Late opening to North America on 28 MHz - Fri 7th June 2019

After a pretty dismal start, Friday the 7th of June 2019 turned out in the end to be an interesting day for propagation on 28 MHz.

The morning was poor with just weak Sporadic-E signals being heard on the band. The afternoon was even worse with long periods of nothing but static. The late evening was different though with an opening to North America.

The map below shows the FT8 signals heard....

Notes...

1) Europe...The map shows a few stations around Europe but these were really weak. It was the kind of day where if you turned on the radio, you would say that the 28 MHz band was closed. The FT8 signals were so weak that I didn't even bother scanning for beacons.

The only exception was in the late evening when an FT8 signal from Spain sounded loud. A quick scan revealed the beacon in Gibraltar...

EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 22:20 07 Jun IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar

2) North America... The signals from North America were really weak as well and it was a suprise to see that the band had opened up to the USA when the day seemed so quiet for the most part.

A few things were unusual. I was hearing US stations at about 23:30 UTC which is about 30 minutes after midnight local time.

For many of the distant US signals, I was the only person in Europe hearing them. For example, these are the stations that heard K5TLJ in Arkansas...

The reasons for this are probably social and geographical. Social in that most people in Europe had probably turned off their radios by the late evening. Geographical in that I am probably the most westerly station listening on 28 MHz in NW Europe.

Stations heard on FT8.... USA stations in Bold

Video : High performance 70cms transverter by G4DDK

This video from the 2018 RSGB Convention shows Sam Jewell G4DDK describing his high performance 432 MHz transverter.



Description : G4DDK will be describes a 70cm transverter that can be built from scratch, with the support of a professional PCB, or from a kit. Sam describes the latest upgrades that mean that the receive converter side of the transverter has exceptional strong signal performance together with high sensitivity. The transmit converter side features high spectral purity and the ability to frequency lock the transverter for high stability makes it perfect for both digital and analogue operation.

Note that his website states that this transverter is no longer available. The video was only put up on the RSGB YouTube site on the 6th of June 2019 which is well after when the presentation was made.

G4DDK's website

Good conditions on 28 MHz - Thurs 6th June 2019

Thursday the 6th of June 2019 was pretty good in terms of Sporadic-E conditions on 28 MHz with plenty of strong signals on the band.

The map below shows the stations heard...

What was notable were the strong signals from Germany and the north of Italy.

This is reflected in the beacons heard....
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 15:48 06 Jun IO51TU ES JN54AB Italy
EI7GL 28322.7 F1VJT/B 12:31 06 Jun IO51TU ES JN33CI France
EI7GL 28321.7 I3GNQ/B 12:28 06 Jun IO51TU ES JN55VJ Italy
EI7GL 28241.7 F5ZUU/B 12:21 06 Jun IO51TU ES JN24IL France
EI7GL 28227.1 IW3FZQ/B 12:20 06 Jun IO51TU ES JN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 12:18 06 Jun IO51TU ES JN78SB Austria
EI7GL 28301.8 PI7ETE/B 08:11 06 Jun IO51TU ES JO22QD Netherlands
EI7GL 28298.1 SK7GH/B 08:09 06 Jun IO51TU ES JO77BF Sweden
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 08:08 06 Jun IO51TU ES JN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 08:07 06 Jun IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28277.4 DM0AAB/B 08:06 06 Jun IO51TU ES JO54GH Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 08:05 06 Jun IO51TU ES JO55WM Denmark
EI7GL 28265.1 DF0ANN/B 08:04 06 Jun IO51TU ES JN59PL Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28253.2 ED5YAU/B 07:58 06 Jun IO51TU ES IM98WN Spain 
EI7GL 28245.3 DB0TEN/B 07:55 06 Jun IO51TU ES JO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 07:51 06 Jun IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar

The interesting ones in there are the really low power beacons like I3GNQ on 200 milliwatts.

The most unusual one was PI7ETE/B in the Netherlands on 300 milliwatts and interesting because it was only about 1000 kms, a sign of short skip.

I also heard the chirpy beacon on 28.219 MHz but it was very weak.

Overall, a pretty good day but I wouldn't say it was as good or as 'wide open' as some other days.

These are the stations heard on FT8....

