Explosion from Tonga volcano detected in Ireland (Non Radio Post)

This is an interesting scientific observation and I thought it might be nice to keep a record of it. I tried to work a radio angle into this post but I failed! 😂 

At 04:10 UTC on the 15th of January 2022, a huge underwater volcano near Tonga in the Pacific exploded and sent a shock wave around the world. It was so big that the sound was heard as a rumble 9000kms away in Alaska.

The video clip above shows the explosion and you can see the shock wave being sent outwards.

What I find really amazing is that this pressure wave was detected at the other side of the planet in Europe.

Cormac, EI4HQ and Alan, EI3EBB both have their own weather stations and are located near the city of Cork on the south coast of Ireland.

At roughly 18:44 to 18:50 UTC, both Cormac and Alan detected the change in pressure on their weather stations.

EI4HQ in Cobh...

When I made the above image, I wasn't sure if it was the Tonga event or not. It later turned out that it was.

EI3EBB in Watergrasshill observed the same spike..

You'll notice that there is also a drop in pressure as the pressure wave passes.

Due to the shortcomings and distortion on the Mercator flat map, the pressure waves from Tonga actually came from the north-west and not from the south-west as the map might suggest.

It was interesting to see that the pressure wave arrived in Cork about 15 minutes or so before it reached weather stations in Essex and Suffolk in the south-east of England.

Short Path & Long Path... Just like in radio, there are two paths for a signal to travel on a globe. The short path is shown above and the long path as shown below.

And sure enough just before 02:00 UTC, the long path pressure wave arrived in Cork. 

The distance for the long path signal was in the region of 24,000 kms.

It's amazing to think that a volcano in the Pacific could cause a change in air pressure at the other side of the planet.

Questions... Like any unusual event, it often raises more questions...

Q. Could the sudden change in air pressure cause a rain shower somewhere in Europe? Was the change enough?

Addendum... This is a more detailed chart from EI4HQ showing the air pressure changes...

Custom made beacons for the 28 MHz band from AA7DJ

 

I recently came across this beacon for the 28 MHz band and it thought it might be of interest to others.

While most beacons are built from modified CB radios or home built from parts, there is an option to buy a 'ready to go' beacon from Vlad, AA7DJ in the USA. The beacon is shown above and it runs with an output power of 10 watts on the 28 MHz band although this can be reduced.

The frequency and callsign are given to AA7DJ and he then builds the beacon. Upon arrival, all a station needs to be do is to supply power to the unit and plug in an antenna.

The interior of the beacon is shown above with the frequency synthesizer inside the metal cage on the left and the power amplifier stage with low pass filter on the right.

On his QRZ page, AA7DJ writes..."The synthesizer board has PLL chip, VCO, crystal reference and microcontroller. The last one produces frequency code for PLL. Also it generates CW message and keying sequence for the amplifier board. "

Frequency stability is claimed to be about 10-50 PPM as determined by used crystal. 

The spectrum output with the level of harmonics is shown above. If additional suppression is required then another low pass filter could be added.

Permits... From my understanding, a special license is required to operate a beacon on the 28 MHz band in most parts of the world. In the USA however, the FCC allows radio amateurs to operate beacons on 28 MHz and the VHF bands.

This is specifically for the purpose of ...'observation of propagation or other related experimental activities'. The power limit of 100 watts by the FCC is quite generous in this regards.

In conclusion... While many may want to build their own beacon, there are others who will just want to order a ready built unit and put it on the air.

There is a small but active group of 28 MHz beacon enthusiasts in the USA and many speak highly of this unit built by Vlad, AA7DJ. I don't know how much a unit costs but several have mentioned that it is reasonable.

If anyone is interested in buying a unit then they should contact AA7DJ via his QRZ page.

Addendum - 2nd March 2023: AA7DJ has been in contact to say that he also does designs of 10 W beacons for 28, 40, 50, 144, 222, 432 MHz. Also 8 W for 903 MHz, 7 W for 1296 MHz and 4 W for 2304 MHz.

Update on the prediction for Solar Cycle 25

In a blog post in April 2021, I outlined how Frank Donovan, W3LPL who is one of the top contesters in the USA had made a prediction for the upcoming sunspot cycle 25.

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 we have now passed December 2021, it's time to look back at the prediction. 

As can be seen from the chart above, the average solar flux for the month of December was 103. This is closest to the the middle prediction which is that solar cycle 25 will be roughly the same as the previous cycle which peaked in 2014. 

This is also very much in line with the main scientific predictions from the like .

