Six metre band - more than just "magic".

I wince every time I hear someone call the six metre band "the magic band". This is a scientific hobby, and magic means affected by supernatural forces (or supernatual beings!). I am pretty sure that the only things which affect the 50MHz band are natural forces.

Sorry to be a spoilsport, but using an incorrect term just infantalises our hobby. It is for us to try to understand the scientific way propagation works on all bands including this one. Just to kick the whole thing into the long grass but putting it down to magic risks radio amateurs looking stupid. Are we becoming lazy and not looking for the reasons why this wonderful band behaves the way it does? I doubt if governments who spend millions on attending conferences and lobbying to preserve amateur radio privileges would appreciate us throwing 50MHz propagation into the bin marked "magic".

Do I know the reason for specific openings on 6m? No, of course not, but I am willing to put a bit of thought into what I see happening.

On 5 October 2026 I was sitting at the radio hoping for an opening on 6m. I do not usually do that during October. I was warned in advance about this as I had seen on SolarHam that a coronal hole had spat charged particles into space and some was expected to come our way. On days when this is predicted I am hoping for a Kp number of about 3 or 4.

SolarHam update, 4 October 2026

Before this coronal hole effect reached Earth I was hearing nothing on 6m. The main opening in the UK happened on 5 October. By 6 October things had returned to normal and I was not able to have a QSO in the following days. But on 5 October I worked 24 DX stations in 16 squares in 9 countries. This was between 10:45 and 16:02, minus two hours for an international shopping jaunt to England.

6m contacts at GM4FVM on 5 October 2026 (Image ADIF to Karte)

Apart from two other days when solar activity was predicted when I worked a total of three stations, I have worked nothing on 50MHz outside the UK since 30 August. Nobody worked for 32 days of normal conditions, then 24 stations in a day, then back to nothing. Quite an opening. Magic? That would be a handy way of hiding it from any further investigation. I do not think the 5 October opening was due to magic.

These contacts were clearly "Sporadic E" (Es). They had the clear signs of Es such as considerable strength and they were all within about 2200km. Another Es characteristic was that the propagation moved around, first covering Italy and San Marino, then adding Spain and then after I returned from shopping, Eastern Europe with Italy still present. Best DX for me was 2027km to YU7EF in KN04KT

I saw no opening on 70MHz though there were a few contacts further south of me. I did see Es contacts on 28MHz at the same time covering similar parts of the world.

Most amateurs are probably familiar with Sporadic E. It happens every year during the summer and covers amateur bands from below 28MHz to 144MHz. During about four months in the summer each year we see Es happening regularly without watching for solar events. This year it was definitely over on 50MHz by the end of August. Summer Es does not happen in October. 

There is a widely accepted model for how Es works, and that explanation does not involve charged particles from the sun ...

Proposed Sporadic E explanation (retrieved from old FVM blog)

That explanation explains successfully why Es happens independently of the solar cycle - this process relies upon ionisation which takes place when meteors enter the atmosphere and a slowed by the atmosphere, providing all the energy required for ionisation. The arrival of large quantities of tiny "random" meteors happens all year and is fairly even in quantity (meteor showers by comparison provide only a small portion of this material for most of the year).

The general understanding of all this is that this "wind shear" explanation depends on seasonal factors. The seasons are driven by the Sun's heat so of course Es is so common during summer. Apart from the peak days of summer, it only happens during the local daytime.

So far so good. Under this explanation Summer Es does not depend on charged particles from the Sun thus does not depend on Solar Wind, the Solar Cycle or anything similar. Then what explains the 5 October 2026 opening, and others like it, which do seem to be related to solar activity? 

I can be fairly sure that something is going to happen during the winter when SolarHam predicts charged particles are streaming our way. What I cannot know is if the polarity of these particles is suitable to create an opening on 6m. Sometimes I strike lucky, and sometimes I get nothing. Sometimes the particles shoot past and miss the Earth. We cannot make more than an approximation of the speed of the particles as they leave the Sun, the size of the ejection, nor their complex angular velocity, so the predictions can be wrong. But I have seen enough of these events to be fairly certain that when Es happens during the winter months it is often related to solar activity, and I can be warned of that in advance by a raised K number predicted on SolarHam. 

The wind shear explanation has been professionally tested and I am sure that explains Summer Es. I might add that I am unsure if the wind shear explanation accounts for the sudden dramatic opening on 5 October and others like it, nor "Winter Es" (often wrongly called "Christmas Es"), nor the Europe-Japan openings in high summer, nor "Polar Es", nor "Auroral Es". In short, it seems to me that there may be more factors at play producing refraction in the E layer than just the wind shear theory. And I can be pretty sure that some openings that get put down as "Es" are definitely of an entirely different origin, such as long period ionisation which can happen during extremely strong meteor showers. I think it might have different causes, but it all looks like the same old "Sporadic E".

