FM radio station WMIA in Miami on 93.9 MHz is heard in Chile - 23rd Feb 2023

This reception report is from the 23rd of February 2023 when Pipe, CE3SX / CE3SAD in Santiago, Chile managed to receive the FM radio station WMIA in Miami, Florida on 93.9 MHz. 

The reception took place at 21:41 local time in Chile (22nd Feb) which is 00:41 UTC (23rd Feb). This is at the right time for an evening time Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP) opening.

What makes this highly unusual is the distance. It might be normal during an evening TEP opening for  FM radio stations in the north of Columbia to be heard in Chile but this time, the FM radio station was in Florida which is about 2000kms further north. 

In a previous post, I reported on how CE3SX had managed to hear FM radio stations in Jamaica in February of 2022. Florida is an extra 1000kms.

Florida is usually considered to be too far north for TEP propagation so how was the range extended to just under 6,700kms?

The first option that springs to mind was that it was an evening type TEP opening coupling into a tropo duct to the north to extend the opening to Florida. The tropo map above from F5LEN shows some tropo in the area but with the island of Cuba in the way, it's not exactly conclusive.

Is the most southern tip of Florida just close enough for TEP?

Have there been reception reports like this in the past?

And if it's possible on 93.9 MHz, what about 144 MHz from Florida to Chile? Is anyone trying?

Lots of questions...

Link... For more long distance reception reports on the FM band, see my 88-108 MHz page.

PSKReporter website recorded 1-Billion reception reports in the last month - Q1 2023

I noticed on the 15th of March 2023, the PSKReporter website had just passed 35-Billion reception reports! 

Back on the 12th of February 2023, I had a post up about how PSKReporter had just passed 34-Billion back then. This means that the site is processing roughly 1-Billion reception reports at the moment which is a huge amount.

Obviously the vast majority of these reports are from stations using FT8 but it just goes to show how important this site is now to so many stations.

Skewed path opening on the 40 MHz band from New Zealand to England & Ireland - 13th March 2023

Monday 13th March 2023: Over the last few weeks, Paul G9PUV in the SE of England and Robbie, EI2IP in the SW of Ireland have been very active on the 40 MHz (8m) band. On the evening of the 13th of March, there was a remarkable opening when their FT8 signals were heard in New Zealand.

The map above shows the direct paths in Purple. The path from EI2IP goes over the Arctic to the west while the path from G9PUV goes east and over the far north of Russia, both highly unlikely paths at a frequency of 40 MHz.

The strange thing is that 40 MHz didn't seem to take the short path or the long path but a skewed path. A suggested path is shown above in Orange but in reality, we'll never know for sure the exact path.

Here are the reception reports from ZL1RS in New Zealand...

 Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC) SNR
WM2XEJ 8m FT8 13129 km 19:47:26 7
EI2IP 8m FT8 18096 km 19:35:14 -21
G9PUV 8m FT8 18206 km 18:54:14 -17

Note that ZL1RS was hearing the the experimental US station WM2XEJ as well at about the same time.

G9PUV: The map above shows the FT8 paths for Paul, G9PUV in the evening time. Note that there was a path also open to the Caribbean about 20 mins after the opening to New Zealand. 

These are the FT8 reports...

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC) SNR
G9PUV EA8/DF4UE 8m FT8 2730 km 19:18:00 -13
G9PUV EA1TX 8m FT8 1086 km 19:15:41 -15
G9PUV FG8OJ 8m FT8 6618 km 19:14:14 -11
G9PUV HC02 8m FT8 1657 km 19:14:14 -17
G9PUV HI0SDR/3 8m FT8 6983 km 19:14:00 -17
EA1TX G9PUV 8m FT8 1086 km 19:13:59 -14
G9PUV K6EU 8m FT8 8704 km 19:00:14 -21
G9PUV ZL1RS 8m FT8 18206 km 18:54:14 -17

G9PUV was using a log-periodic antenna at rooftop level and was beaming 195 degrees. The actual beam heading for New Zealand may have been some bit off this.

EI2IP: The map above shows the paths for EI2IP during the evening. Again, note that there was an opening to the Caribbean and the south-east of the USA.

Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC) SNR
FG8OJ 8m FT8 6092 km 19:52:44 -12
WW1L 8m FT8 4389 km 19:52:14 -2
K6EU 8m FT8 8152 km 19:52:12 -11
WM2XCC/JTDX 8m FT8 8244 km 19:49:58 -19
K1HTV-4 8m FT8 5390 km 19:40:45 -17
WM2XCC 8m FT8 8244 km 19:40:44 -20
PJ4MM 8m FT8 6895 km 19:39:11 -15
EA8/DF4UE 8m FT8 2676 km 19:37:00 -10
EA1TX 8m FT8 1223 km 19:36:11 -11
ZL1RS 8m FT8 18096 km 19:35:14 -21
HC02 8m FT8 1705 km 19:32:15 -11
N4WLO/3 8m FT8 6684 km 19:32:14 -17
HI0SDR/3 8m FT8 6405 km 19:32:00 -12
K5YT 8m FT8 6935 km 19:19:41 -24
HI0SDR 8m FT8 6461 km 19:06:30 -19
WM2XEJ 8m FT8 6135 km 19:06:14 -22
WP4G 8m FT8 6209 km 19:05:42 -17
N2OTO 8m FT8 6487 km 19:05:30 -8

EI2IP reports using a 4-element Yagi and was beaming at 200 degrees which is roughly pointing at South America.

