XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated

EI7GL....A diary of amateur radio activity

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PSK Reporter website passes 20 Billion Reception Records

Posted: 08 May 2021 08:03 AM PDT https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2021/05/psk-reporter-website-passes-20-billion.html




On the 8th of May 2021, the PSK Reporter website hit another milestone when
it passed the 20 Billion reception records mark. As the image shows above,
it was recording almost 1000 reception reports per second on Saturday
afternoon as it whizzed past 20 billion.
The vast majority of these reception records are of course due to the
hugely popular FT8 mode.
The chart above shows the most popular modes over a 2-hour period just
after the site passed 20 billion.
The reception reports for FT8 are 46 times the size of those for FT4.
In terms of software used in the last 7-days, the WSJT-X suite is still the largest with 23,741. The next largest is JTDX at 9,935 which seems to
becoming more popular. I think when I checked this a year or two back,
WSJT-X was a lot more dominant.
The PSK Reporter website can be found here... https://pskreporter.info/

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S55ZMS 40 MHz beacon heard in France - 7th May 2021

Posted: 08 May 2021 06:00 AM PDT https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2021/05/s55zms-40-mhz-beacon-heard-in-france.html




Jeff, F0FYF in the south-east of France reports hearing the new S55ZMS
8-metre beacon in Slovenia on 40.670 MHz on Friday the 7th of May 2021.
F0FYF wrote... "recycling is good .. an old 4-element antenna for Swiss TV, somewhat retouched for 40 Mhz with its reception amplifier and the beacon #S55ZMS is received intermittently #hamradio#radioamateur" (via Google translate) (Radio = Yaesu FT-897)
The beacon transmits in CW and PI4 and some of the decodes by Jeff are
shown below...

The distance was in the region of 775kms which suggests that the
propagation mode was short hop Sporadic-E.
In terms of short hop Sporadic-E, the 40 MHz band is worse than 28 MHz but better than 50 MHz. Under exceptional conditions, anything down to 500kms
might be expected at 40 MHz.
Since this new 40 MHz beacon moved to its final location at the end of
April 2021, it has been now been heard in Ireland, Portugal and France.
For more information on the 40 MHz band, go to https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html

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Big Sporadic-E opening on 28 MHz - Fri 7th May 2021

Posted: 08 May 2021 12:49 AM PDT https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2021/05/big-sporadic-e-opening-on-28-mhz-fri.html




Friday 7th May 2021: This was the second big Sporadic-E opening on 28 MHz
with 568 stations in 52 countries heard on FT8 (30th of April was 403 in
39). This wasn't even the full extent of the opening as I spent maybe 2
hours listening for beacons or WSPR signals.
The map above shows the big Sporadic-E opening to the centre of Europe and
you can see the arc of double hop Sporadic-E stations further east.
The one signal of interest for me was VO1CH in Newfoundland, Canada which
was probably double hop Sp-E and a hint of things to come towards North America.
Beacons: I also managed to log 11 beacons on CW...EI7GL 28257.8 DK0TEN/B
20:12 07 May IO51TU<ES>JN47NT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28245.2 DB0TEN/B 20:10 07 May IO51TU<ES>JO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28237.4 LA5TEN/B 19:11 07 May IO51TU<ES>JO59JP Norway
EI7GL 28273.0 DB0BER/B 19:09 07 May IO51TU<ES>JO62QL Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28227.2 IW3FZQ/B 17:23 07 May IO51TU<ES>JN55VF Italy
EI7GL 28271.0 OZ7IGY/B 17:22 07 May IO51TU<ES>JO55WM Denmark
EI7GL 28278.9 DB0UM/B 17:19 07 May IO51TU<ES>JO73CE Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28298.0 SK7GH/B 17:18 07 May IO51TU<ES>JO77BF Sweden
EI7GL 28205.0 DL0IGI/B 17:15 07 May IO51TU<ES>JN57MT Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28194.0 IW4EIR/B 17:13 07 May IO51TU<ES>JN54AS Italy
EI7GL 28251.0 ED4YAK/B 12:27 07 May IO51TU<ES>IN80FK Spain

WSPR: As the band was open to central Europe, I managed to hear a few
stations on WSPR...

Even though FT8 is excellent for monitoring band conditions, I find WSPR
more interesting in terms of trying to hear weak signals.

I understand the 50 MHz was also open on the 7th but I didn't check. I did
try listening for the OZ7IGY beacon on 40 MHz but had no luck.

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