Conditions on 28 MHz - Wed 5th June 2019

After a poor few days, conditions on 28 MHz are beginning to pick up again. Wednesday the 5th of June 2019 was certainly better than previous days with plenty of signals from Europe although many were weak.

The one unusual signal was that of N9WQP in Indiana in the United States. I checked out who else was hearing N9WQP and this was the map for 28 MHz...

RSGB Cricket World Cup Radio Marathon 2019

The RSGB are currently holding a Radio Marathon in association with the 2019 Cricket World Cup Championships which are being held in England and Wales. There are numerous GB19 stations now on the bands until the 14th of July 2019.

Award details below....

Special stations in England and Wales will represent the 11 venues and 10 participating countries of the Cricket World Cup. In addition England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man will have a number of Cricket HQ stations.

Awards will be available for numbers of QSOs with the activating special stations. A QSO with a special callsign will be valid for awards on three different modes: CW, Phone and Digital; this will apply on each band: 160m, 80m, 40m, 30m (not SSB), 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m & 10m. The maximum number of qualifying QSOs, for award purposes, with each special callsign will be 26; that is 8 SSB, 9 CW and 9 Digital.

All QSOs must be made between 30 May 2019 and 14 July 2019 inclusive.

Awards will be: 
a. Bronze – 50 QSOs 
b. Silver – 125 QSOs 
c. Gold – 250 QSOs 
d. Platinum – 500 QSOs
e. Worked all Cricket Grounds – at least one QSO with each of the eleven GB19 cricket ground callsigns
f. Worked all Teams – at least one QSO with each of the ten GB19 team callsigns
g. SSB Half-Century – 50 QSOs on SSB; SSB Century – 100 QSOs on SSB
h. Datamodes Half-Century – 50 QSOs on digital modes; Datamodes Century – 100 QSOs on digital modes
i. CW Half-Century – 50 QSOs on CW; CW Century – 100 QSOs on CW

More info on the RSGB website and on this one... https://cricket2019.hamlogs.net/

100th Anniversary of RCA Coastal Station in the USA

Back on the 23rd of May 2019, I came across this special event station on CW on 14 MHz... WA1WCC/100RC

Not the easiest call sign to send or read considering the length! :)

The station was marking the 100th anniversary of the RCA takeover of the Maritime Coast Station at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

In November 1919, RCA acquired the assets of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, which then ceased doing business in the US. 

At the outset, RCA consisted of only five radio stations, in various stages of completion, and Chatham was one of them. Chatham would later become RCA's flagship coastal station WCC, known as "Marine Radio Central".

WA1WCC is commemorating the founding of RCA in a year-long celebration.

Watch for WA1WCC / 100RCA on the bands during 2019. 

From what I can see on the DX Cluster, all activity is on CW. More information on their website and QRZ page...
https://www.wccara.com/
https://www.qrz.com/db/wa1wcc

Conditions on 28 MHz - Tues 4th June 2019

Tuesday the 4th of June 2019 was marginally better than the previous day on 28 MHz but the pickings were still slim.

The map below shows the signals heard on FT8 on 28 MHz and again, most were buried in the noise.

There is one odd coloured dot on the map from IZ3JJD in the north-east of Italy. For some reason, PSK Reporter didn't record him as a 28 MHz contact, in fact it recorded no band data. I have never seen that before.

Poor conditions on 28 MHz - Mon 3rd June 2019

Monday the 3rd of June 2019 was pretty dire on 28 MHz with just weak signals on the band. The 'opening' in the morning was really weak and just a few signals were actually above the noise. In the afternoon, the band was really quiet.

The map actually makes it look a lot better than it actually was. The majority of those dots are from stations buried in the noise.

Junkers F-13 Award

The Junkers F-13 was the first all-metal passenger aircraft and its first flight was on the 25th of June 1919.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary, there have been ten German stations on air since the 1st of January 2019 using the DF13 callsign.

There is an award for making 10 contacts and I have been working them since the 19th of May on cw...

The activity period finishes on the 30th of June 2019...

Award details below...

Delta Loop antenna for 40 MHz

Phil EI9KP has very kindly sent on details of the Delta Loop antenna that he built for the new 40 MHz / 8-metre band.

The Delta Loop is a very popular antenna on the HF bands and can be used with success at the lower VHF bands as well.

The dimensions of the Delta Loop for 40 MHz are shown below...