Cycle 25 progression... This is the latest chart which shows how the solar flux is progressing against the actual prediction from NASA...

As you can see, it's ahead of schedule at the end of 2021. The big question though is will it stay like this?

Some will claim that a rapid early rise is a sign of a larger than usual solar cycle. Unless I hear something credible, I would suspect we're heading for a subdued peak like 24.

Cycle 25 is going to be good... Sometimes when these predictions about sunspot cycles come out and people speak about them being low, I think some beginners may get the impression that things on the HF bands will be terrible. The answer is that they won't. There will be loads of DX on all the HF bands up to and including 28 MHz.

What it will mean however is that the MUF (maximum usable frequency) may not get up to the 50 MHz bands, especially on East-West paths. If this isn't a priority for you then things on the HF bands will be fine.

Always remember that that predictions are just that... predictions. We'll all have to wait and see how things pan out in reality.

Opening on the 40 MHz band from Michigan to Georgia & Florida - 11th Jan 2022

11th January 2022: In an earlier post, I explained how the first contact between two of the new experimental 40 MHz stations in the USA took place on the 9th of January 2022.

Roughly 48 hours later, the band opened up again with much better conditions.

It starts on the 10th of January with N2OTO in Florida reporting reception of the 40 MHz FT8 signal from WM2XAN in Michigan, a distance of roughly 2040kms. The time was 21:15 UTC which would have been 4:15 PM in the afternoon in Florida.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
WM2XAN N2OTO 8m FT8 2039 km 21:15:00

Later in the evening, there was an opening after 11pm local time between WM2XEJ in Georgia and WM3XAN in Michigan. This was around 04:15 UTC on the 11th of January.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)

WM2XEJ WM2XAN 8m FT4 1226 km 04:14:58

The two experimental stations then proceeded to complete contacts on FT8, Q64A, FST4, FT4 and SSB over a 20 minute period on 40.662 MHz.

Ken Miller WM2XAN in Michigan gives the following report on his Facebook account... "At about 03:45 conditions between WM2XAN and WM2XEJ began to develop.  First noticed on WSPR, we switched to FT8 and although there was a struggle at first to complete the QSO, it finally happened as conditions began to peak.  Then we began to switch through the modes and making contacts. 

04:02 completed QSO on FT8

04:05 completed QSO on Q64A

04:09 completed QSO on FST4-12s

04:15 completed QSO on FT4

04:22 completed QSO on SSB

 

This was a long lasting event, with big signals at the beginning and end of the session, with a relatively quick null in the propagation at the mid point of our QSO’s. "

Ken also reports using an ICOM IC-7300 for his 40 MHz experiments.

WSPR... There were also several WSPR reports and it looks like this is becoming the mode of choice for beacon experiments on the 40 MHz band in North America.

These are the stations that heard WM2XAN in Michigan...

Interesting to see VE1PYE was listening from Nova Scotia.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km

2022-01-10 21:44 WM2XAN EN74 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663894 0.5 -14 -4 2063

2022-01-10 21:52 WM2XAN EN74 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663895 0.5 -15 -4 2063

2022-01-10 22:08 WM2XAN EN74 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663894 0.5 -16 -4 2063

2022-01-10 22:14 WM2XAN EN74 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663894 0.5 -18 -4 2063

2022-01-11 01:20 WM2XAN EN74 K8HTL EN74oh 40.663499 100 -4 0 27

2022-01-11 02:56 WM2XAN EN74 VE1PYE FN84et 40.66347 100 -18 0 1690

2022-01-11 02:58 WM2XAN EN74 VE1PYE FN84et 40.663466 100 -17 0 1690

2022-01-11 06:20 WM2XAN EN74oh WM2XEJ EM83ji 40.663487 100 -22 -4 1226

Outside of K8HTL which is Ken's own amateur radio call, the rest of the signals are typical for one-hop Sporadic-E.

These are the stations that heard WM2XEJ in Georgia...

It's curious to see that there were three reports from KC5LT at 348 kms. Mode of propagation?? Tropo? aircraft scatter? Meteor scatter? It seems to be a bit too close of Sporadic-E. 

It's a bit like some of the signals in that range on the 28 MHz band, it can be hard to be sure exactly sure of the propagation mode unless you're sitting at the radio and you use other clues.

