World First FT8 Moonbounce contact completed on 432 MHz...

One of the niche areas of amateur radio and perhaps one of the most difficult is trying to make contacts by bouncing radio signals off the moon. 'Moonbounce' or EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) has its proponents who squeeze every last bit of improvement out of their antennas and equipment to overcomes the huge losses involved.

On a posting on the Moon-Net, Joe Taylor K1JT said he believed that the first moonbounce contact had taken place with the FT8 digital mode.

On the 21st of May 2020, an EME contact on 432 MHz had taken place between W2HRO in New Jersey and PA2V in the Netherlands.

While the weak signal FT8 mode is hugely popular on the HF and VHF bands, modes like JT65 are more popular for EME due to its better sensitivity.

Here is the posting from K1JT....

Some here will be interested to learn that earlier (21May20) today W2HRO and PA2V easily made (as far as I know) the first EME QSO using the FT8 mode.

Paul and Peter used WSJT-X 2.2.0-rc1, a beta-release candidate for version 2.2 of the program WSJT-X. Both stations have moderate 4-yagi setups on 432. Conditions today were not particularly good: degradation around 3 dB, and the Sun only 20 degrees from the Moon.

For terrestrial use the FT8 decoder searches over the range -2.5 to +2.4s for clock offset DT between transmitting and receiving stations. When "Decode after EME delay" is checked on the WSJT-X "Settings" screen, the accessible DT range becomes -0.5 to +4.4 s. Just right for EME.

FT8 uses 8-GFSK modulation with tones separated by 6.25 Hz. At the time of this QSO the expected Doppler spread on the W2HRO - PA2V EME path was 8 Hz, which causes some additional loss of sensitivity. Nevertheless, as you'll see in screenshots posted here, the copy was solid in both directions:

Why might you want to use FT8 instead of "Old Reliable JT65" for EME QSOs? FT8 is about 4 dB less sensitive than JT65, but with 15-second T/R sequences it's four times faster and it doesn't use Deep Search.

When I was active in EME contests on 144 MHz, I was always frustrated that even with reasonably strong (for EME) signals, one's maximum JT65 QSO rate is about 12 per hour. With FT8 you can do 40 per hour, as long as workable stations are available.

What about FT8 EME on 1296 MHz? It might sometimes work, but Doppler spread will probably make standard FT8 a problem. But if there were sufficient interest, we could make an "FT8B" or "FT8C" with wider tone spacing.

Please try FT8 for EME on any of the bands 144, 432, and 1296 MHz, and let us know your results.

-- 73, Joe, K1JT

For the FT8 moonbouce contact on 432 MHz, W2HRO was running 1KW into 4 x 15 el Yagis. PA2V was running 1KW into 4 x 27 el Yagis.

QRSS Signals from the UK on 28 MHz - Tues 19th May 2020

QRSS is a mode where a morse code signal is sent very slowly so that it can seen on a screen rather than heard by ear. This allows signals that can be up 20dB below the noise level to be seen.

While it might seem outdated by some of the more modern digital modes like WSPR or FT8, what is really interesting about QRSS is that you can visually see the propagation moving around.

On Tuesday the 19th of May 2020, there was really intense Sporadic-E on 28 MHz with a very short skip opening from Ireland to the UK. This allowed me to hear the QRSS signals from stations near London as shown on the map below....

The key points here before we look at the QRSS plots are...

a) G6NHU, G0MBA & G0PKT are all very close to each other and about 650 kms from my location.

b) G0FTD is about as far but is 50 kms to the south of the cluster of three.

c) M0GBZ is along the same path as the group of three but is about 90 kms closer at 560 kms.

d) The shorter the distance then the smaller the Sporadic-E footprint tends to get.

As shown above, it tends to be long and narrow and this will be shown in the QRSS examples below.

***

Screen grab 1.....

In this image above, you can see all of the signals. G0FTD has two transmitters and is the weakest.

***

Screen grab 2...

In this image, the Sporadic-E footprint moves north and even though G0FTD is just 50 kms from the more northern stations, he moves outside the footprint.

The cluster of three remain remain the same while M0GBZ disappears as the skip lengthens for a while before coming back.

* * *

Screen grab 3...

In this plot, the Sporadic-E skip distance increases and M0GBZ disappears. G0FTD disappears for about two minutes before the footprint moves south again.

