Modest opening on 28 MHz - 6th May 2021

Thursday 6th May 2021: Another modest day on the 28 MHz with 302 stations in 43 countries heard on FT8. Outside of the Sporadic-E to Europe, a number of signals came through from South America, Africa and the Middle East.

Two signals of note were 5T5PA from Mauritania and 9J2BS from Zambia.

I did a few scans of the band during the day and I didn't hear a single CW beacon. 

I'll probably spend a few more days monitoring the band to see when the first multi-hop Sporadic-E opening to the USA occurs.

Opening to Siberia on 28 MHz - 5th May 2021

Wednesday 5th May 2021: This was an unusual day on the 28 MHz band in that the main opening seemed to be to the east with very little from the south. The furthest station heard on FT8 was UA0SU near Lake Baikal in Siberia.

As for the propagation mode? Probably multi-hop Sporadic-E but you can never rule out F2 on 28 MHz over those kind of distances.

A total of 157 stations in 25 countries was heard on FT8 on 28 MHz.

Guest Post: Experimental reception of the OZ7IGY 40 MHz beacon via meteor scatter ...by S57RW

Andrej, S57RW in Slovenia left the following comment on the blog today under an old post. Rather than leaving it there largely unnoticed, I am putting it up as a short guest post.

* * *

Wednesday 5th May 2021:  Today I tried to listen to beacons on the 8m band and around 09:30 UTC, I got two bursts from OZ7IGY in Denmark. 

Both had a duration of about 10-seconds. First, I got a part of the PI4 transmission but that was not long enough to decode. After 2-3 minutes, I got a second burst and copied part of locator and final carrier.

This one was quite strong about S5 to S7 and had a typical burst and after burst. Don't know if that is the right term but it sounded like typical strong MS burst. 

It may be worth listening in the morning when there are more meteors around :) 

RIG was IC-7300 and a dipole for 8m abt. 4m high N/S direction. 73 Andrej - S57RW!

* * *

As the map shows above, S57RW is about 1200kms from the OZ7IGY beacon in Denmark, an ideal distance for meteor scatter on the 40 MHz band.

Note that the Eta Aquariids meteor shower peaks on the 6th of May.

Looking back at the start of the Sporadic-E season on 28 MHz - April 2021

For every day during the month of April 2021, I listened from about 08:00 to 22:00 UTC every day for FT8 signals on the 28 MHz band. For the first few days, I heard only a few countries every day. The chart below shows from the 7th to the 30th of April.

As can be seen from the chart, the second week of April continued at a low level with just a few countries heard every day. The 10th was one of those exceptions in that I didn't hear a single signal  despite listening all day. 

The chart clearly shows that the Sporadic-E season started on the 15th of April with the third week being in marked contrast to the second week.

Lyrid Meteor Shower: For Sporadic-E to occur, there needs to be a supply of metallic dust from the residue of meteors burning up in the atmosphere at a height of about 100kms. The first real meteor shower of the Spring is the Lyrids which goes from the 18th to the 25th of April and peaks on the 22nd.

Was the early arrival of the Lyrids responsible for the Sporadic-E season starting on the 15th and 16th. The exact start and finish of the shower seems to be different depending on what source you look at.

The 23rd of April is for me always a main date for Sporadic-E. I just noticed every year from my logbook that it was a date that stood out. It's probably no accident that it comes just a day after the peak of the Lyrids.

Methodology & shortcomings: In hindsight, I probably should have recorded the number of stations and countries on a day by day basis but I wasn't really planning to record the start of the season. The chart was just an idea I had once the month was over.

I was able to extract the number of countries heard on FT8 from my previous blog posts but the exact number of stations heard wasn't good enough that I would have confidence in the data for a chart.

As we are still near the bottom of the solar cycle, most of the signals that were heard were via Sporadic-E. It might be more difficult to repeat this test near the sunspot peak as there could be a F2 propagation in the mix as well.

I'll make a note in my calendar and I might repeat the exercise in 2022 and see if the results are the same.

Sporadic-E on 28 MHz for 9 hours - 4th May 2021

Tuesday 4th May 2021: The 28 MHz band was open more or less continuously for about 9 hours from about 13:00 to 22:00 UTC with signals from most of Europe coming through via Sporadic-E.

A total of 358 stations in 42 countries were heard which is usually a sign of a reasonably good day. 

The main Sporadic-E opening seems to have been to Italy as can be seen from the concentration of stations on the map. While I wasn't able to do that many scans of the band, I did hear two Italian beacons on CW...

EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 18:31 04 May IO51TU<ES>JN54AB Italy
EI7GL 28227.2 IW3FZQ/B 18:28 04 May IO51TU<ES>JN55VF Italy

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks on the 6th of May and that should provide even more fuel for the Sporadic-E propagation. The season is only just starting.

Free online Amateur Radio magazine from South Africa - Apr 2021

Radio ZS is the journal for the South African Radio League and the April 2021 edition is now available online and free to download.

Link HERE

The PDF publication is 72 pages long and there is a lot there that would be of interest to the wider amateur radio community.

Sporadic-E on 28 MHz - 3rd May 2021

 

Monday 3rd May 2021: Just another typical Sporadic-E day for the start of May with 234 stations from Europe heard on FT8 on the 28 MHz band.

The pattern has been much the same for the last two weeks. It starts off with FT8 stations appearing on the screen that were buried in the noise and I couldn't hear. 

Eventually the FT8 signals get stronger and I can actually hear plenty of them. I do a scan of the beacon band from 28.150 to 28.300 MHz and I hear nothing.

At some stage, the FT8 signals get stronger and I can see the S-meter moving up to S5 and above. When I do a scan at that stage, I might hear a weak CW beacon. I'll try WSPR and hear nothing. Once I go back to the FT8 frequency, it's full of signals.

Traditionally, CW beacons were used to show that a band was open and stations would call then on SSB or CW. They seem to have a lot less relevance now.

I heard just one beacon on the 3rd of May.

EI7GL 28237.4 LA5TEN/B 18:41 03 May IO51TU<ES>JO59JP Norway

S55ZMS 8m beacon heard in Ireland - 2nd May 2021

A few days ago, I had a post up about the new S55ZMS 8-metre beacon in Slovenia on 40.670 MHz and how it was on-air now from its new location on the 30th of April 2021. Post HERE

Just two days later on the 2nd of May, Tim EI4GNB near Dublin reports hearing it.

The signal was down at -9dB and buried in the noise but it still made it through. The distance was around 1745 kms which is pretty normal for one-hop Sporadic-E.

S51FB in Slovenia also reports hearing it on the 1st of May but that would have been via tropo.

S51FB 40670 S55ZMS 08:31 01 May 21 beacon Slovenia

If you hear this or any of the other 40 MHz beacons then be sure to spot it via the DXMaps website.

For a list of beacons on the 8-metre band then check out my 40 MHz page.

Modest opening to Europe on 28 MHz - 2nd May 2021

Sunday 2nd May 2021: This was a reasonably modest day on the 28 MHz band with 198 stations in 37 countries heard on FT8. The map above shows what I heard. It's interesting just how the Sporadic-E footprints can be pretty small and clusters of signals from a certain region make it through. 

Notice the batch of signals from Sardinia and yet there was hardly anything from France for most of the day.

I did a few scans of the beacon band and I heard two...
EI7GL 28243.0 F5ZWE/B 15:49 02 May IO51TU<ES>JN02TW France
EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY 12:07 02 May PI4 -14 dB Q=74 1393 km <es> Denmark

As you can see from the second spot, I was messing about with the PI4 software to decode the signals from the Danish beacon.

I tried listening on WSPR for a while but it was useless. On 28 MHz, WSPR is fine if the band is open to say the UK, Netherlands and Germany because there are a lot of stations there sending out WSPR transmissions. There is a major lack of active WSPR stations on 10m in France, Spain and Portugal which means the mode is of little use for propagation tests in certain directions.

Opening to South America on 28 MHz - 1st May 2021

Saturday 1st May 2021: In contrast to the previous day, the 28 MHz band was pretty poor with just a weak Sporadic-E opening to the northern parts of Spain and Portugal.

The only unusual signals were those from South America. While it has been very common to hear the south of Brazil, it's unusual to hear stations from Venezuela, Ecuador and Costa Rica.

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PT9IR 10m FT8 9200 km 18:29:00
HC2AO 10m FT8 8949 km 20:45:59
TI5LEV 10m FT8 8174 km 21:58:59
PV8AJ 10m FT8 7268 km 21:26:59
YV5JAU 10m FT8 6965 km 20:51:44

Just 30 stations on FT8 in 15 countries were heard.

Free online SARC amateur radio magazine from Western Canada - May/June 2021 Issue

 

Surrey Amateur Radio have just released the May-June 2021 issue of the Communicator, their bi-monthly online journal.

It has 110 pages and there is plenty in it of interest. You can get the link from this blog post.