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid MHz W SNR drift km 

2022-01-11 03:28 WM2XEJ EM83 WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663458 10 -11 0 1214

2022-01-11 05:56 WM2XEJ EM83 WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663462 10 -25 1 1214

2022-01-11 06:04 WM2XEJ EM83 N2OTO EL96wi 40.663453 10 4 0 841

2022-01-11 06:04 WM2XEJ EM83 WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663462 10 -10 0 1214

2022-01-11 06:18 WM2XEJ EM83 WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663462 10 -11 0 1214

2022-01-11 06:22 WM2XEJ EM83ji WM2XAN EN74oh 40.663466 10 -6 -2 1226

2022-01-11 14:24 WM2XEJ EM83ji KC5LT EM86 40.663454 10 -21 -1 348

2022-01-11 15:00 WM2XEJ EM83ji KC5LT EM86 40.663453 100 -21 -3 348

2022-01-11 15:04 WM2XEJ EM83ji KC5LT EM86 40.663454 100 -21 1 348

While none of the above is ground breaking propagation wise, it is never the less a first for these experimental 40 MHz stations in the USA.

Link...

1) For more info on the 8m band, check out my 40 MHz page... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

2021 Report for the 40-MHz EI1KNH beacon

In this post, we'll look at the EI1KNH beacon in Ireland which transmits on 40.013 MHz and how many times it was spotted on the DX Cluster in 2021.

The map above shows the spots for 2021. A total of 21 stations reported the beacon the cluster which is down a little on the 26 in 2020. 

If we count just a maximum of one spot per station per day then there were 52 spots in 2021 compared to 77 in 2020.

Update - 11th Jan 2021: After posting this, I subsequently found out that the DXSummit cluster is missing a LOT of the dx spots for the 40 MHz band. I'll have to rework and update this post.

These are the top spotters of the EI1KNH 40 MHz beacon (again, based on counting just one spot maximum per person per day)

As the map shows above, most were in the region of 500 to 1700kms from the beacon which is a typical distance for Sporadic-E signals at 40 MHz during the Summer season.

The report for the year 2020 can be seen HERE

The EI1KNH 40 MHz beacon which is just to the south of Dublin first became operational in May of 2020.

DX Cluster... If you do hear the beacon then make sure to report it on dx-clusters like DXSummit or DXMaps as some of the other clusters ignore spots for 40 MHz as they assume they're a mistake.

More information about the EI1KNH beacon can be found here... https://www.qrz.com/db/EI1KNH/

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

Contact on the 40 MHz band in the USA between two experimental stations - 9th Jan 2022

 

9th January 2022: In the second half of 2021, a number of amateur radio stations in the USA applied for experimental permits for the 40 MHz band... see this previous post.

On the 9th of January at 04:15 UTC, WM2XEJ in Georgia managed to complete a two way FT8 contact with WM2XAN in Michigan on 40.662 MHz. (Note: Local time in the USA would have been late on the evening of the 8th)

The distance was around 1,230 kms and it's possible that the propagation mode was mid-Winter Sporadic-E. WM2XAN reports that it may have been due to Auroral-E. The K-index was at 5 late on the 8th of January which gives some credence to the Au-E theory.

While some of the US experimental stations have exchanged WSPR reports up to now, this is I think the first actual contact between two US experimental stations on the 40 MHz band.

The PSKReporter website shows that WM2XEJ was also heard locally by KS4OT in Georgia.

Once we get to late April and early May and the start of the Sporadic-E season, 40 MHz contacts and reports like this should become more common.

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

2021 Report for the 40-MHz OZ7IGY beacon

In this post, we'll look at the OZ7IGY beacon in Denmark which transmits on 40.071 MHz and how many times it was spotted on the DX Cluster in 2021.

Looking through the DX Summit DX-Cluster, I could only find 12 spots for the beacon on 40 MHz in 2021 and that was from just 9 stations. This is in marked contrast to the 146 spots from 16 stations in 2020.

(The 21M085 is I presume a CB station in Sweden who spotted it on the DX cluster. He was supposed to be 116km from the beacon so I made a rough assumption about his location.)

I was wondering initially if there was something wrong with the cluster as there seems to have been a large drop in DX spots in 2021.

There were no spots during the months of June, July or August which suggests to me that the beacon was off air during the Sporadic-E season. Considering I can see plenty of spots for the Irish 40 MHz beacons during the same time period, it would certainly suggest that the Danish 40 MHz was not transmitting.

The beacon itself was certainly off air while a fault in the PA stage was being repaired in September & October so perhaps it was operating with no RF output from late May 2021 until the end of August 2021??

Here are the top spotters for 2021...