On the right hand side, all of the QRSS signals are there but they now become quite fuzzy which may indicate multipath. Perhaps the Sporadic-E has broken up into several clouds rather than maybe the single one before.

In conclusion..... This was the my first reception this year of the UK QRSS stations on 28 MHz and as you can see from what's written above, the plots show a lot.

From what I now, the QRSS mode is the only one where you can actually see on a screen how the propagation is moving around in real time.

Listen on 28.0008 MHz on CW for these stations running just a few hundred milliwatts.

276km Reception of Beacon in Wales on 28 MHz

During a Sporadic-E opening on the 20th of May 2020, I came across GW7HDS/B beacon in the south of Wales on 28.2215 MHz.

This is a very unusual beacon for me as it is 276 kms away and would normally be too far away for tropo and too close for Sporadic-E. When I heard it first, I thought it must have been some exceptionally short Sporadic-E.

I noticed however that the signal was pretty constant. After a few hours, it was still there and didn't behave like Sporadic-E.

By accident, I also noticed that the BBC Radio 4 signal on 104.9 MHz from Haverfordwest on the west coast of Wales was a big signal here. Even though it is some 140 kms distant, I was able to listen to it using just my mobile phone and the headset lead as an antenna.

Later in the evening, the GW7HDS beacon had gone and coincidentally, so had the signal on 104.9 MHz.

I often hear stations on the west coast of Wales on 10m on FT8 but it's hard to read any meaning into signals that are there in bursts and are infrequent. Are they tropo? Aircraft scatter? Back scatter?

Tropo conditions on the higher VHF bands like 2-metres and 70-cms are pretty common but not so much on the lower bands like 10-metres. Was it a tropo signal on 28 MHz? Possibly but I still suspect it might have been backscatter for Sporadic-E.

With the beacon frequency stored safely in a memory channel on the radio, I'll have to look out for it again in the future.

WSPR signals on 28 MHz - Tues 19th May 2020

Every day, I monitor the FT8 frequency on 28 MHz and feed the spots up to the PSKReporter website. I don't have any real interest in making loads of contacts but I use the FT8 reports to follow the propagation and watch for unusual conditions.

On Tues 19th May 2020, I could see that the Sporadic-E skip was going short so I left the FT8 signals and concentrated on QRSS and WSPR signals instead. The map above shows the WSPR stations heard on 28 MHz over the space of maybe two hours.

What is interesting here are the signals from the UK with a skip distance as short as 400 kms on 28 MHz, a really intense opening. I also heard the GB3XMB beacon on CW which ties in with this.

What I find really amazing though are the stations running very low power on WSPR.

These are the stations I heard with less than 100 milliwatts....

Timestamp       Call MHz SNR Drift Grid Pwr Reporter RGrid km az # Spots
 2020-05-19 19:04 G4KPX 28.126173 -18 2 JO02dj  0.005  EI7GL IO51tu 594 268 2 
 2020-05-19 18:58 LA1G 28.126058 -27  0 JO49ub 0.02  EI7GL IO51tu 1387 243 2 
 2020-05-19 18:42 DL0PBS 28.125998 -16 0 JO33 0.05 EI7GL IO51tu 1048 266  11 
 2020-05-19 18:26 PD0KT  28.126187 -13 0 JO33le 0.01  EI7GL IO51tu 1046 268 28 
 2020-05-19 17:30 OZ1IPH  28.126102 -21 0 JO47xi 0.02  EI7GL IO51tu 1324 250  3 
 2020-05-19 17:26 PA2REH 28.126176 -15  0 JO22fe  0.05 EI7GL IO51tu 878 273  17 
 2020-05-19 17:26 OZ0RF 28.126042 -23 0 JO65fr 0.02  EI7GL IO51tu 1428 261 5 

As you can see, these range from 50 milliwatts all the way down to an amazing 5 milliwatts!

Report on 60 MHz activity for Mon 18th May 2020

Monday 18th May 2020. This was another excellent day for Sporadic-E with the MUF extending up to 70 MHz.

1) 60 MHz Crossband Contacts - Tim EI4GNB reports making no less than four crossband contacts on FT8 from 60 MHz to 70 MHz.

DG1VL (JO61WE) was at 10:18 UTC, S59F (JN65TX) was at 10:24 UTC, SP9HWY (JO90NH) was at 10:35 UTC and DL5WG (JO52XJ) was at 11:00 UTC.

