2m Sporadic E Today.

 This was a bit of a surprise.

I had the radio running on 1297.5 and the second receiver on 144.300.

Suddenly I noticed SSB signals coming on, and when I checked it was a French station. I managed to work a QSO with my horizontal omnidirectional antenna, my Big Wheel.

I did hear some Spanish stations, too, but not strong enough to make any QSOs.

This season has been a bit below normal to me, but I did manage to make Es on 2m, after all. 

I do need a better antenna bit higher up, probably a small 4 element yagi on a rotator.

More Sporadic E Monitoring.

8m had more sporadic E today. Openings to Slovenia, Greece and Spain, with plenty of spots from my 40.680MHz FT8 propagation monitor.

Lots of spots on 6m. Were some of them F2 backscatter.

Yesterday 6m had spots on 6m from Southern Africa. Is this TEP enhanced by sporadic E?

Update approx. 2000Z:

6m opened to South America (Brazil) this evening. Detected a few stations with my very poor monitoring antenna. I could see many "local" stations working into PY/PU.The opening lasted at least an hour.

Exciting times.

Beginning of the Sporadic E Season.

We are approaching the month of May, and I am seeing the first signs of the sporadic E season. 

For a few days the 6m FT8 monitor has shown more signals from across Europe than a few weeks ago, and a few days ago the first signals from Spain came on  8m. In Spain stations of (certain license type) can apply for 8m permits, and a few have been seen on 40.680MHz with my FT8 monitor.

This afternoon (and some days ago) a few Irish stations were through on the 8m FT8 monitor.

6m Opening From OZ to ZD7.

Interesting time on 6m.

I still have my FT8 monitoring running on 50.313MHz. Today that kind of monitoring gave an interesting result. I did not make a QSO, but I made the following observation:

From about 1542 and 1809 I received ZD7BG, mostly at lower levels, but peaking at -1dB SNR. 

This happens with a sub-par system, running the 6m element of my R-6000 antenna  (feed point at 6m) with an old Tokyo Hy Power handheld radio. The R6000 has very poor performance on 6m, but is quite good on 10-12-15-17-20m.

I could see in my listings on WSJT that several local stations worked QSOs with the ZD7, but I saw this a few hours later.

To me this shows the value of monitoring 6m outside the sporadic E main season.

To be fair, there was some sporadic E on 6m with good signals from Southern Europe. This happens all year round, and the past few days there have been some openings.

Sporadic E alone cannot explain signals from St. Helena, though. The distance is just over 8000km. I suspect that this was sporadic E propagation feeding a signal into the TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) zone. The Solar flux today was relatively low at 115, so F2 propagation is very unlikely. Also, the time of detecting the propagation makes F2 propagation even more likely, as in the North-South paths like this one F2 propagation would peak about local noon.

To me this shows the value of 24/7 monitoring of 6m, especially at times outside the peak of the solar cycle.

Another Personal Challenge. QRP.

This year I will make an attempt to get 365 QSOs in the log, all with just 5W output or less - no matter the band.

The most used transceiver is likely to be the IC-705, but other transceivers, either with a 5W power limit or higher power transceivers set to 5W out may be used. e.g. I intend to get the IC-7300 up and running with a 30m vertical. This antenna will also work on 10-6-4m, so I can get some summer sporadic E, and maybe some other band activity going. 

This requires me to build a new vertical. It will be a ground mounted 30m quarter wave with a good amount of shorter radials on the ground. Other bands in between may also be added with extra (wire elements), e.g. 20, 17 and 15m.

2m Es Continues.

 This year's sporadic E season could turn out to be the best in my experience.

Yesterday, June 11th, I had the highest number of Es QSOs in a single day on 2m.

4 different stations in Southern France, one in SSB, the others in FT8, and a single Spanish station, EA1SA in IN83.

I am hopeful there will be more. 

This year I have been focusing more on the 2m band than on 4m and 6m when the chances look good, and it has been successful, even if I have missed openings - sometimes by mere minutes.

I have made good use of PSK-reporter and DX-Maps. Even when I was not at the radios, I can monitor the propagation on a separate screen in the house, and that pays off nicely. Of course, when I am away from the house I cannot immediately go to the radio, but at least I know if something interesting has happened while away.

Of course I want to make some contacts with this rare propagation, but I do not want to be tied to the radios all the time.

2m Sporadic E, and a Transatlantic Opening on 6m.

 The late afternoon today had a nice Es opening on 2m. Stations received were EA1. EA3, EA6 and IS0.