WM2XEJ: It's interesting to look at the evening reports and paths for the US experimental station WM2XEJ in Georgia. You'll note that there was a path open both to ZL1RS at 19:47 UTC and to EI2IP at 19:35 UTC.

As you can see from the map above, it's not hard to imagine a situation where the path becomes skewed and then the EI to ZL path becomes possible. In that case, it's likely that the path was in the region of about 19,000kms.

Short Path or Long Path??? ...  Strictly speaking, it was probably a skewed short path for EI2IP and a skewed long path for G9PUV.  The more correct question is probably if the path was skewed or not? The more informative answer is that the path was skewed and learn from that.

Lessons: It's worth remembering that the TEP zone around the Geomagnetic Equator is likely to have a huge impact on any 40 MHz signals crossing it. I would take these points from this...

1) The date... We're in the middle of March and near the equinox.

2) The time... Roughly 18:45 to 20:00 UTC

3) Location... This applies to stations in the north of New Zealand and the NW of Europe.

4) Beam heading... Stations in New Zealand should beam at the Caribbean and stations in the UK and Ireland should beam at the South America or the Caribbean.

5) Skewed Paths.... Forget long path and short paths and direct lines on the map which can go all over the place when the other station is at the other side of the planet. 40 MHz signals are going to have a really tough time crossing over the north or south poles... look for skewed paths where the signal stays as close to the equator as possible.

6) 50 MHz... Any serious 50 MHz operators should be reading this and then trying to explore this path. If it can be done at 40 MHz then maybe 50 MHz is possible?

In conclusion: The Trans-Equatorial Propagation zone around the geomagnetic equator has a huge impact on low band VHF signals on the 40 MHz and 50 MHz bands. In the past, we only really had SSB and CW available in terms of popular modes. Now with so many stations on the one frequency using a weak signal mode like FT8, we can see signals that are buried in the noise. 

There are probably plenty of other skewed paths that are possible. The key is to get out of the fixed mindset of short path and long path and think about beaming at this TEP zone at an angle and see if a signal can propagate inside it or be bent by it.

It's likely the windows of opportunity will be short... the TEP zone ionization needs to be right and there may be sunrise or sunset peaks along the path.

It's likely that there are probably plenty more new skewed paths out there awaiting discovery.

Link... For more information on the 8m band, see my 40 MHz page.

Skewed path opening on the 50 MHz band between the S Pacific and Europe - 12th Mar 2023

12th March 2023: As we approach the equinox, there are a lot of TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) openings between the south of Europe and South America on the 50 MHz band. As were near the peak of the solar cycle and with the solar flux up around the 150 mark, this is nothing special.

What is highly unusual however was the appearance in Europe of some stations in the South Pacific during the TEP opening!

E51WL is located on North Cook Island in the South Pacific and the 50 MHz paths are shown above. 

Things to note...

1) South America... There was an opening from E51WL to South America and was being reported by South American stations at around 23:00 UTC. At the same time, there was a TEP opening from South America to the south of Europe.

2) Direct SP... The map shows the paths on FT8 from E51WL to the south of Europe. The direct short paths travel far to the north.

3) Skewed Path... European stations were beaming towards South America when the path to E51WL was open. On KST Chat, SV1DH in Greece reports E51WL on a beam heading of 225 degrees, IW5DHN in the north of Italy reports 220 deg and IT9TYR in Sicily reports 240 deg. IW0FFK in Rome reports working E51WL at 235 deg but didn't have time to verify the beam heading.

While it's difficult to know the exact beam heading with a modest antenna at a frequency of 50 MHz, it still shows that the signal was coming from the direction of South America on a beam heading of about 240 degrees, not on the direct short path heading to the north-west. i.e. the path was skewed.

For the stations in the eastern half of the Mediterranean, the short path actually goes to the east while the long path would go down over Africa and cross the Antarctica to reach the Cook Islands. Regardless of long path or short path, the signal was at roughly 240 degrees and skewed.

Fiji to Europe... 3D2AG on the island of Fiji was also reported in the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands.

Note the direct short paths from CT1BOH in Portugal and EA5NW in Spain go over the Arctic. In reality, it was a skewed path to the south-west.

On the map above, there are several paths to EA8... the Canary Islands. I suspect that these may have been skewed to the south as well.

As for the how???.... There is a theory that the signal can get propagated westwards between the north and south boundaries of the TEP zone. Eventually the signal escapes further west where the direct path via F2 layer propagation is more favourable.

I put together a simple diagram above which shows this concept.

In Conclusion... Skewed paths like this have been reported in the past but now with so many stations using a weak signal mode like FT8 on one frequency, these skewed paths should become a lot more obvious.

The key take away point is that for very distant paths, don't always assume a signal is on the direct short path.