Screenshot of the FT8 contact with DG1VL

Screenshot of the FT8 contact with DG1VL

Links...
1) For more information on the 60 MHz band, visit this page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/60-mhz.html

Report on 40 MHz activity for Mon 18th May 2020

There was an extensive Sporadic-E opening across Europe on Monday the 18th of May 2020 with strong signals being reported on all the VHF bands from 28 MHz to 70 MHz. This is a report on some of the activity on the new 40 MHz band.

1) 40 MHz Crossband contacts - Tim EI4GNB reports working crossband from 40 MHz to 28 MHz with DJ3AK (JO52GJ) at 11:22 UTC and OE3FVU (JN78VE) at 11:28 UTC. All contacts were on FT8.

The distances were roughly 1200 kms and 1700 kms respectively. Tim was also busy making more crossband contacts from the 60 MHz band, I'll put that in a separate report.

***

2) Irish 40 MHz EI1KNH Beacon - At least three stations reported reception of the Irish EI1KNH beacon on 40.013 MHz.

a) Gintas LY2YR (KO24OS) managed to get four successful decodes of the beacon using the PI4 software.

40M 11:45 UTC EI1KNH PI4: S/N=-19 dB Q=46 T=0,40 s F=50 Hz Carrier: F=851,6 Hz C/N=-17 dB
40M 11:46 UTC EI1KNH PI4: S/N=-19 dB Q=60 T=0,35 s F=50 Hz Carrier: F=851,6 Hz C/N=-23 dB
40M 11:50 UTC EI1KNH PI4: S/N=-20 dB Q=36 T=0,37 s F=55 Hz Carrier: F=852,4 Hz C/N=-19 dB
40M 11:52 UTC EI1KNH PI4: S/N=-19 dB Q=20 T=0,40 s F=55 Hz Carrier: F=852,5 Hz C/N=-31 dB

The signal was quite weak at -19dB to -20dB which is understandable considering the distance is over 2,000kms.

b) Andreas DJ5AR in Germany got six successful PI4 decodes  with the signal going from =1dB to -12 dB.

c) Tom SP5MXU in Poland also reports reception of the beacon with an ICOM IC7300 and a 5 element beam for 50 MHz...

This short video clip shows reception of the EI1KNH beacon in Poland...



* * * *

3) Danish 40 MHz OZ7IGY Beacon - There were two reports of the beacon on the DX Cluster.

a) Michael EI3GYB reported reception of the OZ7IGY beacon on 40.071 MHz at 12:19 UTC.

b) And finally EI7GL! I managed to hear the Danish beacon in two separate openings. The first one I caught was roughly from 13:03 UTC to 13:54 UTC with the second shorter opening from 17:42 to 17:51 UTC.

There may have been more openings of course but this is what I heard.

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

Mystery carrier on 28.223 MHz - Update: Resolved

Original post: There was a Sporadic-E opening today and I noted a constant carrier on 28.223 MHz. I noted this the previous day as well but it was stronger today. Just a constant carrier with no identification.

While I was waiting for it to ID, I thought I heard a very slight change in tone.

When I looked at the audio, sure enough it was changing frequency by about 4 Hz as can be seen above. This happened about 5 times a minute.

At the time, I was hearing lots of FT8 stations from France so I presume it was the F5SN beacon listed as 28.223 MHz? I sent an email to inquire but the question and answer got lost somewhere in Google Translate.

I did hear F5SN giving out its ID on the 29th of April so I'm not sure what happened to it.

Not exactly a QRSS (slow morse) signal but unusual all the same.

Update: 18th May 2020. I finally managed to discover thee identity of the mystery carrier on 28.223 MHz.

On the 18th of May, conditions on 28 MHz were really good and the mystery carrier on 28.223 MHz was nice and strong. This time however when I tuned around, I heard the F5BN/B beacon on CW just above the carrier. Not only that but I found an identical CW signal just below the carrier! One beacon, two signals.

Two CW signals with a big carrier in between.... I knew straight away that it had to be an AM signal!

Reception reports for the EI1KNH 40 MHz Beacon - May 2020

Sunday 17th May 2020. Interesting to see a report on the PSKReporter website showing EA3ERE near Barcelona reporting reception of the EI1KNH/B beacon on 40.013 MHz.

F4FRQ in JN37KQ also reported it on the DX Cluster.

