China on 6m and Iono to Sweden on 2m - Summer is here!

Today I have worked one station. Thankfully that one station was in a new country on 6m. BA4SI produced DXCC number 111 on 50MHz. He is in square PM01 at a distance of 8928km. 

I did work China before on 6m, but I could not count it as a new country. The previous QSO was mixed up and I did not receive my report directly, though I did receive RR73. The WSJT-X log did show a report, but I decided not to claim it. Enough information was probably exchanged but I waited for today's contact with a different station to make things certain. I reckon that I had better to do it correctly with a clean contact before claiming it.

FT8 contact between GM4FVM and BA4SI on 28 June 2024

Earlier I was hearing several Japanese stations, but they were not hearing me. Another time maybe.

Enough of 50MHz. Conditions have been pretty good at times on 144MHz too. 

On 23 June I worked three SM stations on Q65 on 144.180MHz. This was clearly Ionoscatter as each contact was perfectly stable but weak. The tell-tale streaky patterns on the waterfall gave the game away as Iono. The DX was correct for Iono at 1204, 1218 and 1253km. I then moved to FT8 on 144.174 where there was lots of calling and replying but no completed contacts. This often happens during Iono openings. I then worked OH6KTL on FT8 in KP02 at 1504km. This might have been Es because he appeared suddenly, was pretty strong, and disappeared similarly quickly.

Ionoscatter is interesting but I only have 200W and a 9 element antenna on 2m which may be a bit on the low side. I can hopefully rely on superstations at the other end. 

24 June started with some tropo propagation on VHF. I worked OZ7UV on 2m and then OZ2ND on 2m and 70cm. Nothing was heard on 23cm. I tried the 23cm beacons with disappointing results. After that the tropo faded and I watched as a large Es patch developed over France and Spain

DXMaps "MUF Sp-E" chart on 24 June

This patch was just too far South for me, as the 1000km ideal spot for DX needs to be over IN87 to work for me in this direction. Instead I could only observe the action as stations in the South of England (who of course I could hear) worked into Madeira, Morocco and Algeria.

After several hours of nothing in particular happening up popped EA5AJX in IM98 at 1930km. There was just time to work him before he faded out. I like to see the red squares on the DX Maps Es chart as that means 2m is likely to be in the action, but of course the Es also works below that maximum frequency. I also worked EA1BYA on 70MHz.

144MHz contacts at GM4FVM 23 to 27 June 2024

There has been some high pressure around generally and I was very pleased to work LA6GKA on 144MHz on 26 June at 17:09 with +09dB reports both ways. The tropo openings along the path to Norway from here are often very localised but also quite long lasting. It can be frustrating to hear each other calling CQ for ages and not working anyone. But of course there is not much activity around here, and the same seems to be true of South West Norway. 

Although I heard SM0KAK again today on Ionoscatter using Q65, no contact resulted. There is still time this summer to have some more contacts on this unusual propagation mode, plus lots of time for more Es and tropo. So we hope.

It must be summer. It is sunny, 13C, and the wind is gusting at 59km/h. Tomorrow night it is predicted to be 12C, with 7C for the next two nights. After that it is likely to be positively roasting at 8C. The heat pump maybe decide it is time to come on now that the nights are drawing in again. Got to keep the frost off the radios.

Whatever the temperature in IO85, propagation has taken a sunny turn. And my usual sunny disposition has returned.

73 Jim

GM4FVM

Propagation giveth ...

Propagation giveth and propagation taketh away. 

In the 21 days since my last posting here I have worked 220 stations. That is about 11 contacts per day.

That hardly describes what has been happening. I do not make 11 contacts every day, and it would be boring if I did.

Instead what happens is that there are hours of nothing happening followed by short spells of intense activity. The radios are on for most of the day while I come and go from the shack while building a Metcalfe cardboard kit. Each time I return I take massive punts on whether I need to be in there or not.

For most of the time the screens and maps are blank, or filled with "local" traffic. Some of this local traffic has to be of interest to me. Some of these people want to to work IO85, though it is not a rare square. To keep me active in these areas I try to keep my annual DXCC list ticking over. This involves me chasing countries in Europe and all over the world. Places like Guernsey and Wales can be as hard to work from here each year as some more exotic "once in a career" places.

So I keep active but there are still long very quiet gaps. 70MHz can be particularly quiet, but then it is only on 70MHz that I really see Sporadic E in action. 4m also keeps me on track to working 144MHz Es. Without 4m Es I would never be ready or pointing in the right direction for 2m Es. Having said that, I have missed all the 2m Es this season, though not for radio reasons.