It would be interesting to see more stations in the Pacific exploring these skewed paths to Europe. Obviously doing it near the equinox is important as well as the time of day... around 22:00-23:00 UTC.

It might be an idea to also try a quieter frequency than 50.313 MHz and use the appropriate time slot for transmitting.

Questions, questions, questions... I wonder if there is an equivalent but longer skewed path from Europe to the South Pacific to the east rather than the west? 

Maybe 8-9pm local time for each station in the Pacific? 

A skewed long path rather than a skewed short path? 

Is it too early in the morning for 50 MHz signals in Europe?

Does it happen on the higher HF bands all the time but nobody notices or knows any better?

***

Signal reports for E51WL and 3D2AG are shown below.

FT8 reports (15,000kms +) for E51WL...

Opening on the 40 MHz band between California and Europe - 9th & 10th March 2023

Over the last few weeks and months, there have been a lot of excellent openings on the 40 MHz (8m) band (reports HERE). While the really long distance paths are impressive, some of the shorter East-West paths in the same hemisphere can be equally difficult.

While there have been many 40 MHz openings from the eastern half of the USA to Europe, openings to the west coast have been largely absent. There were hints though that things were getting close. 

Paul, MI3LDO in the north-west of Ireland reported hearing CHP (California Highway Patrol) stations at 39 MHz in late February 2023. In early March, Robbie EI2IP in the south-west of Ireland reported hearing SNOTEL traffic on 40.670 MHz which is usually associated with the west coast of the United States.

On the 9th and 10th of March 2023, the elusive California to Europe opening on the 40 MHz band finally happened.

Thursday 9th March 2023: Tom, K6EU near San Francisco in California reports hearing Robbie, EI2IP and Paul, G9PUV on FT8 on 40.680 MHz.

174700 -15  0.2  495 ~  CQ EI2IP IO52      EU
174730 -15  0.2  495 ~  CQ EI2IP IO52      EU
181630 -18 -0.0 1464 ~  CQ G9PUV JO00      EU
181700 -21 -0.0 1464 ~  CQ G9PUV JO00      EU
181715 -19  0.3  502 ~  CQ EI2IP IO52      EU
181730 -18 -0.0 1464 ~  CQ G9PUV JO00      EU
181745 -15  0.1  503 ~  CQ SSB EI2IP IO52  EU
181800 -17 -0.0 1464 ~  CQ G9PUV JO00      EU
181930 -19 -0.0 1464 ~  CQ G9PUV JO00  

Chris, N3IZN near Los Angeles and who is the holder of the experimental licence WM2XCC also reported decoding EI2IP and G9PUV on 40.680 MHz.

No reports were shown on the PSK Reporter website.

Friday 10th March 2023: Conditions were very good again on the 8m band and both G9PUV and EI2IP were reported on the west coast of the USA. This time, there were reports on the PSK Reporter website.

G9PUV... The reports over 8000kms for G9PUV in the SE of England are shown below while the map is shown above.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC) SNR
ZS6OB G9PUV 8m FT8 8964 km 12:17:59 1
G9PUV WM2XCC/JTDX 8m FT8 8822 km 19:02:43 -19
G9PUV ZS6WN 8m FT8 8799 km 11:28:59 -8
ZS6WN G9PUV 8m FT8 8799 km 11:24:29 -7
G9PUV K6EU 8m FT8 8704 km 19:02:12 -17

While the path to South Africa is longer in some cases, it is also easier as it's north-south. The thing to note here is how far north towards the Arctic region the signal has to travel. The maximum distance to the US was to WM2XCC near Los Angeles, a distance of about 8820kms.

EI2IP... As Robbie was about 600kms further west than G9PUV, the path to California is slightly shorter and doesn't have to travel so far to the north.

Txmtr Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC) SNR
EI2IP VK4TVL 8m FT8 15766 km 09:28:15 -13
EI2IP ZS6AYE 8m FT8 9480 km 10:43:44 -13
ZS6OB EI2IP 8m FT8 9406 km 11:29:26 -4
ZS6WN EI2IP 8m FT8 9254 km 11:06:56 -15
EI2IP ZS6WN 8m FT8 9254 km 11:04:14 -9
EI2IP HC2FG 8m FT8 8942 km 18:28:30 -24
EI2IP HC1BI 8m FT8 8681 km 15:21:11 -12
EI2IP WM2XCC/JTDX 8m FT8 8244 km 18:48:13 -17
EI2IP WM2XCC 8m FT8 8244 km 18:35:44 -17
EI2IP K6EU 8m FT8 8152 km 18:46:12 -11

As you can see from the reports above, EI2IP was heard again in the north-east of Australia. I've covered previous openings from Europe to Australia in previous posts.

Where next??? The next obvious question is if there is a path from the UK and Ireland to the NW of the USA? Up in Washington state or near Vancouver in Canada?

For stations in California, is there a path further east into Europe? The OZ7IGY beacon Denmark? S5 and 9A stations in Slovenia and Croatia?

Can stations in continental Europe hear the experimental stations on the US west coast?

Links... For more information on the 8m band, see my 40 MHz page.