# of spots for OZ7IGY/B on the DX Cluster

Curious Fact... As of the end of 2021, there are a total of about 500 spots for the OZ7IGY beacon since it first became operational on 40 MHz in 2007. Out of all of the spots, there isn't one from outside Europe. There are no double hop Sporadic-E reports. There must have been plenty of times when the 40 MHz signal was audible in North America and South Africa.

DX Cluster... If you do hear the beacon then make sure to report it on dx-clusters like DXSummit or DXMaps as some of the other clusters ignore spots for 40 MHz as they assume they're a mistake.

More information about the OZ7IGY beacon can be found here... http://www.oz7igy.dk/

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

Listening to the EI1KNH 40 MHz beacon during the 2022 Quadrantids meteor shower

The 2022 Quadrantid meteor shower was predicted to peak at 21:00 UTC on the 3rd of January and as an experiment, I wanted to see if I could detect the peak using the EI1KNH beacon on the 40 MHz band.

First, let me set out what I did. The EI1KNH beacon transmits on 40.013 MHz using both CW and the PI4 digital mode. It is 213 kms from my location and is is badly screened by mountains to the south-west of the beacon site.

Using just a 28 MHz vertical antenna, I listened for two 18-hour periods for two days i.e. 18:00 UTC on the 3rd of January to 12:00 UTC on the 4th of January AND from 18:00 UTC on the 4th of January to 12:00 UTC on the 5th of January. For both 18 hour sessions, I monitored the frequency for PI4 signals.

Some of the decodes are shown above so I had some success. This is the distribution of decodes...

The chart with the Blue bars shows the number of decodes on the 3rd & 4th of January and I had 22 decodes in total. There seems to be a peak in the number of PI4 decodes from 02:00 UTC to 08:00 UTC on the morning of the 4th of January.

During the 18 hour period on the 4th & 5th of January, I had just 8 decodes.

Was the experiment a success??? Well... maybe. I came to following conclusions...

1) To do the experiment properly, I should probably have monitored over several days. Maybe something like 2 days before the peak and 2 days after.

2) I don't think PI4 is the best mode for meteor scatter. The PI4 transmission is about 20 seconds in length and many of the bursts heard were quite short. I'm not sure how much of the signal I would need to hear for a valid decode but I suspect I was only getting the really big meteor scatter bursts. As can be seen from the chart, the 'peak' is hardly outstanding. 

3) With the distance around 210kms, I think I'm a bit too close. If I was further away... say 500-1000kms then I think the meteor scatter bursts on 40 MHz would be much better. As I'm only 210 kms, I am also getting some aircraft reflections and I'm not 100% all of the signals heard were actually meteor scatter. The longer distance would also rule out any tropo.

In conclusion: The attraction of PI4 for me was that I could just leave the radio on a frequency and count the number of decodes afterwards. It was a worthwhile experiment but I get the feeling that I was only seeing the 'peak' with a very low resolution. 

I'll probably try some experiments again for a future meteor shower but I'll use a different signal and mode.

1850km opening on 1296 MHz between Spain & Greece - 2nd Jan 2022

It was interesting to see that a contact on 1296 MHz was made between EA5TT in Spain and SV8CS in Greece on the 2nd of January 2022. The distance was around 1850kms.

While this is well short of the 2714km IARU Region 1 record between Ireland and the Canary Islands set back in July 2020, it is still an impressive distance for the 23cms microwave band.

Manolo, EA5TT reports working SV8CS on 1296.174 MHz on FT8 after working him on 144 MHz and 432 MHz earlier. EA5TT was using just 10 watts with a 35-element Yagi antenna.

As for the mode of propagation, it looks like it was a tropo duct over the Mediterranean Sea. This is the tropo forecast from Pascal, F5LEN...

I'm not sure what the record is for tropo in the Mediterranean but it looks like there is a 3300km sea path between the SW of Spain and Israel. Is it possible on 23cms?

German beacons heard on 28 MHz in 2021

During the 2021, I did many scans of the 28 MHz beacon band from about 28.160 to 28.340 MHz. This post is about the number of days that I heard one of the 10m beacons in Germany.

The map above shows the distribution of 28 MHz beacons in Germany. Note that the DB0MFI and DM0AAB beacons were off air in 2021.

The chart below shows the number of days in 2021 that I heard a German beacon on 28 MHz...

I should point out that I did a lot fewer scans that previous years. However, you can still see the beacons that were the easiest to hear.

1) DL0IGI with its 50 watts into a vertical antenna was heard on 14 days and is easily the most consistent German beacon here in Ireland.