I wonder are there possibly several processes happening which are all lumped together by hams under one heading. Just because we amateurs see the characteristic Es type opening maybe we then categorise them all together as "Sporadic E". Sure, all the propagation happens in the E layer, has a maximum path on a single hop of about 2200km, it all moves around, covers small areas at the DX end, etc. However, that does not mean that they are all caused by the same mechanism.

Specifically, these winter openings seem to me to coincide with solar events. Can that be coincidence? I doubt it. I have followed this possible link for over ten years. One theory which has been suggested to me is that the arrival of charged particles into the E layer gives enough extra energy to cause ionisation and trigger Es. That sounds quite plausible, but does it happen by an entirely  different mechanism to the wind shear theory? I personally cannot see that increased solar activity would influence the wind shear mechanism which would otherwise be asleep over the winter months.

So the conclusion is, I don't know. Still, I am not inclined to let this go without giving it some thought. When SolarHam predicts a coronal hole or a mass ejection during the winter months I will be ready on 6m. I cannot be certain though, as only a K number of about 3 or 4 is likely to work. If the stream misses us then the number will be too low, and if it is strong and hits Earth squarely the K number will be 5 or more and an aurora will strip out ionised particles and prevent any Es. Still, an aurora is good in other ways, and as it calms down you often get Auroral Es which is another benefit.

I cannot see how the wind shear theory explains a day like 5 October. I cannot see how it explains Winter Es and all that type of propagation either.

I can say something with a fair degree of certainly:- IT IS NOT MAGIC THAT DOES THIS. 

73 Jim (disappearing in a puff of magic ionised dust)

GM4FVM

Replacing a rotator at GM4FVM

In brief, I tilted over the mast, took off the Yaesu G-450 which I had been using, installed a new G-1000 model, screwed everything back together, raised the mast and after calibration and installing a new USB controller, everything worked. 

OR you can read the long winded version (or just look at the pictures) next:--- 

Here at GM4FVM we have two masts and thus two rotators. On the main mast is (was) a Yaesu G-450 rotator. 

At present on that mast are three antennas. First is the two band (two feed) DUAL four element on 50MHz and five element on 70MHz. Above that comes an 18 element I0JXX yagi for 432MHz and above that is an eight element I0JXX for 144MHz. Since I recently moved the 70cm antenna to a position between the other two antennas I have become a bit concerned that this may have added too much load for the G-450, especially in this windy area.

The G-450 looking tired

Another concern I had was that the G-450 actually comes from an unknown background. I bought it in a silent key sale along with various other things (like the IC-7100 which I still use daily). I had no plan to use it, thinking it might give up parts. However, when my own G-450 failed I just put up this one and gave it no more thought. I do not know how old it is, or what work it has been doing before I got it.

And finally, I wanted to get more accuracy when it comes to directing the antennas. The G-450 has been operated using a Hy-gain YRC-3 controller. This gives me antenna control from the computer screen, and allows automatic moon tracking and so forth. The Hy-gain controller is fine for use on the lower bands, but it was not really accurate enough for the narrow beam width of the 70cm antenna. It would do for terrestrial work, but for moon bounce it cannot reach the accuracy I need (or what I think I need).

I have had computer control for a long time, originally using a controller kit from EA4TX and a Yaesu G-600 rotator. That arrangement went back about 20 years and the G-450s and the Hy-gain controller arrived about ten years ago. In fact the G-450 had been a step backwards in specification compared to the old G-600 and recently I began to worry if the G-450 was no longer up to the job of turning more, larger, antennas I now have.

So I began to think of a new stronger rotator. In the end I decided on the Yaesu G-1000. Compared to the G-450 this offered 33% more braking torque, up to nearly 100% more turning torque (depending on rotation speed) and 100% more weight capacity. The K factor, the overall measure of load performance, is 130% greater and the wind loading is 120% greater than the G-450. Overall this looked like a sensible step up to take.

The G-450 alongside the G-1000

The G-1000 has a DC motor while my older G-450 uses an AC motor. Hy-gain YRC-3 is switchable between AC and DC so it would drive the G-1000, but I wanted to step up to more accurate positioning while retaining computer control. The G-1000 controller has a six pin DIN socket on the back which allows the use of a Yaesu outboard box to connect to a computer via a USB socket.