Brazilian FM radio station on 77.9 MHz is heard in Portugal - 7th March 2023

This is a pretty amazing reception report. On the 7th of March 2023, SWL Hugh Cocks near the city of Faro on the south coast of Portugal managed to receive the FM radio station Radio Justica from Sao Paulo in Brazil on 77.9 MHz!

Just to explain the unusual frequency, Brazilian authorities are currently migrating radio stations from the Medium Wave band (AM) to a new eFM or extended FM band which goes from 76.1 to 87.3 MHz. This is just below the usual 87.5 to 108.0 MHz FM band i.e. Band 2.

The FM station on 77.9 MHz is actually Radio Cultura which is obliged to carry some of the Radio Justica programmes and it runs 5KW from the city of Sao Paulo.

You can listen to the reception report below and Hugh reports that it's about Brazilian employment law.

Hugh reports using a 3-element antenna with a low noise narrowband FET amplifier. The signal was at its strongest between 22:20 and 22:40 UTC.

Hugh writes... "The evening TEP starts around 2145gmt with Ch A2-A4 TV, fluttery signals as usual. Then if good 2210 or so tiny carriers from Ch5 TV 77.25MHz and then it may appear, often lower quality than this. Last night conditions were less but there was a new station on 76.9MHz playing non stop music, very weak."

Analysis... As the map shows above, the FM signal on 77.9 MHz from Brazil traveled about 7880 kms to reach the south coast of Portugal. While a signal at around 78 MHz is likely to propagate better than the usual 88-108 MHz Band 2 signals, it's still a remarkable distance.

As Hugh indicates, it looks as if the mode of propagation was TEP - Trans-Equatorial Propagation. The time of about 22:30 UTC is about right for evening TEP.

What seems unusual though is that the signal path doesn't seem to cross the Geomagnetic Equator at a right angle. Normally, FM radio stations from this part of Brazil might be heard in the Caribbean as the signals cross the Geomagnetic Equator at close to 90 degrees.

The lower the frequency then the higher the signal can deviate a lot from that required right angle. This often happens at say 28 Mhz or 50 MHz. Still though, it does seem to be quite far off 90 degrees for a signal around 78 MHz.

I'm also quite sure that the radio engineers in Brazil didn't expect the signal from their FM transmitter to reach the shores of Europe!

Further experiments... As this band is largely unused, it should be largely uncongested and quiet in other parts of the world. If these eFM radio stations in Brazil can reach Europe, can they be heard in the USA? Most of the south-eastern states in the US are closer to Sao Paulo than Portugal. Is anyone going to try?

Could it be heard further north in Europe? Say in late April or early May when the Sporadic-E and TEP seasons overlap? It only requires one Sporadic-E hop to reach the UK or Ireland but 22:30 UTC isn't the best time of day for Sp-E. Can it be done?

Link... For other long distance FM reception reports, see my 88-108 MHz page.

30,000km Long Path opening on the 50 MHz band between Europe and Japan - 7th & 8th March 2023

After a decline in solar flux at the end of February, there has been a marked bounce in conditions in early March with the solar flux going back up to around the 180 mark.

Late on the 7th of March 2023, there was a very good long path opening on the 50 MHz band from the south of Europe to Japan.

José, CT1BOH reported the long path opening to Japan on Twitter and looking at the PSK Reporter website, one of the longest paths was to JR4ABB which is around 29,000kms. The path is shown above and the key thing to note is how far to the south the path travels.

The reality is that there were a lot of paths on FT8 between stations in the south-west of Europe and stations in the south-west of Japan. It's not really feasible to list them all and I don't think it would anything of value, the key point is that there was a long path opening on the 6m band.

However, we can look at the specific example of CT1BOH and JR4ABB in more detail.

The map above shows the Japanese stations that reported CT1BOH or were reported by CT1BOH. You'll notice that they are clustered in the south-west of Japan. The long path signals are coming in from the south-east and JR4ABB is one of the furthest away.

A list of the Japanese stations are listed at the end of the post. The opening lasted an hour.

There are two points here...

1) The further north a station is in Japan then the maximum usable frequency (MUF) is lower and may not reach 50 MHz. 

2) The further to the north-east a station is in Japan, the further south the long path travels and the closer it gets to Antarctica and a more difficult path.

This image above shows the stations in Europe that reported JR4ABB or were reported by JR4ABB. In this scenario, the long path signals from Japan are coming in from the south-west. 

You'll notice that it was an opening that favoured the south of Europe, again the MUF is better in the south of Europe. Note that there was also a long path opening to I8IGS in the south of Italy, a distance of about 30,000kms.

For a long path opening to Japan, it gets harder the further to the north-west you go in Europe. It's likely that EA5 and EA6 stations in the SE of Spain had a distinct advantage over their EA1 compatriots in the NW of Spain even though the long path distance was similar.

In conclusion... It's remarkable to see long path signals not only reach as high as the 50 MHz band but to travel around 30,000kms as well. It will be interesting to see if there are any long path 6m reports from stations further north.

Link... For other examples of long distance paths on the 6m band, see my 50 MHz page.

1) A list of Japanese stations reporting or being reported by CT1BOH

Did each contact from 3Y0J on Bouvet Island cost $38?