2) DK0TEN (10w GP) and DB0TEN (2w GP) were at 9 and 10 days respectively. Every year, these two seem to have almost the same number of recordings. (Note - GP is a ground plane vertical antenna)

3) DB0BER (5w) was heard on 9 days. For whatever reason, it did seem to be a bit easier to hear in 2021.

4) DL0UM has 4 watts into a vertical dipole and was heard on 7 days.

5) DB0FKS was heard on just 1 day but this can be easily explained due to the fact it has just 1-watt into a small DV-27 vertical antenna (i.e. a loaded mobile whip).

In terms of distance, the German beacons are about 1,200 to 1,500 kms from my location in Ireland.

In previous years, I had recorded the number of times I heard the German beacons on 28 MHz

2019 post HERE

2020 post HERE

The reports don't really seem to show any advantage propagation wise if the beacon is in the north or south of Germany or if it's slightly closer or slightly further away. The key difference between beacons from my perspective is the power and antenna of each one.

German 28 MHz beacons... These are the current ones as of the end of 2021

28.205 MHz - DL0IGI - JN57MT - 50w Vert
28.210 MHz - DB0FKS - JN49IT - 1w DV27 GP
28.245 MHz - DB0TEN - JO42UV - 2w GP
28.257 MHz - DK0TEN - JN47NT - 10w GP
28.265 MHz - DB0ANN - JN59PL - 5w Dipole (Used to be DF0ANN)
28.273 MHz - DB0BER - JO62QL - 5w
28.278 MHz - DM0AAB - JO54GH - 10w GP (Off Air - Last spot on DX-Cluster Sept 2020)
28.279 MHz - DB0UM - JO73CE - 4w Vert Dipole
28.285 MHz - DB0MFI - JN58HW - 9w GP (Off Air - Last spot on DX-Cluster Sept 2019)

Methodology notes...
1) The equipment used for reception was a Kenwood TS690 transceiver with a vertical half-wave antenna. The take off to the east towards Germany is good with no obstructions.
2) All beacons must be positively identified before I post them on DXMaps which in turn puts them on the DX Cluster.
3) The mode of propagation for all signals heard was Sporadic-E.

Pageviews for the EI7GL blog up 33% in 2021

As we start a new year, I had a look back at the stats for the blog for 2021. As can be seen from the chart above, the number of pageviews per month to the site reached about 23,500 which is up 33% on the year 2020.

Regular readers of the blog will know that I usually write about the 28 MHz and above. Sometimes I go 'off-topic' if I see something else of interest 😂 but the blog is generally about the VHF bands. 

In that sense, it's nice to see that a lot of people are interested in what is happening above 30 MHz and radio is not all about the HF bands.

International... Even though the blog is now one of the biggest amateur radio sites in Ireland, the vast majority of traffic comes from all over the world. Looking through the stats, most of the traffic is from the USA, Canada, the UK, western Europe, Brazil & Argentina, South Africa, Australia & Japan.

Traffic from Ireland comes in at #6 on the list of countries.

Adsense & Donations... First off, a big thank you to all of you who supported the blog with donations and 'virtual coffees' in 2021. That and the small amount of income from the Adsense adverts gradually builds up over time.

The blog isn't a business and I'm not looking at it as a source of income. The way I look at it is if I really want something like say a new radio then I should buy that myself. The funds generated by the blog should go to other uses.

These are two examples...

1) As the largest Irish amateur radio blog, I'd like the funds to support amateur radio in Ireland in some way. The way I do this is to donate towards the Southern Ireland Repeater Network. Even though I'm not a big user of it, a lot of EI stations are and it generates a lot of inter EI activity.

2) DX-Maps... This website run by EA6VQ is great for those interested in propagation on the 28 MHz and VHF bands. It's free to use but I have an annual membership to support the site.

In 2022, I'd like to expand this a bit and put the limited funds to more use.

Virtual Coffees... 

If you're a regular visitor to this blog and you'd like to support it then consider buying a 'virtual coffee'.

 Link HERE

2022: Planning ahead... One of my main interests with the blog is to make a record of what I think are extraordinary or unusual openings on the VHF bands. 

There is plenty of information and reports on DX-Clusters, Twitter, Facebook and sites like PSK Reporter but it's a bit like writing down something on a post it note. i.e. One good gust of wind and the note is gone.

Social media sites are a bit like that. They're fine for the here and now but pretty useless for anything long term.

I try to collect as much information as possible so that there is some sort of record of what happened.

To make the reports easier to find on the blog, I put up links to them to the dedicated pages that I have.