Big Sporadic-E opening on 28 MHz - 30th Apr 2021

Friday 30th April 2021: This was the first real big Sporadic-E opening on the 28 MHz band for 2021 with a total of 403 stations in 39 countries heard on FT8.

Just 4 of those were outside the normal Sporadic-E range and were probably via F2 propagation. 

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
PU9OJZ 10m FT8 8787 km 20:24:59 Brazil
5Z4VJ 10m FT8 7260 km 14:16:44 Kenya
A45XR 10m FT8 6428 km 11:32:44 Oman
A92AA 10m FT8 5644 km 12:24:59 Bahrain

The European stations heard via Sporadic-E are shown in the map below...

As can be seen, it was a very widespread opening. Unlike some of the previous openings in April, some of the signals were very strong as well. At one stage when I checked, the S-meter on the radio was up at 9+10dB for some of the signals.

The band also seemed to be open for most of the day. The first signal I heard was at 08:40 UTC and the last one was EA1IF at 23:52 UTC.

I did a few scans of the band  and logged 7 beacons...

EI7GL 28251.0 ED4YAK/B 20:15 30 Apr IO51TU<ES>IN80FK Spain

EI7GL 28243.0 F5ZWE/B 20:13 30 Apr IO51TU<ES>JN03SL France

EI7GL 28237.4 LA5TEN/B 20:08 30 Apr IO51TU<ES>JO59JP Norway

EI7GL 28241.6 F5ZUU/B 14:43 30 Apr IO51TU<ES>JN24IL France

EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 13:15 30 Apr IO51TU<ES>JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany

EI7GL 28273.0 DB0BER/B 09:43 30 Apr IO51TU<ES>JO62QL Fed. Rep. of Germany

EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 09:27 30 Apr IO51TU<ES>JO55WM Denmark

EI7GL 28298.0 SK7GH/B 09:26 30 Apr IO51TU<ES>JO77BF Sweden

I did notice more than once that the FT8 frequency might be busy with signals coming in from several countries and yet when I would scan the beacons, I might hear just one on its own.

I can't help wondering if plain old fashioned CW beacons play a useful role on the HF bands anymore?

New 8m beacon from Slovenia on 40.670 MHz

Update - 30th Apr 2021: The S55ZMS beacon has now been moved to its final destination and is on air with a full 7 watts to a Halo antenna.

Frequency: 40.670 MHz 

Call: S55ZMS 

Locator:JN86CR 

QTH: Dolina 

Height ASL: 320m 

Antenna: Halo 

Polarization: Horizontal

Pwr: 7.00 W 

Modes: PI4 + CW 

Beacon Ops: S53M & S51FB

Status: Active

Beacon website: https://slovhf.net/svetilniki/

Updated: 30.04.2021

Antenna is about 3m above metal roof, abt 7m above ground.

Update - 16th Feb 2021: The S55ZMS beacon is currently under test. The power output is 4-watts into a multi-band dipole. The plan is to eventually increase this to 10 watts and to move the beacon to the S53M contest location which is situated on top of a hill. A proper 40-MHz dipole is planned for the site but its exact location on the site and its orientation hasn't been finalised.

* * *

More good news for the new 8-metre amateur radio band! A new beacon in Slovenia is now operational on 40.670 MHz.

The callsign of the beacon is S55ZMS and it has an output power of 7 watts into a dipole. The transmissions are in both CW and on PI4, a digital mode designed for beacons.

The beacon is located near Bakovci in the far eastern part of Slovenia near the border with Hungary and its locator is JN86BO.

The licensing authorities first gave permission for 8m beacons in Slovenia back in June of 1998 but not  much happened at the time. This new beacon in the 40 MHz ISM band (Industrial, Scientific & Medical) is now the third operational 8m beacon in Europe joining OZ7IGY in Denmark and EI1KNH in Ireland.

The map above shows the location of the 8m beacon in Slovenia and the distances from it. It's very likely that it will be heard around Europe during the Summer months by Sporadic-E propagation. The range is likely to be in the region of 800 to 2100 kms.

The fact that the new beacon from Slovenia is also further south than the beacons in Ireland and Denmark is also significant. As we move further into solar cycle 25 and the flux rises, there will be times when 40 MHz signals will be heard much further away in places like North & South America, Africa and Asia.

It's also highly likely that the 40 MHz signal from Slovenia will be heard in South Africa through a combination of Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP) and Sporadic-E (Sp-E).