One of the biggest and most expensive expeditions in recent times was the 3Y0J activation on Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic. The initial plan was to be have 12 stations active for most of the month of February 2023 with a target of 200,000 contacts.

The reality was that they had a lot of difficulty getting the equipment onto the island due to the rough seas and they only managed to operate a few stations for a week which left many disappointed.

What intrigued me was the overall cost of the expedition. Unless I am missing something, I work out that each contact made cost in the region of $38!

Let's have a look...

According to the 3Y0J website, they raised $715,000 USD to fund the expedition which I find incredible in itself. A breakdown of the funding sources can be found on the 3Y0J website.

It just seems like a huge amount of money just for people to say that they made a contact with someone on this remote island. I don't know if all of this money was spent but for now, let's assume the bulk of it was.

Then we have the number of contacts that were actually completed... 18,833... which is 9.4% of the target planned.

If we divide $715,000 by 18,833 then we get an average cost of $37.965 which we can round up to $38 USD per contact.

No doubt there were quite a number of people who had more than one contact so the cost of each contact per person is even higher. 

If the initial target of 200,000 contacts had been achieved then the average cost per contact would be $3.58 USD.

I can't help wondering if a time will arrive in the next few years where an expedition will no longer be viable because of the costs involved? How much is too much?

Results of the 34 MHz Propagation Tests - Sat 25th & Sun 26th Feb 2023

On Saturday the 25th and Sunday the 26th of February 2023, Phil EI9KP conducted some propagation tests on the 9m band in the low-VHF part of the spectrum. He operated a supervised beacon on 34.013 MHz for most of the daylight hours running 1-watt into a vertical dipole with capacitive loading.

This was the second weekend of tests on the 34 MHz band and the results of the January 2023 tests can be seen HERE

EI9KP reports... "I have collated the below information from my 34MHz beacon test on 25/26 February 2023.  The beacon 1W transmitter and the dipole in vertical polarisation worked without technical problems.

On Saturday, I got a few reception reports from the USA.  On Sunday, propagation conditions were generally poor with maximum usable frequency (MUF) reaching only 26 MHz by late afternoon, and I received no reception reports. There was an absence of tropo over Ireland and the UK and no Sporadic-E was reported.

Also, there were no reception reports from the east, conditions were not right. It was positive that HAMs and SWLs were listening out, I have a few new names in the log."

Report: As compiled by Phil with a few additions from myself ...

Saturday 25th February 2023: SF-index: 164  A-index: 6  Kp-index: 2

Absence of tropo conditions over EI/GB/Europe.
Beacon on at 0712, beacon off at 1843.
 
13:47 UTC. Reception report from SWL W1-7897 Bill in Douglas, MA, USA. He was using a 5 element beam for the 50 MHz band and a Yaesu FT-847 transceiver.
 
17:30 UTC. SWL David in Indian River City, FL, USA. He was using an Airspy R2 with a non-resonant OmniX airband antenna on the side of Rohn tower 14 metres above ground level.
 
17:31 UTC. K5YT Ed in Texas, USA, reported that he received the FT8 at -17dB SNR but could not hear the CW part.  He was using a 2 el. tribander Hygain TH2-MK3 and an Icom IC-7300.
 

Edward Johnson, K5YT writes... "I copied EI9KP on 02/25/2023 for 4 decodes using a Hygain TH2-MK3 @ 100’ and a IC7300 de K5YT EM22"

The following were listening but nothing received:

DJ0MEW Bert in Germany - JN68IE. He was using an ICOM IC-7300 and an OCF dipole 40m long.

EI8DJ Don south of Cork city on the south coast of Ireland - IO51UT.

EI7GL - Just to add I live a few kms from EI8DJ and I also heard nothing via tropo or F2 backscatter. EI9KP is about 250kms from my location.

Franz van Velzen, OE3FVU in Austria writes... "I am monitoring here (since 7.30 UTC) with 3 receivers and antennas: IC7300 with tuned SteppIr; IC-R8600 with 3 ele 6m beam and FT-847 with Gap Titan plus Tuner. Not ideal, but perhaps I copy on one of them. All report to PSK reporter: with OE3FVU/3, OE3FVU/RX and OE3FVU respectively. At this moment (08:35 UTC) no signal has been received yet."

Kees Smit in the Netherlands writes... "I am also monitoring with 3 radio’s. Elad FDM DUO SDR with HM dipole for 40 Mhz. 8 mtr. in the attic. Yaesu FT991A with Hyendfed short version 15,6 mtr. for 10/20/40 & 80 mtr. Directional west. Kenwood TS690SAT with Wellbrook ALA1530 LNP in the garden below sea level. 2 fake decoded and nothing else at the moment but still waiting on a signal."

Sunday 26th February 2023: SF-index: 152  A-index: 10  Kp-index: 3

Absence of tropo conditions over EI/GB/Europe.
Beacon on at 0730, beacon off at 1814. No reception reports.
All morning a 'wedge' in the MUF over Ireland, England to France.  Low MUF at 18-21MHz. 

The following were listening but nothing received: 

DB6LL Ham in JO43VP (near Hamburg), he was using a Yaesu FTDX101MP and a non-resonant 5/8 lambda vertical antenna for 10 metres. Decoding was on JTDX.