Example... 28 MHz ... 40 MHz ... 50 MHz ... 144 MHz

That's something I'd like to do more of but do a better job of it for bands like 70 MHz, 432 MHz and so on. I might also wander a bit and post about some other items as well but I know it will be about things that interest me rather than what gets the most hits.

Social Media: At the end of 2021, my social media feeds had the following number of followers...

Twitter: I hit 800 followers at the end of 2021!

Facebook: My EI7GL - Amateur Radio page had 343 followers at the end of the year.

Instagram: My EI7GL account has 210 followers there. The only reason I have an account here is to explore how Instagram can be used to promote amateur radio.

If you want to follow me then just look for EI7GL on each of those platforms.

12,000km opening between Australia & California - 27th Dec 2021

Monday 27th December 2021: It was interesting to see that there was a recent opening on the 50 MHz band between the SE of Australia and southern California. Unlike openings from Australia to South America, this one crossed the equator and went to North America.

There is a very active group in Australia & New Zealand using the WSPR beacon mode and on the 27th of December, VK2IJM and VK2EFM in New South Wales heard N3IZN in California.

 UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid                         MHz         W SNR drift km 
2021-12-27 01:16 N3IZN DM13ji VK2IJM QF56ni 50.294549 100 -24 0 12115 
2021-12-27 00:52 N3IZN DM13ji VK2EFM QF56oq 50.294554 100 -18 0 12091 

The distance was just over 12,000kms.

Propagation Mode?? The first most obvious answer is that it was multi-hop Sporadic-E but I suspect the reality is more complex that that. The signal path crosses the TEP zone around the equator so that may have had some impact. The solar flux is up around 120 and the MUF is now above 30 MHz most days. Is it reaching 50 MHz near the equatorial region?

Western Australia to Europe?? The example above was just over 12,000kms, that is the same distance from the west coast of Australia to the south-east of Europe. Are there openings between Europe and Australia on 50 MHz at the moment?

2900km+ opening on 144 MHz across the south of Australia - Dec 2021

The southern hemisphere is currently in the middle of their summer and there is plenty of activity  on the 144 MHZ band with lots of stations testing out propagation paths with the WSPR beacon mode.

In the last few days, signals in the region of  2930kms have been heard across the south of Australia on 144 MHz. 

The map above shows the stations that VK6JR has heard.

Stations heard by VK6JR (2000kms+)

 UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid                                 MHz W SNR drift     km
2021-12-25 19:28 VK2KRR QF34mr VK6JR OF76mi 144.490461 20 -17 0 2927
2021-12-29 20:34 VK7DC QE28ww VK6JR OF76mi 144.490484 10 -25 -1 2831
2021-12-29 14:38 VK3OE QF22qc VK6JR OF76mi 144.490395 20 -14 0 2765
2021-12-29 14:48 VK3DXE QF21nv VK6JR OF76mi 144.490395 20 -29 0 2743
2021-12-27 17:22 VK3ZAZ QF12ag VK6JR OF76mi 144.490448 100 -24 0 2471
2021-12-29 20:26 VK3HJV QF01tp VK6JR OF76mi 144.490408 20 -18 -4 2439
2021-12-04 22:22 VK5AKK PF94ix VK6JR OF76mi 144.490504 50 -22 0 2173

Stations hearing VK6JR (2000kms+)

UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid RX rxGrid                                 MHz W SNR drift km
2021-12-25 19:26 VK6JR OF76mi VK2KRR QF34mr 144.490577 10 -19 1 2927
2021-12-29 21:08 VK6JR OF76mi VK7CMV QE29od 144.490482 10 -26 0 2772
2021-12-29 20:44 VK6JR OF76mi VK3DXE QF21nv 144.490422 10 -22 0 2743
2021-12-27 18:22 VK6JR OF76mi VK3ZAZ QF12ag 144.490491 10 -29 0 2471
2021-12-29 18:22 VK6JR OF76mi VK3HJV QF01tp 144.490595 10 -27 1 2439
2021-12-23 22:38 VK6JR OF76mi VK5AKK PF94ix 144.490486 10 -28 3 2173

Propagation Mode: It's likely that marine ducting across the Great Australian Bight played a large part in these openings which were just under 3000kms. Considering it's in the middle of the southern hemisphere Sporadic-E season, that mode could have played a partial role as well for some signals.

Links...

1) For more examples of long distance paths, see my 144 MHz page.

Long path echoes on the 24 MHz band (VO1FOG) - Dec 2021

Larry, VO1FOG in Newfoundland, Canada has noticed a number of strong echoes on SSB signals on the higher HF bands recently and he has been able to confirm that this was due to long path echoes.