I managed a single QSO with EA6SA, and I was called by another EA6, but no complete QSO.

All with my omnidirectional "Big Wheel" antenna, so I am not complaining at all.

After finishing reading a book I noticed that the 6m band was open to North America. While I did not work any of the stations with my limited power, 80W into an omnidirectional vertical, the Diamond 3-band antenna "V2000", A lot of stations from Florida and Texas in the South to Wisconsin and further East in the North.

I really need a better antenna for 6m, one that can take the power from a power amplifier. I do have one, but it has been put away for the time being, because the antenna is only rated to 150W, and I do not want to lose it.

All in all a very interesting day of sporadic E.

Here is a thought. When looking at my logs through the years, there is a tendency to have 2m Es openings  at my place more often around two sets of dates, about 8th - 10th June and 8th - 10th July. This could be a coincidence, but it does coincide with meteor showers at those dates, so who knows? I do not.

I am well aware that the cause of sporadic E has many other (unknown) factors, but it is a thought I have had for some time.

More 2m Es.

 2m is at it again. The DX Maps' MUF chart had lots of red patches, and some really high MUF spots (>200MHz).

I have not worked anything, the "high MUF" spots are either too close or too far. As is classic, at the moment of signals from EA3, EA5, I was in the shower. There is a reason it is named **Sporadic** E.

Update 1538UTC:

IK7JNM in JN80 worked.

Update 1830UTC:

IK7UXW. also in JN80 a bit later, and even later

EA2BFM in IN83. Some EA4 also heard, but not worked.

Update 1900UTC:

IU0LLD in JN61FU

Considering that I am working with a simple omnidirectional antenna (Big Wheel) this is not bad. I think I need to get my preamplifier sequencing  working, so my "ears" will improve.

Most Active Es Day For Me This Year.

Today was quite a day for sporadic E propagation (Es).

2m:

While I have received Es on 2m a few days ago, I worked my first 2m Es today. One Russian and one Italian. Both were worked with FT8 because I only had low power available at those moments. I discovered the opening to Italy a bit late when I checked the PSKreporter while in a local QSO, then I got busy. I probably missed the main opening, but at least I got one.

Here is the map of received stations via 2m Es today. Quite a bit of propagation.

Initially I tried to work SSB or CW, but at that moment the PA went on strike. After the openings I checked, and with a power disconnect-reconnect it works again. I suspected the RF input level to the PA was too high in SSB, so played with the levels for DIGI modulation and Mic Gain, as well as limiting the RF output level of the radio, and now all works nicely again.

4m:

The other day I worked a single station on Es, today there was a bit more (yes, just two). The antenna used is still the HF dipole. not ideal, but it does provide QSOs.

6m:

This band has been humming with signals every day the past week. Today I got just under 20 QSOs on 6m, all with trying 2 and 4m in the mean time.

Oh, the weather was perfect for working on the radio, raining much of the day.

Beginning of the Sporadic E Season.

Monitoring FT8 signals on 10m has shown me two things:

1) F2 propagation is slowly starting after the deep solar minimum. I regularly detect signals form South America, a bit of the Middle East and a a few stations from Oceania, mainly Indonesian stations. I am looking forward to be able to work stations world wide with CW (and maybe SSB) on 10m, maybe even with QRP.

2) Most days I detect signals from all over Europe, mostly at distances of more than 1200km. Soon I will have to change the monitoring to 6m and maybe 4m. 

At the same time I am trying to reduce the visual impact of my antenna system as much as possible.

Last year I had separate vertical antennas for 6m, 4m and 10m. Not very good for low visual impact. This year I am planning to test an unusual antenna for multiband use: A 10MHz ground plane antenna. This will have a low impedance resonance on 30 (workable on 28MHz with a tuner), 50 and 70MHz, with some low angle radiation. What remains to be seen is whether this will work well for 6 and 4m, if it does I will keep that as a vertical for 4 bands. With a frequency multiplexer I should be able to use the antenna simultaneously for all 4 bands. I have a diplexer separating HF and VHF, so that is a start. But before I can do this I will have to dismantle my separate 4m vertical, and that is too difficult without assistance. I hope that the COVID restrictions will ease sufficiently for that to be possible, very soon, so I do not miss too much of the Es season.

There is more antenna maintenance needed, but this has a rather high priority.

I have some ideas for making a very modest rotatable antenna system for 6/4/2m and 70/23/13/3cm. For 3cm DX I know I will need something larger, but I have to start somewhere. More on this project later.