K5YT Ed in TX, USA.

Analysis: In contrast to the January tests, conditions for the February 2023 tests were very much subdued. The was a large aurora later on the evening of the 26th of February which shows how disturbed conditions were. 

Most of the stations listening in Europe were well inside the F2-layer skip zone and it's possible that a repeat of the test during the summer Sporadic-E season would yield much better results. 

The path to the stations in the USA was likely due to two or more hops off the F2 layer in the ionosphere.

Link: For more information tests on the 34 MHz (9m) band, check out my 40 MHz page.

5300km TEP opening at 432 MHz reported from Curacao to Argentina - 24th Feb 2023

432 MHz TEP: In a previous post, I reported on how a signal on the 432 MHz band from Brett, PJ2BR on the island of Curacao was received by Javi, LU5FF in Argentina. The propagation mode was Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP) and the distance was 4853kms.

After it, there was some question about if it was real? Was it a false decode of the Q65 signal? Was there an issue with the software when changing bands from 144 MHz to 432 MHz? Reports of TEP signals on the 432 MHz band are extremely rare and people are right to be cautious.

Now we have a second example of a 432 MHz opening on the 24th of February 2023. This time, we have decodes of signals on both ends as well as visual evidence of a signal in the waterfall display as well as reception of a signal that could be heard.

24th February 2023: Both Brett, PJ2BR and Diego, LW2DAF report that there was a TEP opening on the 432 MHz band on the 24th of Feb 2023. The time was around 00:40 UTC which was about 8-9pm local time on the 23rd of Feb for the parties involved which is around the peak time for evening TEP openings.

On this occasion, there were decodes at both ends and the distance was around 5310kms.

I have some images below so that we have a record of this opening.

The image above is a screenshot from the PSK Reporter website showing the 432 MHz path reported on the site.

This image above is from a screenshot from PJ2BR and shows the left hand side of the WSJT-X software showing reception of LW2DAF with a signal of -18dB. You can see the mode used was Q65-30B. Note that I edited the image to make it smaller vertically to remove the blank area.

This image above is the right hand side of the screenshot. It shows the reception of LW2DAF at -18dB and then PJ2BR sending the report.

Now from Argentina. This image above shows a very weak signal in the waterfall at around 700 Hz.

This image above shows LW2DAF decoding the signal from PJ2BR with a peak of -12dB. This is significant because it was now at a level where the signal might be heard.

Diego, LW2DAF said that he saw and heard the signal on 432 MHz.

Trying TEP on 432MHz, Thanks @pj2br for tried! The path exist, need more stations trying! pic.twitter.com/b6g4JnU1x2

— Diego Alejandro Feil (@LW2DAF) February 24, 2023

This video clip above from LW2DAF on Twitter shows the reception of the signal.

This screenshot from the video shows the Kenwood radio used by LW2DAF on 432.174 MHz.

Equipment: For this TEP test, PJ2BR was using a Kenwood TS2000 with 100-watts from a Mirage amplifier.

The antenna was shown above was a M2 22-element horizontal Yagi.

LW2DAF was using 50-watts into a horizontally polarised 18-element LFA Yagi about 21m above ground level.

Analysis: As Deigo LW2DAF noted, a visual and audible TEP signal on the 432 MHz band has now been verified. It would seem that it is now only a matter of time before someone from Argentina or Brazil completes a 432 MHz contact with someone in the Caribbean using Trans-Equatorial Propagation.

From my understanding of TEP, it's Class II as shown above as an effective duct appears on the Geomagnetic Equator.

At 432 MHz, location, distance and being at right angles to the Geomagnetic Equator are even more important than they are at 432 MHz. As Diego notes, more stations on 432 MHz are needed to try this path at 70cms. It just needs two stations to be in an optimum location and for the conditions to be right.

Link: For other examples of long distance openings on the 70cms band, see my 432 MHz page.

EI9KP to carry out 34 MHz Propagation Tests on Sat 25th & Sun 26th Feb 2023

On the 21st & 22nd of January 2023, Phil EI9KP carried out some propagation tests on the 34 MHz band - Results HERE

Now one month later, EI9KP will be carrying out test transmissions on the 34 MHz band (9m) band on Saturday the 25th & Sunday the 26th of February 2023. The beacon will operate from sunrise (07:34 UTC) to sunset (18:04 UTC) on both days. The purpose of these tests is to investigate F2 layer propagation.

EI9KP will be transmitting on 34.013 MHz. The sequence of the beacon will be 2 x FT8, 2 x CW ID & Locator, short carrier.  The 2 x CW part is to help SWL's who do not use digital modes and also help during QSB cycles.

The beacon will be GPS disciplined with an output power of 1-watt. The antenna last time was a horizontal dipole with capacity hat loading. This time, he will be using vertical polarisation with the antenna on an insulated mast and should have a clean omni-directional pattern. 

To listen for this beacon, try 34.013 MHz CW or 34.0122 MHz USB.

Predicted Coverage Areas...

The map above shows the predicted coverage area at 12:00 UTC for a 1-watt FT8 transmitter operating at 30 MHz. It's not quite 34 MHz but it's close.