The snag with the Yaesu USB box is that it costs £400+. After looking at a couple of alternatives I chose an ERC-Duo USB box which is often available in the UK for about £120. As it was out of stock when I needed one I ordered one from Wimo in Germany. The ERC box would allow me to interface between the G-1000 controller and PST-Rotator running on my computer and allow me full control and tracking.

When a suitably still day arrived to change over the rotators I hatched a plan to replace them without taking the antennas off their supporting pole. This would be tricky, given the weight involved but I hoped to support the pole from underneath. This would take the pressure off the rotator when the mast was tilted over, and allow me to change over. In the event it worked well. It would have worked even better if I had managed to get every aspect of the plan correct.

Mast tilted with pole supported and G-450 uncoupled from the pole

Once I had got everything in the right place I could uncouple the G-450 and remove it. Then by undoing the bolts on the upper bearing I could move the pole up the rotator cage and leave enough room to get the G-1000 into the space.

Along with the rotator in the SK sale came a spare Yaesu rotator cable. This had been cut and mended in three places but has proved to be of much use down the years. I used it to test and calibrate the G-1000 in the shack before the day when the change over was to be done. Whilst the calibration might be slightly different with my normal cable it would be close enough. In fact it proved to be within about two degrees. What went wrong here was that I set the rotator to 110 degrees when I always set my antennas to 100 degrees. Good plan which worked in almost all ways save one silly mistake.

I was able to slot the new rotator into the gap and lower the pole into the top bracket. Then there was the tricky job of tightening the bolts on the rotator which Yaesu insist has to be done in strict order in quarter turns at a time. This is good advice as I have snapped alloy fitting before with these rotators. Do not over-tighten!

G-1000 installed

That done I could lower the pole with the rotator (and antennas!) attached, do up the bolts on the base and start re-aligning the bearing at the top of the rotator cage. I was aware that this bearing had become slightly out of kilter over the years and so it needed to be done anyway.

With all that complete there were still a few jobs to do. Yaesu recommend testing and I did this first using the Hi-gain controller and the spare cable. I took this out to the mast and did various tests ensuring the everything was rotating freely. This was done with the mast still tilted but with the support removed, which meant that the antennas could rotate through 360 degrees.

Next task was to do some final tests from the shack using the G-1000 controller. These proved that only minor calibration corrections were needed, but everything was 8 degrees off target. That was because I had set it up in advance at 110 degrees. My rule of thumb is that antenna booms parallel to the ground equals 100 degrees. Doh! But it would have been 2 degrees off on the other side anyway so that was not so much of a problem.

This time I did a careful job, checking the "parallel to the ground" theory with a spirit level. I set each antenna carefully and then raised the mast vertically. Outside job done.

Careful twiddling got the G-1000 controller spot on. The G-1000 controller is much more accurate in its alignment than the G-450 was as it allows five different settings to be juggled. Once this was working OK, it was time to align the ERC-Duo USB box.

ERC-Duo box with 50 pence piece for scale

In contrast with the big heavy Yaesu controller, the ERC-Duo box is tiny and draws its current from the USB cable. This is basically another controller which gives its instructions to the Yaesu controller. Thus it needs to be calibrated separately. It comes with a link to download and install a "Service tool" and a "Rotator Control" piece of software. I used the service tool to do the alignment and save the data onto the computer. I will not be using the rotator control as the ERC-Duo can take instructions from PST-Rotator.

Final result.

All done now. I managed quite easily to get the Yaesu controller and the ERC-Duo to agree on the bearings and for that to line up with my key points viewed from outside. That needed an eight degree correction, easily done by moving the Yaesu pointer and setting an eight degree offset on PST-Rotator. 

I find it more accurate to use this "parallel to the ground = 100 degrees" alignment than trying to find North - eccentric I know, but practical. Obviously this angle will be unique to every tilting mast, but once you have worked it out it will stay true. On my other mast it is 98 degrees so the original and extension walls of our house are not exactly parallel ....

The only slight issue just now is that when I transmit on 2m the pointer on PSTRotator moves about four degrees clockwise. Just the pointer, the antennas and the pointer on the G-1000 controller do not move. This is RF is getting into the ERC-Duo leads somewhere, and I am busy trying to solve that minor problem. 

The new rotator moves quietly and quite quickly - the rotation speed is variable. It certainly behaves much better than the G-450 ever did. I am happier that this can take the strain of those three antennas, even though I am already wondering if the 432MHz beam would not be better on the other mast !!!! 