* * * 

Opening to Denmark on 40 MHz - May 2020

17th May 2020 - This was my first reception report of the OZ7IGY beacon in Denmark on 40 MHz for May 2020. I first noticed the OZ7IGY beacon on 28 MHz and tuned to 40.071 MHz and heard nothing.

I left the room and about 30 seconds later, I could hear the unmistakable PI4 tones of the beacon as it just popped up out of the noise. 

 As the chart shows, the opening for me on 40 MHz lasted about 20 minutes.

It seems as if the Sporadic-E footprint was pretty localised as another EI station about 150 kms to the north of me couldn't hear the beacon at all.

Update: Later I noticed that my spot for the DX Cluster ended up on the PSKReporter website as well...

I'm not sure how that happened but it was interesting to see that the PSKReporter site reported it as a 40 MHz PI4 report even though there doesn't seem to be any provision to select 40 MHz as a band on the site.

First Crossband Contact between Ireland and Spain on 40 MHz - 15th May 2020

There was a good Sporadic-E opening on Friday 15th May 2020 from the UK and Ireland south to the Iberian Peninsula. Tim, EI4GNB reports that the MUF extended up as far as 70 MHz and he managed to work two Spanish stations crossband between the 40 MHz and 50 MHz bands. This was the first crossband contact on 40 MHz between Ireland and Spain.

This is a screen shot from Tim of the FT8 contact with EA1YV in IN52OC square...

As the screen shows above, the FT8 contact with EA1YV took place at about 16:56 UTC and was followed straight away by a 8m/6m FT contact with EA1HRR in IN83JJ.

Tim reports trying a 60 MHz to 70 MHz contact with EA1YV as well. Even though the Spanish was S9 on 70 MHz, the Sporadic-E footprint on 60 MHz wasn't in the right spot.

Links...

1) Lots of information about the new 40 MHz band can be found on my 40 MHz page.

Japan & USA heard on 28 MHz - Fri 15th May 2020

Friday 15th May 2020. As we reach the middle of May, the multi-hop Sporadic-E paths on 28 MHz are really starting to open up.

Japan... The big suprise for me was the reception of JJ1RDX in Japan. I checked the spot and it's genuine. At 9,767 kms, this probably required in the region of 5 or 6 Sp-E hops to reach here.

USA... K9RX in South Carolina was heard at a distance of just over 6,000 kms. 

What is significant here is not so much the distance but the fact the opening was East-West. North-South openings are not so special as one hop to the south from N Europe and you're into an area where F2 and TEP is possible. It's the East-West openings that are special.

Sp-E... From just a European perspective, the opening to Europe wasn't great. Even though there are lots of dots on the map, the band was open for hours to just Spain and Portugal and no where else. I did several scans and heard just three CW beacons all day.

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

New home wanted for the GB3RAL suite of HF & VHF beacons

The RSGB have announced that the GB3RAL suite of HF and VHF beacons at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, England have been turned off due to developments on the site. 

They are now looking for a new home for the beacons somewhere in the UK. It is also hoped that the beacons will be upgraded so that they are all locked with a more modern GPS technology.

Interested parties or groups should contact the Propagation Studies Committee of the RSGB.

The GB3RAL beacon was originally intended to operate on six bands (60m, 10m, 8m, 6m, 5m and 4m) but most have been out of action for some time.

60m - The 60-metre beacon on  5.290 MHz was last spotted on the DX Cluster in December of 2016.

10m - The 10-metre beacon on 28.215 MHz was last spotted as recently as February of 2020 and it was last spotted consistently in July of 2019.

8m - The 8-metre beacon on 40.050 MHz was last spotted in June of 2014. Despite the beacon being listed on current beacon lists, it hasn't been on the air for the last six years.

6m - The 6-metre beacon on 50.050 MHz was last spotted in June 2018.

5m - There was supposed to have been a 5-metre beacon on 60.050 MHz but the DX Cluster has no record of it ever being spotted.

4m - The 4-metre beacon on 70.050 MHz was last spotted in July 2016.

The two beacons of particular interest to me are the ones for 40 MHz and 60 MHz. There are only two beacons in the world currently on air on the 40 MHz band which these are in Ireland and Denmark. On 60 MHz, there is just one beacon in Ireland. It would be great to see these 8m and 5m beacons up and running properly from the UK.

Opening to the Caribbean on 28 MHz - Thurs 14th May 2020

Thurs 14th May 2020. While the Sporadic-E opening on 28 MHz to Europe was modest enough, it was an interesting day in terms of DX. As the map shows above, there was an opening to the Caribbean with Cuba being heard.