It clearly shows the first F2 hop going from Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece... to the far south of Italy and perhaps the far south of Spain and Portugal. The path to the Canary Islands looks particularly good.

It's possible the second F2 payer hop might reach parts of the Caribbean and the SE of the USA.

The image above shows the likely coverage area at 17:00 UTC. It seems good in the SE of the USA and during the January tests, the signal was heard in Florida and Texas. 

Reports to EI9KP on QRZ or you can leave a comment here.

Note that it may be possible for stations in western Europe to hear the signal via backscatter. Leave your radio on 34.0122 MHz USB and see if you can get a decode of the FT8 signal.

40 MHz reception report from IU1DZZ in Italy - 10th to 13th February 2023

Gianfranco, IU1DZZ in the NW of Italy (JN45HK) sends on a short report about the FT8 signals that he heard on 40.680 MHz from the 10th to the 13th of February 2023.

230211_102730    40.680 Rx FT8    -17  0.3 1520 CQ G9PUV JO00
230212_104845    40.680 Rx FT8    -19  0.7 1642 CQ EI2IP IO52
230212_111530    40.680 Rx FT8    -19  0.5  856 CQ ON5QRP JN29 
230212_113315    40.680 Rx FT8    -20  0.5  960 CQ VK ZS6OB KG44
230212_114245    40.680 Rx FT8    -22  0.6 1481 CQ ZS6WAB KG46 
230212_114315    40.680 Rx FT8    -16  0.6 1641 9A5CY ZS6OB RRR
230213_140915    40.680 Rx FT8    -14  0.6  796 CQ WM2XEJ EM83

IU1DZZ was using a Flex 1500 with a multiband dipole in the attic at 15m above ground level.

Grazie Gianfranco de John, EI7GL

40 MHz band report - 19th Feb 2023

Sunday 19th February 2023: Due to interference on 10m from the ARRL CW contest, I switched over to the 40 MHz from about noon onwards and had left the radio monitoring 40.680 MHz for the rest of the day. As shown above, I heard three new stations for me... WM2XAN in the USA, VA2CY in Canada and 4X1BG in Israel.

These are my FT8 reception reports for the day in order of distance.

 Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC) SNR
WM2XAN 8m FT8 5472 km 18:01:11 -18
VA2CY 8m FT8 4426 km 17:50:26 -10
4X1BG 8m FT8 4076 km 15:14:29 -13
G9PUV 8m FT8 594 km 17:19:11 -19
EI4GNB 8m FT8 214 km 17:29:42 -18
EI4GEB 8m FT8 79 km 20:56:48 2
EI2IP 8m FT8 62 km 18:02:12 -10
EI9FVB 8m FT8 14 km 15:50:42 20

This was just a very small part of the activity on the 40 MHz band for the day with many FT8 reports exchanged across the North Atlantic and from South Africa to Europe. 

What really stood out for me was just how many stations in Europe are now listening on the 40 MHz band. The image above shows the stations in Europe reporting reception of ZS6OB on FT8.

It's worth remembering that there is no DXCC, no awards, no grid square hunting, no DX-peditions on the 40 MHz band, this is just people curious about propagation conditions on this low-VHF band.

The image above shows stations in Europe reporting reception of VA2CY in Canada on 40.680 MHz. Notice the relatively large number of stations in the UK and Ireland.

I have included a list of stations that heard VA2CY below if you want to have a look. For more information on the 8m band, have a look at my 40 MHz page.

Trans-Atlantic opening on the 40 MHz band - 18th Feb 2023

Saturday 18th February 2023: Due to some interference from a CW contest on the 10m band, I stopped monitoring WSPR signals there at 14:00 UTC and had a listen on the 40 MHz band instead.

I set the radio on 40.680 MHz and using FT8, I decoded the following signals...

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC) SNR
WM2XEJ 8m FT8 6163 km 16:08:57 -17
EI5HHB 8m FT8 229 km 14:02:57 -10
EI4GNB 8m FT8 214 km 15:32:57 -17
EI2IP 8m FT8 62 km 21:04:29 -6

WM2XEJ is located near Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the seven US stations with experimental calls for the 40 MHz band. It was my first time hearing the USA on the 40 MHz band but that is down more to my lack of monitoring, I'm sure I would probably have heard it in previous recent openings.

The path to the US station was probably via 2 x F2 layer hops. i.e. 2 x 3000kms

The other three stations were in Ireland. EI5HHB and EI4GNB are located near Dublin and about 220kms from my location. I suspect I was hearing them via F2 layer backscatter.

EI2IP is located 62kms away and I was hearing him direct.

These are the signal reports for each station (minus the many decodes of EI2IP)...

140245 -10 -0.2  703 ~  CQ EI5HHB IO63
140445 -15 -0.2  702 ~  CQ EI5HHB IO63
141815 -13 -0.2  706 ~  CQ EI5HHB IO63

153200 -17 -0.1 1806 ~  CQ EI4GNB IO63
155000 -16 -0.1 1528 ~  WM2XEJ EI4GNB -17
155030 -11 -0.1 1518 ~  WM2XEJ EI4GNB -17

160845 -17 -0.1  827 ~  CQ WM2XEJ EM83
161115 -18 -0.1  828 ~  9A5CY WM2XEJ EM83
161145 -16 -0.1  828 ~  CQ WM2XEJ EM83

EI5HHB was -10dB to -15dB and EI4GNB was -11 to -17dB. To the ear, these signals would sound very weak but audible, probably just strong enough for a marginal contact on CW.