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

S50B in Slovenia looking for South African stations on 40 MHz

Borut, S50B in Slovenia informs me in an email message that he now has a 4-element Yagi (YU7EF design) for the 40 MHz (8m) band.

During Sporadic-E openings in the Summer, S50B should have a good signal in the region of 1000 to 2200 kms around Europe. As the map shows, Borut should have a very good signal into the UK and Ireland.

S50B is especially interested in trying to make contact with stations in South Africa on the new 40 MHz band. He can be contacted via his QRZ page.

The South African ZS6WAB beacon on 40.475 MHz has already been heard by several stations in the south of Europe. See previous post.

As the map shows, the ZS6WAB is about 4000kms from the Geomagnetic Equator. Slovenia (S5) or Croatia (9A) seems to be around the same distance to the North so TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) contacts should be possible.

40 MHz is also a band where there are even more Sporadic-E openings than 50 MHz (6m) so multi-hop Sp-E is also a possibility.

It's only a matter of time before we see the first contact between Europe and South Africa on the new 8-metre amateur band.

Link...
1) For more information on the new 8-metre band, visit my 40 MHz page

Weak opening to St Helena on 28 MHz - 29th Apr 2021

 

Thursday 29th April 2021: This was a reasonably quiet day with only 21 stations in 9 countries heard on FT8.

The main Sporadic-E opening was to the west of the Iberian peninsula with 11 stations heard from Spain and Portugal. Like the higher VHF bands, the Sporadic-E footprint on 28 MHz can often be quite localised with a certain area of a country being heard and nothing from the rest.

The only DX station was ZD7JC on St Helena Island in the South Atlantic. It's probably no accident that it lines up exactly with the Sporadic-E opening. 

It is probably likely that the signal from St Helena traveled to Spain/Portugal via either F2 or TEP propagation and from there to Ireland via Sp-E.

As we move into May, we can expect the big openings on 28 MHz and above to start.

W3LPL's forecast for upcoming Solar Cycle 25 - Apr 2021

Frank Donovan, W3LPL is one of the top contesters in the USA and is a key forecaster of upcoming conditions on the HF amateur radio bands.

In a recent forecast (April 2021), he made a forecast about how good upcoming Solar Cycle 25 would be based on the Solar Flux numbers at the end of December 2021. I have put together a graphic which shows this above. The starting point for April 2021 is a solar flux index of 77 which is roughly the average for the month.

W3LPL wrote... “If the SFI persists below 90 through December 2021, then propagation should improve gradually until a solar maximum weaker than Cycle 24’s arrives in 2024.

If the SFI persists above 110 through December 2021, then propagation should improve rapidly until a solar maximum similar to Cycle 24’s arrives in 2024.

“If the SFI persists above 125 through December 2021, then propagation is likely to improve more rapidly until a solar maximum stronger than Cycle 24’s arrives in 2024.”

(SFI = Solar Flux Index)

As with everything on the sun, there is always an amount of uncertainty in solar forecasts but it will be interesting to revisit this at the end of the year and see where we're at.

Link...
1) K7RA Solar Update - 23rd April 2021

Opening to South America on 28 MHz - 28th Apr 2021

 

Wednesday 28th April 2021: This was a reasonably modest day on the 28 MHz band with 71 stations in 21 countries heard on FT8.

There was some Sporadic-E propagation to Europe with EA7GPW in the south of Spain being the last station heard at 21:44 UTC. There was also a modest opening to South America.

I didn't get a chance to do any scans of the band as I was out for a long walk for most of the day. One of the advantages of FT8 is that you can check to see what propagation conditions were like on the band without actually being there.

The solar flux on the day was 79 which is not much above what it was at sunspot minimum.

700km+ D-STAR contact made on the 70cms UHF band across the Caribbean - Apr 2021

I came across details of this QSO recently which I thought was interesting. While long distance contacts in the region of 700kms on the 70cms UHF band are probably not that unusual in the Caribbean, this one was of interest as it was via D-STAR, a digital voice mode.

On the 18th of April 2021, Brett PJ2BR on Curacao completed a successful contact with Jose WP4KJJ on Puerto Rico on 432 MHz using D-STAR. See video below.

It's very easy to find videos or information about D-STAR being used for working through local digital repeaters or local contacts but it's unusual to see it being used for a long distance contact on the 70cms UHF band.