The map really doesn't show the full extent of the opening as I was just using a half-wave vertical. I noticed that a station in Wales was hearing Florida and even a few stations in the New England area of the USA. There was also an opening in the morning from Europe to Japan.

I noticed also that there was an opening on 50 MHz from Europe to the Caribbean.

All of these East-West openings are probably due to multi-hop Sporadic-E and we should see many more openings like this for the next few weeks.

FT8 stations heard over 2,500kms...

Facebook Group for the 40 MHz & 60 MHz bands

There is now a new Facebook Group for those interested in the new 40 MHz & 60 MHz amateur radio bands... https://www.facebook.com/groups/2897330140356898/

The objective of the group is to allow those interested in the new 8-metre and 5-metre bands to share information about equipment, antennas, propagation and tests.

By having a dedicated Facebook group, there is now a place where people interested in the new bands can get to talk to each other.

Prior to this, a lot of the 40 MHz and 60 MHz information and posts was buried in the noise of other groups and forums.

The group is open to all those with or without amateur radio call signs. Any information about other Low Band VHF signals and propagation is also welcome. i.e. 30 to 49 MHz and 54 to 69 MHz.

Crossband activity on 40 MHz - Mon 11th May 2020

There was an extensive Sporadic-E opening on Monday the 11th of May 2020 with strong signals across Europe on the 28 MHz and 50 MHz bands.

The new 40 MHz band was also open and the image above is a screenshot I took of the DXMaps 40 MHz page on the day.

Lloyd, EI7HBB ...Lloyd managed to work OE1HHB in Austria on SSB for a 40 MHz to 50 MHz crossband contact at 18:18 UTC. Lloyd comments that he received a signal report of 5/3 on 40 MHz with the Austrian station being 5/5 on 50 MHz. He also notes that that he received a 5/8 for their simplex contact on 50 MHz and speculates that the difference is due to resonant and non-resonant antennas for the respective bands.

Lloyd also worked the club station DL0AA in Germany for another 8m/6m SSB crossband contact at 18:35 UTC. For the simplex contact on 50 MHz, there was an exchange of 5/9 both ways. On 40 MHz, the German station gave Lloyd a reception report of 5/3.

Lloyd also reports nearly working a French station crossband but lost him in QSB.

DX-Cluster spots...

EI7HBB 40680.0 DL0AA 18:36 11 May cross band 50130 Fed. Rep. of Germany (Corrected from initial DL9AAA spot)

EI7HBB 40680.0 OE1HHB 18:18 11 May cross band 50152 Austria

Tim, EI4GNB ...Tim managed to complete an FT8 crossband contact with OE3EMC in Austria.

FT8 contact between EI4GNB on 40 MHz and OE3EMC on 28 MHz

FT8 contact between EI4GNB on 40 MHz and OE3EMC on 28 MHz

EI4GNB calling CQ crossband on 40 MHz

DX-Cluster spots...

OE3EMC 40220.0 EI4GNB 19:15 11 May JN78JO<ES>IO63 tnx Crossband 8 Ireland

OE3EMC 40220.0 EI4GNB 19:01 11 May JN78JO<ES>IO63 i call you 5031 Ireland

EA3ERE 40220.0 EI4GNB 19:00 11 May FT8 -23 dB cq XBAND 8m/6m Ireland

EA3ERE 40220.0 EI4GNB 18:49 11 May FT8 -23 dB 1786 Hz cq Ireland

OE3EMC 40220.0 EI4GNB 18:47 11 May JN78JO<ES>IO63 Ireland

9A5CW 40220.0 EI4GNB 18:37 11 May FT8 -5 dB 1532 Hz Ireland

Links...

1) Lots of info and links on my 40 MHz page

2) DXMaps website ... Look for the dedicated 40 MHz propagation map

Italian QRSS signals heard on 28 MHz - 11th May 2020

Conditions on 28 MHz on Monday the 11th of May 2020 were very good with some very strong FT8 and SSB signals heard on the band.

While the skip distance didn't get short enough for me to hear some of the UK QRSS stations (<600kms), I did hear two Italian QRSS beacons on 28.3216 MHz CW at about 22:00 UTC. See photo.