WM2XEJ was -16dB to -18dB which is just below what is audible by ear.

Antenna... The antenna I was using for this reception report on 40 MHz was a simple CB-type vertical half-wave for 28 MHz. The take away message is that you do not need a dedicated 40 MHz antenna to listen on the band.

Opening on the 40 MHz band from Belgium to Australia - 16th Feb 2023

 

Over the last few days, there have reception reports of 40 MHz signals from Ireland and England being heard in Australia. On the 16th of February 2023, VK4FNQ and VK4TVL in the NE of Australia have decoded the FT8 signals of ONA4PS in Belgium.

ONA4PS is the special experimental callsign used by Pierre, ON4PS for the 40 MHz band.

Pierre writes... "I would like to thank the several nice SWL reports I got this morning, Feb. 16th 2023. Andy Musin first from West Kazakhstan, LO51RK (3201 km), next John Goldfinch, VK4FNQ from QG39EX (15229 km) and then Lloyd Baker, VK4TVL from QH30IP (15188 km), the first time that my 40 MHz signal is being heard in Australia. I really appreciate it. Pierre ONA4PS (ON4PS)"

The screenshot above from John, VK4FNQ shows reception of ONA4PS on FT8 on 40.680 MHz with a signal of -19dB. For this reception report, VK4FNQ was using an 80m dipole.

This screenshot is from Lloyd, VK4TVL showing FT8 decodes of both Paul, G9PUV in the SE of England and ONA4PS in Belgium. The strongest signal from ONA4PS seems to have been around -10dB. VK4TVL was using an off-centre fed dipole for the 80m band up about 6m.

ONA4PS (ON4PS) was using just 5-watts into a dipole as per the restrictions on his experimental licence.

Analysis... This was another fine example of the excellent conditions on the 40 MHz band at the moment as the solar flux is up around 200. 

If you examine the map at the top of the post, you'll notice that ONA4PS has a slightly more southerly route than the stations in the UK or Ireland. This is important as the further to the south-east in Europe you move, the more southerly the path becomes and the higher chance of successful paths to Australia or New Zealand.

Surely it's only a matter of time before we see some 40 MHz reception reports of European signals from the VK2/VK3 area of Australia i.e. down around Sydney & Melbourne.

Link... I keep a record of the long distance 8m openings on my 40 MHz page.

4X1BG from Israel appears on the 40 MHz band - 15th Feb 2023

15th February 2023: I think most people were surprised when Nimrod, 4X1BG in Israel popped up on the 40 MHz (8m) band. Israel is about 4000kms from the UK and Ireland and is the ideal distance for F2 layer propagation. 4X1BG was using 100-watts into a Stepp-IR antenna.

The map above shows the paths on FT8 from 4X1BG and as you can see, two stations in the USA managed to decode the FT8 signals as well on 40.680 MHz. The distance to the US stations was just over 10,000kms.

The full list of FT8 decodes is shown at the end of this post and they show that 4X1BG decoded a lot of FT8 signals as well.

Robbie, EI2IP in the SW of Ireland completed a SSB contact on 40.670 MHz...

Full list of FT8 decodes in order of distance...

PSK Reporter website passes 34 Billion reception reports - 12th Feb 2023

I noticed last weekend that the PSK Reporter website had just passed 34-Billion reception reports! This is now one of the most important and popular amateur radio websites in existence as a huge number of stations now automatically upload their FT8, FT4, etc reception reports on the HF and VHF bands.

This huge volume of traffic does however cause some issues and the site has been down or not functioning quite a bit recently.

Back in November of 2018, I had a post up about how the site had just passed 5-Billion reception reports then. 

40 MHz signal from G9PUV in England is heard in Australia - 13th Feb 2023

13th February 2023: Paul, G7PUV is one of the few stations in the UK with a permit to carry out experiments on the 40 MHz band. On the 13th of February, his test FT8 transmissions with the callsign G9PUV on 40.680 MHz were picked up by Lloyd, VK4TVL in the NE of Australia. The distance was an impressive 15,455 kms.

This comes just one day after signals from EI4GNB and EI2IP were also decoded by VK4TVL on the 12th of February 2023.

Analysis... With the Solar Flux up around the 200 mark, it looks as if there are now some really good long range F2 openings on the 40 MHz band between Europe and Australia. It' raises the question of whether the Europe to Australia path on the 50 MHz band would open if the Solar Flux was a little  higher?

On the 14th of February, the 40 MHz path from Europe to Australia was open again as can be seen from the decodes shown below. It would seem likely that the next likely step is for someone in the SE of Australia (VK2 & VK3) to try and decode these 40 MHz signals from Europe.

Link: For more info on the 8m band, visit my 40 MHz page.

Decodes by VL4TVL on the 40 MHz band on the 14th of February 2023