When you think you’ve done it all...Opening on 70cm to Puerto Rico. @WP4KJJ and I had a short DV/Dstar QSO on 70cm!! I am ecstatic! Distance 736Km, DV. Breaks the Covid lockdown routine 😁 One for the books. pic.twitter.com/iEVKESi2Re

— Brett Ruiz (@pj2br) April 17, 2021

Weak opening on 28 MHz - Tues 27th Apr 2021

Tuesday 27th April 2021: This was one of those days where the signals seem to be buried in the noise all day with the occasional one being heard.

Just two long distance FT8 reports were uploaded to the PSK Reporter website, LU9FVS in Argentina and ZD7JC on St Helena Island.

LU9FVS 10m FT8 10718 km 18:43:33
ZD7JC 10m FT8 7542 km 18:20:44

The main Sporadic-E opening to Europe was to the south of Spain. I did one scan of the beacon band when the signals appeared modest but heard nothing.

I really got the impression that FT8 signals need to be up around S5 before any CW beacons will be heard. Whatever people think about FT8, it's a great propagation tool.

A total of 45 stations in 13 countries were heard on FT8 and uploaded to the PSK Reporter website.

Upgrade to the Irish 70 MHz beacon EI4RF - Apr 2021

The Irish 4m beacon EI4RF has now been upgraded and is now transmitting on 70.013 MHz. It was previously operating on 70.130 MHz due to the limits of the older Irish 4m band. 

It is still located to the south of Dublin in the locator square IO63VE.

It is running 25-watts into a 3-element Yagi pointing east (90 degrees). The map above shows the beam heading with the -3dB (half power) headings as well.

EI4RF: 3-element Yagi for 70 MHz

The signal for the beacon comes from a GPS locked RFzero board and it uses the following format per minute: 3 x 15 second FT8 transmission and 1 x CW transmission.

Analysis: This new upgraded EI4RF beacon should prove to be a valuable propagation tool for the 70 MHz (4m) band especially as it is running 25-watts into a directional antenna with about 6dB (x4 time power) of gain. 

Anyone in England up to a distance of 500kms with a very modest station on 4m should be easily able to hear the beacon via tropo. Under enhanced tropo conditions, well equipped stations in the Netherlands at about 700-800kms might hear it.

As regards Sporadic-E, it should be very strong in the range of 1500 to 2200kms when the band is open... e.g. Poland, Baltic states, Croatia & Slovenia. During stronger openings when the MUF is higher, shorter distances down to 1000 kms may be possible... e.g. Germany.

Reception outside the -3dB points will be possible but obviously the further away from -3dB points you get, the weaker the signal.

EI4RF Site Profile: I have done up a site profile for the EI4RF site and it is shown below with the outline of the horizon.

I have included the 0 degree and 1 degree lines and I have coloured in the sea in light Blue to make it clearer.

As you can see, the beacon is on an elevated site and is looking down at the Irish Sea. Some of the mountains in the NW of Wales (90 deg) at a distance of 150kms or so are also visible. The plot clearly shows that there are no local obstructions between the -3dB points which is very good.

Outside of the main beam heading to the East, the path to the rest of Ireland is largely blocked by local hills and mountains. In the direction of Waterford (210 deg), the horizon has an elevation of about 3 degrees. In the direction of Cork (227 deg), the horizon rises to about 5 degrees. To the west, the horizon is over 7 degrees. It's highly unlikely that this beacon would be heard across the North Atlantic if there was ever some double hop Sporadic-E.

In conclusion: This beacon with its 25 watts should be easily heard in England via tropo and in eastern Europe via Sporadic-E. The inclusion of the FT8 digital mode is a welcome touch as it allows people to hear signals buried in the noise and there is already a lot of people using that mode. Any reception reports can be automatically uploaded to the PSK Reporter website to alert others of any opening.

Thanks to Tony, EI7BMB and Tim, EI4GNB who got this upgraded 4m beacon up and running.

* * * 

Other site developments: From Tim, EI4GNB...

EI0SIX had a mild tune-up, as one of the pair of antennas had gone a bit droopy, now the SWR and bandwidth are excellent. It remains 40w to a pair of loops phased.

EI1KNH on 8m has had it's monopole antenna moved to the top of the 4m mast, away from the FDP for 5m, and now has a much healthier looking lot on my VNA. No more interaction with 5m. It's happy on 40w from the NXP PA.

EI1KNH on 5m now runs FT8 for 3 periods of 15 seconds, then runs a slow CW ID and a long carrier - previously it had been looping FT8 every 15 seconds. It's PSU was toast, and was causing hash all over HF to the remote stn there, so it's temp on the same PSU as EI0SIX. No change to the chain, 25w to a folded dipole.