XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated, rec.radio.amateur.space

EI7GL....A diary of amateur radio activity

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Opening on 28 MHz to South Africa & Europe... Sat 24th Apr 2021

Posted: 24 Apr 2021 04:02 PM PDT https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2021/04/opening-on-28-mhz-to-south-africa.html



Saturday 24th April 2021: This was another reasonable day on the 28 MHz
band with a weak opening to South Africa and a reasonable Sporadic-E
opening to Europe.

The signals to Europe were strong at times but I couldn't do a scan of the
band at those times.
The one beacon I did hear was PI7BXM beacon in the Netherlands...
EI7GL 28254.0 PI7BXM/B 15:50 24 Apr IO51TU<ES>JO21WF Netherlands
The map above show the extent of the Sporadic-E opening to Europe. For the first time this year, there was a good number of signals from Finland and
the Baltic states.
A total of 169 stations were heard on FT8 in 20 countries. The solar flux
was down at 77.

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Scientist predicts the peak of the next Solar Cycle will be one year
earlier than expected

Posted: 24 Apr 2021 06:00 AM PDT https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2021/04/scientist-predicts-peak-of-next-solar.html


In a recent interview, Lisa Upton of Space Systems Research Corporation and co-chair of the NOAA/NASA Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel said... “The sun is performing as we expected–maybe even a little better. In 2019, the panel predicted that Solar Cycle 25 would peak in July 2025 (± 8 months) with a maximum sunspot count of 115 ± 10. The current behavior of the sun is consistent with an early onset near the beginning of our predicted range.”

The diagram above shows the new solar cycle running ahead of schedule. If
it continues like this then Solar Cycle 25 may peak in 2024, a year earlier than expected.
As with all solar predictions, only time will tell how accurate they are.

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Sporadic-E opening to Europe - Fri 23rd Apr 2021

Posted: 23 Apr 2021 11:03 PM PDT https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2021/04/sporadic-e-opening-to-europe-fri-23rd.html





Friday 23rd April 2021: This was a pretty reasonable day on the 28 MHz with
a modest Sporadic-E opening to Europe. As can be seen from the map above, signals from Brazil and St Helena did mange to get through but the
Sporadic-E was the main feature of the day.
As can be seen from the map, most of the signals were concentrated in one
band stretching from the Netherlands to Austria. This was probably the best
day so far of the 2021 Sporadic-E season.
Two signals made it through from an area near Moscow... F2 propagation?
Double hop Sporadic-E? Probably Sp-E but you can never be certain on 28 MHz.
I did three scans of the band when the FT8 signals seemed reasonable and I heard two beacons...
EI7GL 28245.3 DB0TEN/B 14:18 23 Apr IO51TU<ES>JO42UV Fed. Rep. of Germany
EI7GL 28188.0 OE3XAC/B 11:38 23 Apr IO51TU<ES>JN78SB Austria

A total of 232 stations in 30 countries were heard on FT8. The Solar Flux
was 84.

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