Local Tropo and Other Propagation on 2m.

 In August we had some beautiful sunny weather, providing some excellent tropo propagation on 2m, and, as reported by others, also on the higher bands. Now we are back to the classical Danish weather, a little bit of sunshine, some heavy rain, even cloud bursts.

A few evenings the local FM channel had S9 signals from distances between 100 and 200km (60 - 120 miles). I refer to this kind of propagation as "Local Tropo", mostly because running SSB/CW regularly provides longer distances than this. 

Don't get me wrong, "Local Tropo" is quite fun, but I prefer working the longer distances, using SSB/CW, and sometimes the weak signal modes, like FT8. 

Mind you, on 2m FT8 is an excellent addition to the arsenal in tropo openings, but for sporadic E the fading in and out is often too fast for finishing a QSO, whereas with SSB or CW the signals can be quite strong for a very short period, then disappear forever, but in that time a QSO can be easily worked with CW or SSB. If the sporadic E lasts longer, the signals are often quite strong for a long time, and it is not necessary to use FT8. 

While this is true for Sporadic E, there might be some longer lasting scatter-like propagation making contacts possible with FT8, that could not be made otherwise, so I cannot totally discard it as being useful. As an example, some weak, slightly longer lasting sporadic E or some scatter mode, extended by tropo propagation just might provide some possibilities for 3-5000km distances for a station location like mine, not particularly suited for long haul tropo (-scatter). Yes I am not located close to an ocean, where really long sea ducts can occur.

Interesting Propagation on 6m Today. Update.

Today's FT8 monitoring of 6m had some interesting results. Propagation into North America.

While this takes place in the sporadic E season I still do not think this is classical multi-hop Es, but a different mode. Because it appears in the Es season it is correlated, for sure, but what causes this propagation is not really understood.

Between 1617 and 1847 UTC signals were detected from KP4. K8, N3, N5 and XE. First time I have detected a signal from Mexico, albeit in the Northern part near Texas, there the N5 was located.

This is where a digital weak signal mode makes things interesting. We discover propagation that we could not see before because the signals were too weak to be detected reliably in SSB or CW.

The strongest signal detected was the XE with -10dB S/N, and that could probably have been detected in the CW mode. The others were much weaker, and would have been non-detectable with my setup.

Now, my setup is **very simple**: I am using the IC-7600 transceiver with a vertical triband antenna for 70cm, 2m and 6m, the Diamond V-2000. With a beam antenna, even a small one, I am sure that I could have heard more.

Of course, all this happened while I was away from the radio, but OK, I detected the propagation.

Update, Monday July 13th:

Many stations seen this afternoon, from Texas, Minnesota, Georgia, South Carolina, a host of North-Eastern states, and one Canadian station: VA3DX.

Also, I noticed that, as opposed to May and June, in July there are more openings to Northern Scandinavia. I seem to recall that this has been the case in previous years. If anyone has more data on this I would appreciate some information.

Finally: 2m Sporadic E QSO, the First After I Moved Back to OZ.

Hooray !
After a few false starts, first receiving FT8 signals while away from the radio, and hearing sporadic (sic!) signals on 2m, I made my first QSO via 2m sporadic E, since I moved back to Denmark.

This is probably my first sporadic E on 2m since I moved to The Netherlands in late 1989.

Before this, today I heard a few signals, was calling EB1A, close, but no QSO. I was told that he had heard me, but we could not complete.

Then hearing a local, OZ6OL, working into HA, I could hear the HA, but no.

Then, after a bit of quiet, I worked YU7ACO in KN05rd. The MUF was clearly hig in some other places, but at least I got started.

The Beginning of the "Summer" Sporadic E Season.

10m and 6m have been buzzing with European activity today, and some yesterday, too.
Also, I saw someone reporting Es on 4m.
The season has started.
This does not, of course, mean that we will have Es every day for the next monts, but it is a nice beginning.
My 10m map for the last 24 hours show (I think) Es-linked F2 propagation to South america and probably to the Middle East. At least 2 stations from the Arabian peninsula were reported here. Hundreds of reports from European stations and places like EA8, etc.
I am now changing my FT8 listening frequencies to 10m and up. Right now it will be 10m, 6m and 2m, even if I only expect tropo signals on 2m the next few weeks.

Busy times ahead, this time with operation on VHF bands and up, plus, of course, my favourite HF band: 10m.