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EI7GL....A diary of amateur radio activity

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Opening on 28 MHz to the Far East - 28th Sept 2021

Posted: 29 Sep 2021 12:00 AM PDT https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2021/09/opening-on-28-mhz-to-far-east-28th-sept.html



Tuesday 28th September 2021: There was an extensive opening on the 28 MHz
band with signals coming in from several continents as can be seen from the
map above.
If this map was for say 14 MHz then I'd be thinking 'so what?' but it's
not, it's for the 28 MHz where we are just below the low VHF spectrum. At
28 MHz, we're near the limit of what is and isn't possible with F2 layer propagations.
What does the map show???
1) Sporadic-E to Europe - Despite the fact that it's the end of September, there are still Sporadic-E openings. Not only do these allow contacts in
the 1000-2000km region but they also allow you to reach further south where
F2 conditions are more likely.
2) Real East-West F2 propagation - Notice all those stations in the south
of Russia, Turkey and the Middle East. That is genuine F2 payer propagation
and it's East-West as opposed to North-South. That is a really good sign
that we're coming out of the low point of the sunspot cycle.
It's also likely that if there were East-West openings on 28 MHz then North-South paths in the low VHF spectrum above 30 MHz were also likely to
be possible.
3) Far East - This opening to Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore was
via multi-hop F2 layer propagation. I heard 38 separate stations from
Indonesia in the region of 12000 to 13000 kms using a simple half-wave
vertical antenna so conditions must have been good.
4) South Africa and South America - Possibly a mixture of F2 layer and TEP propagation. As already noted, it was likely that the opening in this
direction extended up into the low VHF spectrum.
5) USA - This is the first time that I heard the USA this season and I
wasn't expecting to hear it for another few weeks. In truth, it was barely
open and it was what I would have expected i.e. the south-east corner of
the USA. What was missing were the single hop F2 signals from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Maine.
In Conclusion... In total, I heard 368 different stations in 42 DXCC
countries on 28 MHz on the 28th of September 2021. The Solar Flux was at 89.
If we are getting East-West propagation now on the 28 MHz at the end of September, I'd expect there will be some pretty good conditions in October
and November.

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