EI7GL....A diary of amateur radio activity

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Did STARLINK #1668 burning up over Spain cause an opening on 28 MHz?

Posted: 11 Feb 2022 09:25 AM PST https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2022/02/did-starlink-1668-burning-up-over-spain.html



The STARLINK satellite system has been in the news a lot over the last few
days as a solar flare caused a large number of them to fail on a recent
launch. On Thursday the 10th of February 2022, an older model #1668
reentered the atmosphere over Spain.
The approximate path of the 260kg satellite as it burnt up over Spain is
shown above.
Dr. Jose M. Madiedo who has a YouTube channel wrote... "This stunning
fireball was spotted from Spain on Feb. 10. It was generated as a
consequence of the reentry in the atmosphere of a Starlink satellite at
about 20:50 local time (equivalent to 19:50 universal time). The satellite (Starlink-1668) had a mass of 260 kg. It was launched by SpaceX on 2020
Oct. 6. A wide number of causal eyewitnesses could see the phenomenon. The reentry took place at about 23,000 km/h. This gave rise to a fireball which began at a height of around 95 km over the province of La Coruña (region of Galicia, northwest of Spain) and moved southeast, crossing the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean Sea. It ended over Algeria."
A video of the satellite burning up is shown at the end of this post.
28 MHz???... As this satellite burnt up over Spain, it would have left a
trail of ionized gas behind it which had to potential to refract radio
signals.
I checked the PSKReporter website for unusual signals on 50 MHz or 144 MHz
but I didn't note anything. What I did notice however on 28 MHz was that
EC1CS in the NW of Spain heard several stations in the 300-700km range on
FT8 in the space of a minute.
Rcvr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
CT7AQS 10m FT8 304 km 19:48:45 IM69FT
CR7BAV 10m FT8 593 km 19:48:42 IM67HE
CS7AUJ 10m FT8 599 km 19:48:16 IM67XE
EA5GJ 10m FT8 706 km 19:48:15 IM97JX
Over the course of a day on 28 MHz, I'd expect to gradually hear a good few
FT8 stations in the 300-700km range but what I found a bit unusual was that EC1CS heard 4 in the space of a minute at 19:48 UTC.
Was it just coincidence or was the ionized trail behind STARLINK #1668 responsible?
Was the track of the satellite too far north?
It's impossible to be certain but surely the ionized trail was capable of refracting some radio signals?

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