From the information that I have, I3GNQ/B runs 200mW into a vertical and uses the QRSS code 'GB'. IZ1KXQ/B runs 100mW into an inverted-V and uses the QRSS code 'SP'. As the image shows, there are about 143 Hz apart.

From what I can tell, these are the only two Italian QRSS signals on the 10m band.

I3GNQ beacon - 200 milliwatts (2N1711 transistor) into a 5/8 vertical antenna

Close up of the I3GNQ beacon

Thanks to Jack I3GNQ for the photo.

I3GNQ also mentions that this low power beacon will be turned off in July of 2020 as the property where the beacon is located has been sold.

Links...

1) QRSS Knights on Groups dot io

New Irish 40 MHz beacon now operational - May 2020

Back in early 2018, the 40 MHz (8-metre) band was allocated to radio amateurs in Ireland (EI) on a secondary non-interference basis. Now we have news that the very first beacon on 40 MHz in Ireland is operational!

The new beacon is operational since the 9th of May 2020 and has the call EI1KNH. It is on 40.013 MHz and runs 20 watts into a vertical half-wave antenna.

The new 8-metre beacon is co-sited with some of the existing Irish beacons - EI0SIX on 50 MHz, EI1KNH on 60 MHz and EI4RF on 70 MHz. The elevated site has a locator of IO63VE and is located about 20 kms to the south of Dublin.

The photo above shows the vertical folded dipole for the 60 MHz beacon and the vertical half-wave for the 40 MHz beacon. This is a converted CB antenna which was reduced in length to a half-wave for the 8-metre band.

The 40 MHz beacon transmits on the digital PI4 mode and CW. Details below...

PI4 + CW + Carrier 00111 (1st, 2nd & 3rd Minute of every 5 minutes) Synchronised Beacon Project (SBP)

The RF for the beacon is generated by an RFZero module running about 20 milliwatts (+13dBm).

The output of the RFZero is then fed into a Chinese 'mini PA' unit. This boosts the power from 2 milliwatts to 500 milliwatts.

Chinese 'mini PA'

Inside the 'mini PA'

The 0.5 watt signal from the mini-PA is then fed into the main power amplifier...

The main amp is a MRF101AN which is fed from a 42 volt switch mode power supply. While the 101 NXP chip is meant to run at 50v by design, they are running it at 42v as the available PSU offers that at  50 amps.  Tim comments that running it at 42v should extend its life and ensure that it can run almost undamaged into any load should the antenna break or the filter fail etc.

Close up of the PA module

This is then fed into a homebrew band pass filter for 40 MHz...

40 MHz Band Pass Filter under test

The 20 watt output then goes to a vertical half wave about 5 metres above ground level.

Expected Range???..... What range might be expected from a beacon on 40 MHz? Considering it a weak signal mode, a tropo range of somewhere in the range of 200 kms might be expected. Perhaps up to 300 kms during times of high pressure.

It's important to note however that the Dublin and Wicklow mountains which are just to the west will attenuate the signals in that direction. Even though the beacon site is roughly 300 metres above sea level, the mountains to the west are at least 300 meres higher.

The path across to the west coast of Wales and the UK is much better. A good guide would be the other beacons on 50 MHz and 70 MHz. If you can hear those then there is a reasonable chance of hearing the 40 MHz beacon.

Sporadic-E Range... It's certain that the 40 MHz beacon will be heard in Europe during the Sporadic-E season from late April to mid-August. The beacon has a very good view to the east with no obstructions on the horizon so it should be very strong in Europe.

The map below shows the approximate limit of one hop Sporadic-E. It's likely that stations in the Baltic states, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Italy and the south of Spain should be able to hear it on a regular basis.

When conditions are really good, stations in France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway should be able to hear it.

Shorter skip than that might be a problem though. If it's is exceptional then the skip might shorten to say the east coast of the UK.

North America???.... There is a possibility that the beacon could be heard in North America via multi-hop Sporadic-E. It just needs someone over there to make the effort. The beacon however has some 600m high mountains just to the west which may well cut off any signals in that direction.

Reports... Reception reports should be sent to Tim EI4GNB. Look up EI1KNH on https://www.qrz.com/

Thanks to the hard work of Tim EI4GNB and Tony EI7BMB, there is now a second beacon on 40 MHz operational in Europe.

Thanks to Tim EI4GNB for all of the information and photos about the beacon.

Links...

1) EI1KNH 40 MHz beacon page on QRZ.COM

2) My 40 MHz page with lots of info and links