There is a nice audio sample below but first, let's set out what is happening.

The map above shows the location of VO1FOG in Newfoundland and VA2AM is 1560kms to the west near Montreal.

VA2AM is on 24.937 MHz and is beaming towards Europe. VO1FOG in Newfoundland is beaming east as well, listening to him for over an hour and the signal has a distinctive echo. The direct short path signal at 1500kms is below the F2 MUF for 24 MHz and is present but weak.

VO1FOG finally manages to catch the attention of VA2AM and VA2AM turns his antenna to the west to check the long path.

FINALLY! I can confirm that these #radioechoes that I have been hearing for the past several days is a TRUE long path/short path echo. Notice how strong VA2AM becomes when he turns LP.. His SP distance is 1500km vs LP distance of 38500km! Delay time is around 135ms. #12m #24mHz pic.twitter.com/VbVZx1XU2d

— VO1FOG (@VO1FOG) December 27, 2021

The signal with the echo is when VO1FOG is hearing both the short path and long path signals. You'll notice that when VA2AM turns his beam, the long path signal is much stronger and the echo disappears.

As VO1FOG points out, the long path signal has to travel almost right around the globe with a distance of about 38,500kms.

Analysis... The solar flux is currently around the 120-130 mark and the higher HF bands are now beginning to open. It's likely that a large part of the long path was probably due to chordal hop propagation with the signal going between different parts of the ionosphere and not touching the ground.

It's also worth pointing out that as far as I know, both VO1FOG and VA2AM are using directional beams up on towers and as such, both would have a low angle of radiation. These type of signals may not be so obvious on simple antennas like dipoles at a low height.

Questions... As is often the case, this example of long path echoes raises more questions..

1) Is this happening on the 28 MHz band at the moment? Is anyone hearing strange echoes?

2) What about FT8 signals? Does the echo destroy their ability to decode? With FT8 signals, it's all or nothing. It either decodes or it doesn't. With CW or SSB, the human brain can piece together what was being sent but what happens with a digital mode? Will the long path echo mess up the signal?

3) Is the 'long path' really a simple long path? For example, let's say someone with a transmitter sent a series of pulses like say a train of CW pulses with maybe a second or two in between each one.

The receiving station could then look at the received audio with an oscilloscope. In theory, the scope would trigger on the first short path signal and the long path signal would be seen as an individual peak in between the short path peaks.

But would it? Would there be more than one 'long path' peak? Would there be a chance of seeing secondary peaks if the signal went twice around the world? How would the peaks change as the antenna is turned?

The beauty of an oscilloscope it that it would show things that you can't hear and it would also show the delay of the signal in milliseconds allowing you to calculate the distance traveled. 

Wouldn't it be nice if there were CW beacons like this to allow people to carry out experiments?

There are probably many more questions and experiments but these are the ones that I thought of while I was listening to the recordings.

***

Here are a few more examples from Larry, VO1FOG...

Irish regulator ComReg indicates approval for a novice amateur radio licence

In September of 2021, the Irish regulator COMREG issued a document titled... "Proposed Strategy for Managing the Radio Spectrum 2022 to 2024" - Link HERE

In response to this document, COMREG received 26 submissions about the part related to amateur radio.

• 10 responses were received from individual radio amateurs; and

• 16 responses were received from clubs, organisations, groups or societies

Out of that 16, a large part were from essentially the same small organisation so it's more like 10 radio radio amateurs and roughly 10 organisations/clubs.

Some of the submissions were in relation to higher power limits. Another however was for COMREG to consider introducing a new novice amateur radio licence.

Graphic from the original ComReg document

In response, ComReg wrote...

"ComReg’s assessment on novice licences

4.61 Taking into account the support expressed for entry-level or novice-licensing and

the strong justifications given above, ComReg will seek, in the timeline of this

strategy statement and subject to resources, to put in place a framework for

novice licensing in Ireland.

4.62 It is envisaged that to achieve this, ComReg will need to:

▪ Consult on its proposals;

▪ Make new Regulations, with the consent of the DECC Minister under

Section 6 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act ,1926, as amended; and

▪ tender for an external party to run any examination that may be required.

At this time ComReg would consider if that examination is best offered

online and, as a consequence, can be taken at any time."

The document with a summary of the proposals and the response from ComReg can be seen HERE

I was curious about what type of novice amateur radio licences were in other countries and I found this document on the DARC website (national society for radio amateurs in Germany). You can download it from HERE

There seems  to be quite a variation in what it allowed. Some countries have a novice licence which allows extensive use of the HF and VHF bands and is little different from a full licence, some are VHF only and some allow limited access to the HF bands.