But why, oh why, do Yaesu keep selling rotators with huge expensive mechanical pointers when a simple digital display would do just as well? And why do they charge £400+ for a USB box when all rotator controllers should have USB connections as standard. SPID rotators have their failings, but at least they have no moving parts to break down and they connect easily to a computer.

73 Jim

GM4FVM

The lazy man's way to update Icom clocks

Why do I bother to set up the clocks on Icom radios? Once the battery runs down, why not just leave them as they are? 

HINT:- Icom make a software app that does all this for me!

Well, this goes beyond just looking at the radio and telling the time. Updating the clock (and the calendar at the same time) puts a date stamp on everything you record onto the SD card. 

For instance it dates and times recordings of various tests recently with Pom, DG7AC. Pom responded to my request for Ionoscatter/Q65 tests and we did some for several days. During these tests I recorded what I was receiving using my IC-7300 and IC-9700. If the clock is correct then the timestamp on the recordings allows me to work out afterwards which recording relates to which test. Without that everything is recorded with the wrong date and time.

No doubt there are all sorts of DStar things which need the time set too, but I do not know what those are (of course). 

When the rigs arrive they come with factory fitted lithium batteries to hold the time and date in the memory. These batteries are soldered in and are located in a pretty inaccessible place.  Over a period of a couple of years these batteries become exhausted and the clocks revert to zero every time the radio is turned off and back on again.

I see one of radio supplier in the UK is offering to replace the battery with a battery holder for a standard CR2023 battery holder which is located in an easily reached location under the rig's covers. Inclusive of transport for the radio down to them this costs £125.00. That would be three radios for me (IC7300, 9700, 7100) at that price, £375. Downside, you still need to go in to change the battery and reset the time when it does run out and this is not an Icom approved alteration. Hmmm.

£375, that is more than I paid for a good HF transceiver [That was 50 years ago Jim] .

On the other hand, I could just install Icom's free ST-4003W software tool which sets the rig time to your computer's time whenever you want. Sure, you lose the setting every time you turn the radio off, but it is easy to set it when you start everything up each day.

So I downloaded the software tool which you can find here. The instructions are simple. If like me you use data modes like FT8 you already have the rigs linked up to USB sockets on your computer. This software tool works with Windows and a wide range of recent Icom radios.

My IC-7100 taking a little longer to update its calendar and clock

Once I had downloaded it and installed it I could update the IC-9700 and IC-7300 in seconds. The IC-7100 takes up to a minute while it "sets the seconds". For some reason I do not understand the IC-7100 then holds the date and time for several days.

GB3NGI beacon switching from JT4 to CW seen from GM4FVM - note the time

The file in this case is recorded on the SD card as 20260823_143100, giving you date and time information.

This blog does not seem to upload audio recordings but I would share these too if I can find a way to do it.

I simply saved three tabs to my taskbar, one named for each rig. Then I just click on them in turn and all three clocks set themselves. You cannot do this when data mode software is using the USB connection, but I do it first when I turn on the computer. Once the clock is updated the Icom software releases the USB link and you can start WSJT or whatever you use. If you only have one rig then this is even simpler, just pin that Icom shortcut to the task bar, or run it from the start screen.

So, you get a nice correct clock on your rig. It will show your local computer time, not UTC or something else, but that is easy for me to correct as I convert between local and UTC all the time. 

It is a fiddle to do every day when I start the rigs. For me the warm feeling of having saved £375 quickly deflects my mind from that problem.

EDIT: Thanks to Carlo, IU1KGS, for emailing me with "An even lazier approach to update Icom clocks".

Carlo points out that it is possible for the Icom IC-9700, among other modern Icom rigs, to directly update their clocks via an internet time server. It seems this is covered in the advanced manual. My own 9700 is not networked so I need to try this out before I comment further but this seems even  more straight forward. However, for my older IC-7100 and 7300 I will need to stick to the Icom software (though the IC-7300 Mark 2 is covered by this).  

I appreciate that news Carlo and I hope to be posting various things to do with the IC-9700 later. I also agree with your comment that using soldered batteries in radios is crazy when every PC maker can fit a button battery holder and get longer life with a CR-2032. So why are we short changed in this way? On the other hand, it gives us something to think about. 

73 Jim

GM4FVM 

23cm Aircraft Scatter - Beaming at aircraft rather than along a direct path and the benefits of Q65.

The basic concept of aircraft scatter (AS) is similar to that of radar. However, in the case of aircraft scatter we are generally relying on signals being scattered forwards to a distant receiving station, rather than back towards the originating station.