Some key points...

Opening to South America on 28 MHz... Sun 2nd June 2019

I wasn't around for a lot of Sunday the 2nd of June 2019 but I did have the radio on monitoring the FT8 frequency on 28 MHz.

When I was around, the band was very quiet early in the morning and in the afternoon. There was a late opening to the Caribbean but I didn't hear the signals here.

The signals heard on FT8 on 28 MHz are shown below...

Conditions on 28 MHz - Sat 1st June 2019

Saturday the 1st of June 2019 was reasonably quiet on 28 MHz with lots of weak FT8 signals on the band. It seems as if each day at the moment is quieter than the previous one.

The map below shows what was heard. It would be pretty good for say the 1st of April but this was the 1st of June at what is supposed to be the peak of the Sporadic-E season.

As expected, not that many beacons were recorded...
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 12:05 01 Jun IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28237.5 LA5TEN/B 10:19 01 Jun IO51TU ES JO59JP Norway
EI7GL 28292.2 SK0CT/B 09:48 01 Jun IO51TU ES JO89XK Sweden
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 09:45 01 Jun IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 09:44 01 Jun IO51TU ES JN78SB Austria

Conditions on 28 MHz - Fri 31st May 2019

Conditions on 28 MHz on Friday the 31st of May 2019 were certainly down on previous days. It was one of those days where there a lot of very weak signals but the band actually sounded pretty quiet for a lot of the time.

The map below shows the FT8 signals heard on 28 MHz....

The lone station in the USA was WW2DX in Maine which seems to be one of these super DX stations with multiple beams.

Spanish URE 70th Anniversary Award - April 1 to June 9, 2019

On April 1st 2019, the national society for radio amateurs in Spain (URE - Unión de Radioaficionados Españoles) celebrated its 70th anniversary. To commemorate this event, the URE,  is promoting an award scheme with 14 special event stations on the air from April 1 to June 9, 2019  using the special AM70 prefix.

I had read about this award scheme some weeks back but I didn't give it much attention. Then Jim, EI8GS was telling me about it on the local VHF net last Tuesday evening and how he was working them on SSB and FT8. After that. I could feel I was on a slippery slope :o)

I've been working the stations on CW on 80m, 40m, 30m and 20m over the last few days and the Gold award is shown above. It has been fun working them on the lower bands and checking through my logbook, I noticed that I haven't really used the bands below 28 MHz since April 2017 except for the occasional Irish contest.

It has also been interesting to see how the propagation path between Ireland and Spain (1000-1500kms) gets very difficult above 14 MHz. The Sporadic-E season should help out with the higher bands over the next few weeks.

The award website is https://70aniversario.ure.es/

Update :  1st June 2019
Finally managed to work AM70D on cw on 21 MHz for a clean sweep from 10m to 80m.

Update : 25th April 2019
Platinum award below...

Another opening to North America on 28 MHz... Thurs 30th May 2019

Thursday the 30th of May 2019 was a bit more subdued on 28 MHz with several quiet patches during the day. Despite that it did open to Indonesia (YB5QZ) and the USA.

The opening to the USA was around 12:00 UTC as opposed to the usual evening time. Six stations in total were heard...KC1FOX, N1BRL, N1API, W2MGF, N2LD and NF3R.

The main opening to Europe was pretty much to Germany and the Nordic countries. The signals from Italy and Spain weren't great.

This is reflected in the beacons heard...
EI7GL 28207.1 ON0RY/B 12:59 30 May IO51TU ES JO20CK Belgium
EI7GL 28210.7 DB0FKS/B 12:57 30 May IO51TU ES JN49IT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28237.5 LA5TEN/B 12:53 30 May IO51TU ES JO59JP Norway
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 12:47 30 May IO51TU ES JN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28292.2 SK0CT/B 12:46 30 May IO51TU ES JO89XK Sweden
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 10:44 30 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28245.3 DB0TEN/B 10:42 30 May IO51TU ES JO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28298.1 SK7GH/B 10:39 30 May IO51TU ES JO77BF Sweden
EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 10:37 30 May IO51TU ES JO55WM Denmark
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 08:32 30 May IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28277.4 DM0AAB/B 08:31 30 May IO51TU ES JO54GH Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 08:29 30 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 08:28 30 May IO51TU ES JN54AA Italy
EI7GL 28215.8 SR5TDM/B 08:22 30 May IO51TU ES KO01KX Poland

The unusual one in there was ON0RY/B in Belgium at about 1,000kms. Short skip can suggest that the maximum usual frequency is higher and indeed that seemed to have been the case. Phil EI9KP reports hearing the OZ7IGY beacon on 40.071 MHz at about the same time.