I am not complaining about the quiet periods. I just want to make it clear that it is not a free-for-all at this time of year. I am happy - if I wanted 20m activity levels I would go on to 20m. No chance of that happening, is there?

For a lot of the time, DXMaps can look like this:-

70MHz DX Maps seen at GM4FVM with  no activity at 10:27 local time on 16 June 2023

Not much point clicking on this image to enlarge, but you can if you like.

It can be like that for long periods. 50MHz might show more activity, but often nothing reaching GM4FVM. It is amazing how small the DX searchlight can be, and how it seems to shine somewhere else.

Some things seems fairly certain. When dealing with a random feature, like where the DX stations are to be found, these factors seems pretty constant. The basic rules (excluding tropo) are:-

1) wherever DX is workable is now, it will not be soon

2) whatever happens this morning will not happen again the same way this afternoon

3) whatever happens today will not happen the same way tomorrow.

So whilst this means that if things are good now you cannot count on that later, at the same time if things are bad now they will be better later. The thing you don't know is how long "later" might be. That what creates the frustration fun.

The opportunities are generally divided into morning and afternoon sessions, and these are repeated tomorrow. So there are gaps overnight and around the middle of the day. At peak summer you get third evening session.

With tropo you tend to get a morning session and then later afternoon into evening and especially around and after sundown. Tropo openings can last for several days. This year tropo openings have been rare anyway. The much more stable pattern on tropo only goes to show how different Es, TEP and 50MHz F-layer propagation are by comparison.

With Es, TEP and 50MHz F-layer there is nothing you can watch for like a pressure chart as with tropo. you just have to take your chance. It opens unpredictably one minute and closes the next. There are websites promoting ideas like thunderstorms and "favourable jet streams" but these always look backwards after the event. They can predict nothing meaningful, only try to explain what you have already missed. At this point of scientific knowledge we are basically on our own with these propagation modes.

So here is what it has looked like here from one extreme to the other:-

a) Days when nothing much happened.

30 May radios on, me in the shack, no contacts at all

6 June radios on, me in the shack, also no contacts at all.

31 May one QSO - mind you it was a nice one to PY2XU on 6m.

7 June was not entirely without result. One contact all day - Jeff G8SEI on 2m. Thanks Jeff.

8 June had no 70MHz activity except D4L, a new DXCC.

11 June also just one contact - 4Z5LA on 6m. 

b) Days with sudden bursts of contest activity 

5 June had the 144MHz FT8 UKAC which produced 13 contacts into 5 DXCC in just 47 minutes.

12 June included the RSGB UKAC 432MHz FT8 contest - 15 stations in 61 minutes covering 4 DXCC.

c) Days with sudden bursts of activity on 50MHz

1 June - I worked seven in US and Canada on 6m in 21 minutes.

2 June - I worked 6 stations in Japan on 6m in 66 minutes plus a new country in the shape of 4L4LW.

15 June Two contacts all day and then a sudden opening produced 9 QSOs into USA in 38 minutes.

d) Days with sudden bursts of activity on 70MHz

29 May - 11 QSOs  which took 86 minutes to reach 5 DXCC and UN7MBH was good DX

3 June - 21 contacts in 10 DXCC in 80 frantic minutes.

Conclusions? No, more doubts.

There is a difference between quantity and quality. 8 June did not produce much activity, but it did provide D4L as a new one on 4m and J35X and J88IH for two new ones on 50MHz. Three new countries across two bands is worth waiting the whole day for. On the other hand, waiting all day when nothing happens is very frustrating. Is a burst of activity lasting an hour or so which produces no new DXCC better?

I don't know the answer to that, but I press on. When you see my charts with lots of contacts in various directions you might think that I am busy working DX all the time.

Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Three weeks work went into this one, even if the statistics ignore the start period and the end period when nothing was worked.

50MHz contacts over 2000km at GM4FVM 29 May to 17 June 2024

There may have been a lot of unproductive time but I reckon that it was worth it.

70MHz contacts at GM4FVM 29 May to 17 June 2024

70MHz has been pretty good really. I have noted several stations I did not hear last year, but who are familiar from earlier years. I think last year must have been pretty poor. So, a bit less silence than last year.

As for prospects for later this year --- who knows but my experience is that the two weeks after the solstice is better than the two weeks before. Let us see.

So far today I have worked ... nothing. Still it is only 14:43. You just never know and the 23cm UKAC this evening might be full of DX.

73 Jim

GM4FVM