We'll have to wait and see what ComReg come up with but it has to be generous enough that it gets people interested but not undermine the existing full amateur radio licence.

One of the submissions justified the novice licence by means of STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths:

• such an action would align with the national policy for Ireland to be a leader in nurturing, developing and deploying STEM talent and the availability of a novice licence would enable the amateur radio service to act in the national interest;

It's not hard to imaging this being a good fit with say an allocation on the VHF bands and making use of the array of cubesats now in orbit. Novices could gain experience in how satellites orbit, what doppler shift is and how to make contacts through them.

If the novice licence includes an allocation on bands like 20m then I suspect it that a lot of the new callsigns will just end up on modes like FT8 and learn very little nothing in the process. It'll be just an amateur radio licence by another route.

My opinion... I'm pretty neutral about the whole novice licence and am just interested in seeing how it develops. I do hope though that ComReg look at a licence which might attract those with an interest in science and technology and not just those who want to go chase DX on the HF bands.

2500km+ opening on 144 MHz between Australia & New Zealand - 23rd Dec 2021

23rd December 2021: At the moment, stations in the southern hemisphere are in the middle of their Sporadic-E season and at times, there are openings as high as the 144 MHz band.

The above is an example of what looks like a mixed propagation mode opening between New Zealand and the south-east corner of Australia.

ZL1SIZ in the far north of New Zealand was sending out WSPR signals on 144 MHz and these were received by four Australian stations with distances in the range of 2451 to 2575kms.

 UTC (y-m-d) TX txGrid         RX         rxGrid MHz W SNR     drift km
2021-12-23 08:42 ZL1SIX RF64vt VK7DC QE28ww 144.490562 10 -23 0 2516
2021-12-23 08:54 ZL1SIX RF64vt VK3MHY QF22ma 144.490555 10 -21 -1 2575
2021-12-23 08:54 ZL1SIX RF64vt VK3KZM QF21os 144.490543 10 -17 0 2560
2021-12-23 09:00 ZL1SIX RF64vt VK3ALZ QF31fs 144.490554 10 -18 0 2451
2021-12-23 09:00 ZL1SIX RF64vt VK3MHY QF22ma 144.49056 10 -27 0 2575
2021-12-23 09:00 ZL1SIX RF64vt VK3KZM QF21os 144.490544 10 -23 1 2560

How do we know it was likely to have been Sporadic-E? All of the reception spots are shown above and they are all from a small time window with just six minutes for the stations in Victoria. If it was 100% tropo ducting then we might expect to see more reports over a much longer time period.

How do we know it was likely to be due to mixed propagation mode? Simply because the distance is further than what is possible with one Sporadic-E hop... i.e. about  2300kms.

The tropo prediction map from F5LEN suggests that conditions were reasonable over the ocean at the New Zealand end.

ZL to VK6 on 144 MHz??? While the opening or distance described above isn't that exceptional, it does give a hint at what might be possible at some stage. 

A few days ago, I had a post up about about a 2700km opening from Western Australia to New South Wales. Now the example above shows an opening from Victoria to New Zealand.

Is a 5000km opening on 144 MHz between New Zealand and the west of Australia possible??? 

There are often tropo ducts in the Great Australian Bight to the south of Australia and in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. Could some exceptional Sporadic-E opening coincide with a large tropo duct?

Best mode??? WSPR with its two-minute transmission cycles probably isn't the best mode for this as the Sporadic-E openings along the route may be short in duration. Having said that, the guys in Australia and New Zealand have a very successful WSPR network going on the 144 MHz and the information from the WSPR reports could show what parts of the path are open. It may be down to individuals then trying to make contacts on the FT8 or Q65 frequencies.

Links...
1) For more reports on long distance paths on 2m, see my 144 MHz page.

Opening to the USA on 28 MHz as solar flux hits 140 - 22nd Dec 2021

Wednesday 22nd December 2021: I left the radio monitoring the WSPR frequency on 28 MHz for the day and I was surprised to see a lot of US stations made it across the Atlantic. If this had been on FT8 then the map would probably be ablaze with reception dots but there are a LOT fewer stations on WSPR on 10m.

It was also a day where the solar flux reached 140! I think that may be the highest value so far for cycle 25.

DP0POL: And on a final note, I also got several WSPR decodes from DP0POL, the German Antarctic research vessel which was off the west coast of Africa and making its way home.