These are the stations heard on FT8 on 28 MHz....

Danish OZ7IGY 40 MHz beacon back on air... May 2019

Back in March of 2019, I had a post up about how OZ7IGY in Denmark was off-air for the foreseeable future.

Well now it is back on again!

On the 26th of May 2019, the keepers of the beacon network released the following...

"40 MHz on air and intermittent NMEA loss solved – 2019-05-26

The 40 MHz beacon is back into service.

OZ1BNN, OZ2M and OZ7IS"

The OZ7IGY beacon operates on 40.071 MHz.

Tip! The 10-metre version of the beacon operates on 28.271 MHz. If you can hear that at a good signal strength then there is a chance you might hear the 40 MHz one as well.

If you hear it then be sure to put it up on the DX Cluster to raise the profile and awareness of the new 8-metre band.

Opening to North America on 28 MHz... Wed 29th May 2019

The 28 MHz finally opened to North America on Wednesday the 29th of May 2019. It was only two signals but at least it was an opening! We should see a lot more pretty soon.

The day itself was pretty reasonable as can be seen from the map below...

From the Middle East, there was A41CK in Oman, A92AA in Bahrain and HZ1SK and 7Z1IS in Saudi Arabia.

Plenty of double hop from Russia as well as ZD7BG on St.Helena in the South Atlantic.

The two signals from North America were NO8D in Ohio and VO1NE in Newfoundland. Both seem to have been heard across Europe so it wasn't just my westerly location.

There are a few other interesting ones in there as well as the band opened up to the north. Iceland was heard, OY1CT in the Faroe Islands was heard on cw as well quite a number from the west coast of Norway. Note the one lone Russian station way up there near Murmansk inside the Artic circle.

The conditions to Europe were pretty good and again, several of the very low power beacons were heard as well as the usual ones...

Beacons heard...
EI7GL 28298.1 SK7GH/B 21:04 29 May IO51TU ES JO77BF Sweden
EI7GL 28279.0 DB0UM/B 19:36 29 May IO51TU ES JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 19:31 29 May IO51TU ES JO55WM Denmark
EI7GL 28235.1 OY6BEC/B 19:28 29 May IO51TU ES IP62OA Faroe Islands
EI7GL 28237.5 LA5TEN/B 19:26 29 May IO51TU ES JO59JP Norway
EI7GL 28193.0 SQ4HWI/B 19:12 29 May IO51TU ES KO13ND Poland
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 16:36 29 May IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 14:15 29 May IO51TU ES JN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 11:20 29 May IO51TU ES JN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 11:19 29 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28241.7 F5ZUU/B 11:18 29 May IO51TU ES JN24IL France 
EI7GL 28227.2 IW3FZQ/B 11:15 29 May IO51TU ES JN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 11:12 29 May IO51TU ES JN78SB Austria
EI7GL 28265.1 DF0ANN/B 09:49 29 May IO51TU ES JN59PL Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28277.4 DM0AAB/B 09:47 29 May IO51TU ES JO54GH Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 09:43 29 May IO51TU ES JN78SB Austria
EI7GL 28322.7 F1VJT/B 09:14 29 May IO51TU ES JN33CI France
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 09:12 29 May IO51TU ES JN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28245.3 DB0TEN/B 09:09 29 May IO51TU ES JO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 09:08 29 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany

A new one for me was SQ4HWI/B in Poland which is running just 200 milliwatts! It's amazing hearing such a low power beacon from over 2,000 kms away on cw.

These are the FT8 stations heard on 28 MHz...

First Sporadic-E crossband contacts made from Ireland on 40 MHz...Sat 25th May 2019

Following on from news of the inter-EI activity on 40 MHz last weekend, here is a report of the first crossband contacts made on the 8-metre band via Sporadic-E.

Phil EI9KP has sent on the following (in Blue)...

