by ear even though he is some 280 kms away. This signal was direct and not via Sporadic-E, backscatter or the like.

That kind of distance might be common enough on say 144 MHz with tropo and beams but it's unusual enough on 28 MHz.

I also noticed that MW0ZZK had heard Indonesia and the Caribbean on 28 MHz during the day so there was some decent DX buried in the noise.