Radio Propagation
40, 30 and 20m are all propagating well into the UK from around the world via FT8 mode tonight, even nearly at midnight local time!
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#radiopropagation
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Space Weather
An M2.7 flare peaked at 09h19 UT from almost Earth-facing region AR4246. A minor R1 radio blackout affected eastern and southern Africa.
An M1.9 flare also erupted from AR4246 at 05h27 UT 13 Oct.
Increasing solar activity has increased noise on the HF bands. Conditions on HF are mostly "fair" at this time.
Radio Propagation
Quite good VHF tropospheric propagation tonight is sending me the Swiss 2m beacon HB9HB in JN37 on 144.448 MHz. Distance 912km bearing 108°. Received using Airspy HF+ with a Youloop.
Radio Propagation
FT8 is propagating well on 2m tropo from Poland into my Youloop and Airspy HF+. Distance 1,423km. Also decoding Denmark, Germany France and northern Spain.
This aligns well with the tropospheric radio forecast by F5LEN.
Radio Propagation
WSPR and FT8 are incredible modes for plotting radio propagation.
Today I'm receiving 10mW WSPR beacon transmissions on 14 MHz from amateur balloon SP6MPL in mid-Atlantic and at 13,680m altitude. My receiver is an Airspy HF+ Discovery with the basic Youloop antenna at 2m above ground.
Also on the map is Polish station SQ3XZ on 21 MHz running only 1mW! Offscreen, I'm also receiving VK3QN near Melbourne running 5W. WSPR is a low-power data mode which takes 2 minutes to send a message, usually consisting of just a callsign, locator and power level information.
I'm currently decoding all WSPR and FT8 bands using two instances of WSJT-X v3, using the HF+ for WSPR and a Yaesu FT857D for FT8, feeding data to https://wspr.aprsinfo.com/ for WSPR and https://shorturl.at/ENYjH (PSK Reporter) for FT8. All HF bands are scanned several times per hour.
For offline mapping I'm using Hamclock and Grid Tracker.
Continued thread
Radio propagation
2/2 Compare this to approx12 hours later, where Europe and Africa are now in daytime and are enjoying the higher frequency bands Whilst the Americas (esp N America in this case) are having to use the lower bands to stay in contact.
The reason? The Sun’s ultraviolet and X-ray radiation ionizes atoms in the upper atmosphere, creating layers of free electrons (we call it the ionosphere).
Stronger daytime ionization supports the higher HF bands, while at night the ionization weakens, letting the lower bands travel farther.
Learn more about the basics of radio propagation here:
Radio Propagation
East-west split: Propagation conditions and timing have forced a very defined split of HF frequencies between the Americas and Europe.
The Americas are working the 20-10m bands, whilst Europe is going strong on 40-160m.
Radio Propagation
TZ4AM is the only station on the 6m band. Massive antenna, massive power!
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Radio Propagation
10m is performing well across the Atlantic from Europe this afternoon (yellow lines on the maps).
The first image is FT8 received by my station on PSK Reporter (Airspy HF+ and Youloop). The second image is reports from all stations in multiple modes as shown on my website.
[Note that I've adjusted the colour scheme from the standard one on PSK Reporter to match my website colour scheme]
https://www.tvcomm.co.uk/g7izu/atlantic-mf-hf-propagation-20min-persistence/
Radio Propagation
HF propagation looks like it's improving this week as the sunspot numbers rise. The last week or so has been quite poor on the bands.
I'm in the process of enabling transmissions from my station using my vintage - but pristine - Yaesu FT857D. I've been lurking as a listener since the 1990s!
I'm planning to use SSB and FT8 modes once I've gotten my head around linking the PC to the rig and protecting the SDR receivers from possible input overload. The antenna will be a Chamelion Basic 60 at around 5m agl.
Listening to FT8 using an Airspy HF+ and Youloop over the last 24 hours on all bands is giving fairly good global reception (2nd and 3rd images).
You can track my FT8 reception on PSK Reporter:
Radio Propagation
The 40m band is supporting some good regional propagation across the UK and Europe this evening. The usual interfering data traffic is blocking the lowest end of the band.
Radio Propagation
Patches of "good" to "strong" tropospheric radio propagation are drifting eastwards across northern Europe, creating boosts for the various VHF contests that are running today.
I've been hearing a station 450km to my east from Germany* on 2m USB using a discone.
*EDIT Another correction from me ;-) The station (TM5R) is north of Paris in France, not in Germany!
Space Weather
Aurora Alert: Mid-latitude aurora is being reported by amateur radio operators down to ~52°N over Europe and the UK.
This auroral radio contact map shows all reported contacts for the last three hours between 15h UT until 18h00 UT*
*corrected, oops!
#radiopropagation
#amateurradio
#aurora
#g7izu
Radio Propagation
Sporadic-E: Es clouds over Poland are raising the MUF above 88 MHz in the region.
Radio Propagation
Sporadic-E: Strong Es clouds over north-east Europe are pushing the MUF above 88 MHz.
Radio Propagation
It's starting to look like it'll be another good day for OIRT and FM DXing in Europe as sporadic-E builds to the east. OIRT FM from Belarus is being reported into Ireland.
*I just logged Svitle Radio Emmanuyil in Lviv on 69.82 MHz.
Radio propagation
Sporadic-E: A burst of possibly Ukraine Radio Emmanuyil on 69.26 MHz OIRT-FM.
**Update: This is more like BR Radio Stalitsa, Belarus.
Radio Propagation
Sporadic-E: Double-hop Es on FM band 2 are being reported between Finland and NW Spain at 3102km, also between Finland and Mallorca at 2855km!
Continued thread
A quick scan of French and Spanish stations on the lower FM band (tropo propagation).