*****
Saturday 25 May 2019.
I noticed there were strong Es signals from Europe on 10m and 6m.  I activated the 8m ‘beacon’ keyer on 40.250MHz (CW, call and locator, 30s cycle, 5W, Delta Loop, HP) but was unsure how to actually get feedback.   I posted a message on KST Chat but there was no immediate response.  Eventually I just started calling on 50.185 later on 50.250 just saying something like “have CW beacon running on 40.250 looking for reports, feedback XB on this frequency …).  I had about a dozen QSO’s in-band on 6m but those HAMs did not have receive capability for that unusual frequency.

At 1526 UTC in QSO with DG1VL on 50.250MHz, he listened on 40.250 and reported hearing my beacon 599 in JO61WB.  I subsequently changed the FT-857D to USB and we had a full 2-way cross band QSO 40.250 8m / 50.250 6m, with 59 signals.  This was my first 8m/6m cross band experience and I believe it is a first in EI cross band 8m/6m to Europe. 

At 1615 UTC in QSO with OK2KG (JN89JI), a similar experience XB 8m/50.250, first getting a beacon reception report then switching 8m to SSB for a 2-way QSO, with a 53 signal report.

Both stations were using their 6m Yagi for receive so not really optimized for 8m, however, it was just an amazing experience and totally unexpected on “Day 1” of my experiment!

Sunday 26 May 2019.
At 1424 UTC in QSO with DK7ME (locator JN47TN) on 50.250, excellent 59 signals both ways.    He reported hearing my beacon on 40.250MHz and I switched to SSB for a 2-way QSO 8m/6m.  I heard EI4GNB’s beacon earlier on the day and asked Carlos to listen on 40.300MHz; he subsequently reported hearing Tim’s beacon in IO63WE.  That’s interesting in a way as the 40MHz ‘zone’ at the time seems to cover EI East Coast to West Coast, a much wider area than I am used to on 6m propagation, it’s just an initial observation. Great for him catching 2 EI beacons in a day!

S57UHX (locator JN65UN) was following the above QSO unfortunately 6m propagation faded out so we did not have QSO on 6m, however, he reported (by email) receiving the 40.250MHz beacon 51.

*****

What Sp-E skip distances to expect on 40 MHz?? 

Conditions on 28 MHz - Tues 28th May 2019

Tuesday the 28th of May 2019 was similar to previous days on 28 MHz with plenty of Sporadic-E signals on the band. What was notable was that the band open for most of the day with good signals from about 05:00 UTC to 22:30 UTC.

There are the signals heard on FT8.....

Another feature of the day was the intensity of the signals. Many of the FT8 signals were up to S'9' and this is reflected in the number of beacons heard.

EI7GL 28240.0 IZ8RVA/B 22:03 28 May IO51TU ES JN70LI Italy
EI7GL 28210.7 DB0FKS/B 14:47 28 May IO51TU ES JN40IT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28265.1 DF0ANN/B 14:44 28 May IO51tu es JN59PL Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28251.1 ED4YAK/B 12:20 28 May IO51TU ES IN80FK Spain
EI7GL 28322.6 F1VJT/B 08:04 28 May IO51TU ES JN33CI France
EI7GL 28241.7 F5ZUU/B 07:51 28 May IO51TU ES JN24IL France
EI7GL 28180.4 I1M/B 07:49 28 May IO51TU ES JN33UT Italy
EI7GL 28169.3 ZB2TEN/B 07:46 28 May IO51TU ES IM76HD Gibraltar
EI7GL 28321.7 I3GNQ/B 06:20 28 May IO51TU ES JN55VJ Italy
EI7GL 28321.5 IZ1KXQ/B 06:19 28 May IO51TU ES JN35TB Italy
EI7GL 28285.0 DB0MFI/B 06:15 28 May IO51TU ES JN58HW Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B 06:14 28 May IO51TU ES JN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28255.8 C30P/B 06:13 28 May IO51TU ES JN02SM Andorra
EI7GL 28237.5 LA5TEN/B 06:11 28 May IO51TU ES JO59JP Norway
EI7GL 28227.2 IW3FZQ/B 06:10 28 May IO51TU ES JN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28218.0 IQ5MS/B 06:10 28 May IO51TU ES JN54AA Italy
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 06:08 28 May IO51TU ES JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 06:06 28 May IO51TU ES JN78SB Austria

The interesting beacons in there are the very low power ones. IW3FZQ/B is reported to be 5 watts into a full size J-pole vertical and is easy to hear. IZ1KXQ/B on the other hand is supposed to be 100 milliwatts into an inverted vee antenna. If I can hear those weak ones around 28.321 MHz then conditions must be good.

The mystery beacon on 28.319 MHz with the huge chirp also made an appearance. It was heard while F1VJT/B was a reasonable signal so perhaps it is in the Italian Alps west of Turin? Later in the evening when it was dark, I heard F1VJT/B again but there was no sign of the chirpy beacon. I was wondering if it was solar powered? It might explain the huge chirp.

These are the FT8 signals heard on 28 MHz in Europe with the main opening to Spain, Italy and the southern half of Germany.

50 MHz... There were some very strong signals on 50 MHz and I heard an Italian station on cw at 599 +10dB.... and that was with my antenna in the attic.

There were plenty of signals on CW and SSB and I managed to work a few of the AM70 stations in Spain on cw.

43 MHz... I also had a listen on the Italian CB at 43 MHz. I heard some very weak signals....a very weak voice and something that sounded like a data packet burst.

These are the stations heard on FT8 on 28 MHz on MOnday the 28th of May 2019...

Inter-EI activity begins on 40 MHz...

In April of 2018, Irish (EI) radio amateurs gained access to much of the low VHF spectrum including 40 MHz. Some short distance contacts were established in November of 2018.

Over the winter months, several EI stations have been busy getting ready for the new 8-metre band and this has now resulted in more inter-EI 40 MHz activity.

Thanks to Phil EI9KP in Co Sligo who has sent on the info on all the activity.

Both Phil EI9KP and Tim EI4GNB run manned beacons on the band. Over the weekend of Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th of May 2019 , they both managed to hear each others beacons at a distance of about 208 kms.

This is all the more impressive as the Dublin mountains block a lot of the signals from the west of Ireland getting into Bray where EI4GNB is located.

Here is a report from Phil EI9KP....

In EI there are two manned beacons running i.e. On air when supervised in the shack.  Info below by coincidence Tim and I are using the Yaesu FT-857D in ‘beacon mode’ for this purpose. An interesting set-up which allows us to switch to SSB for in band and cross band QSO.

EI9KP in Aclare, Co. Sligo (locator IO54MB): FT-857D, chosen freq.: 40.300MHz, mode CW, power 5W, antenna: Delta Loop horizontally polarised.  Site agl: 200m.

EI4GNB in Bray, Co. Wicklow (locator IO63WE): FT-857D, chosen freq.: 40.250MHz, mode CW, power 5W, antenna: 2 element quad horizontally polarised.

Saturday 25 May 2019:  Listening on 8m band I heard fragments of CW on 40.300MHz, some searching on the web pointed me to EI4GNB and I asked him to turn the antenna north west and  confirmed report 515 via KST Chat.  I activated my beacon on the same frequency and he confirmed report 555 after a few trials due to local QRM.

Propagation type?  Was it purely ground wave (diffracted) or tropo or something else?  We are not sure, the distance is a good 205km.  Tim reports experiencing similar propagation on 6m receiving EI3KD from time to time.  I’ll be watching his beacon signal over the next month or so.

The next day, Phil managed to make a two way SSB contact with Andrew EI3FEB in Co Galway, a distance of about 65 kms.

Again, I'll let Phil outline the contact...

Sunday 26 May 2019:  I had a sked with Andrew EI3FEB in Headford, Co. Galway (locator IO53KL).  On a test previous week on 40.250MHz we could not make contact, not even hearing a blip, it appeared our antennas were not correctly aligned for ground wave.  

Both Andrew and I are using a Delta Loop in Horizontal Polarisation;  the delta loop has a noticeable null on the tips, this time we were aligned broadside.  Success:  a 2-way SSB QSO with 5/1 reports both ways.  Distance is 65km, diffracted signal (one hill in the path).

If you are in the UK, have listen for the beacons if there is tropo about. Likewise, these signals should be easily heard on the continent when there is Sporadic-E.

Both EI9KP and EI4GNB can be contacted through their respective QRZ pages. Also look for them on the ON4KST chat page.

More information about the new 40 MHz band can be found here... https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

Photo of Phil's Delta Loop...