This posting is about a series of tests carried out to establish the best way of targeting the distant stations using narrow beamwidth 23cm antennas and which data (or other) mode to use for this purpose. It is an expanded and updated version of my article which appeared in the GMDX group's Digest (gmdx.org.uk).

As usual, click on images to enlarge them if necessary. 

--------------------

In practice radio amateurs can use AS on the VHF and UHF bands to achieve QSOs up to a distance of about 600km. The exact distance will depend on the frequency, the height of the aircraft and the curvature of the Earth. This range can be exceeded by tropo ducts, but these are fairly rare. In the absence of a duct aircraft scatter is the most reliable way of reaching stations in the 250-600km range. The larger (or “heavier”) the aircraft, the better chance you have.

I recently started a series of trials on 1296MHz with Gordon, GM4OAS. Our stations are broadly similar, with Gordon running 250W and two 36 element yagis. I have 150W and one 36 element yagi. The path is 257km in length which might make us think that a tropo contact in normal flat conditions would be possible, but the terrain here means this would not be easy. The path crosses close to Ben Nevis and many other Highland peaks in the Munro Tops category. It starts close to sea level at each end and reaches over 750m several times on the way.

The mountainous path from GM4FVM to GM4OAS makes UHF tropo contacts difficult (AirScout) 

Despite many attempts we have failed to make a tropo contact between us and we are certain that any signals between us rely on aircraft scatter. 

AirScout

Starting out on using AS the immediate problem is not knowing where the aircraft are, and thus not knowing when to call in the hope that an aircraft is passing between you and the station you wish to work. To solve this dilemma there are several sites on the internet offering maps of overflying aircraft using their transmissions on the 1090MHz band to capture the height, direction and speed of the aircraft plus a host of other details.

Many amateurs use AirScout software by DL2ALF. AirScout uses reception of the 1090MHz transmissions to produce a map showing the aircraft. It integrates this with the location details of the station which you wish to work. Thus, when you enter the station you wish to contact it adjusts continuously to present a diagram of the path involved, the terrain, and any aircraft along the path which are at the desired height. (See reference [1] for a comprehensive description of the technique and the software). I have been using Airscout for several years.

After several AS contacts, initially using a single 36el yagi at each end, Gordon achieved dramatically improved results by deviating his yagi direction away from the strict direct path between us and towards specific aircraft instead. This involved using an ability AirScout has to directly communicate with rotator control software.

Up to this point I had used AirScout in standalone mode, setting the beam direction to the distant station manually. It seemed to me to be impossible to follow a fast-moving aircraft with the narrow beamwidth of a microwave yagi. I was not aware that AirScout has the capacity to communicate with the antenna control software in my computer to allow tracking individual planes - planes which could potentially be some distance away from the direct path.

Aircraft Tracking
Tracking as a concept will be familiar to many VHF+ enthusiasts. Many of us use a similar set-up to automatically follow the Moon across the sky while attempting “moonbounce” QSOs. However, the idea of tracking individual aircraft was new to me. Obviously, tracking the plane makes more sense than pointing the antenna direct at the distant station. It is the plane which reflects the signal, and it should be the obvious target. However, planes travel more quickly across the sky than the Moon does! Gordon explained to me the steps I would need to take to set up aircraft tracking and after a few false starts I got it working. I had not known that I had to upgrade PST Rotator (Software for Antenna Rotators) to the VHF/UHF version first. See reference [2].

My rotator for the 23cm antenna is a SPID RAU. The control unit for this rotator either has a USB or a parallel socket (in my case, parallel) to allow connection to a computer. The software I use in the computer to drive the SPID is “PST Rotator”. When tracking is engaged PST Rotator looks for a dump file in AirScout which contains the latest instructions from AirScout to point in a particular direction. AirScout knows which plane to follow because the user identifies it by clicking on targets from amongst the options presented. 

AirScout turns the aircraft image red if it appears to be likely to cross the direct path – otherwise they are grey. In the past I only considered red targets, and only when they were near the direct path (Airscout also indicates when they are very close to the path). Once we started targeting specific aircraft we mostly selected images which are grey and not very close to the path, the opposite to what we did before.

Without having to consider how all this works via all the different interactions etc, I can now click on the image of a plane on the map, and the software continues to find out where it is and points the antenna towards it as it moves relative to me. Just to assure me that AirScout is keeping everything under control, it continuously shows a compass bearing towards the plane which it is following, and I can see the bearing changing regularly on the rotator controller too. I can also hear the SPID turning through the shack wall (!). Eventually the plane goes out of range and the tracking stops.

AirScout showing an aircraft North of the direct path to GM4OAS which was suitable with tracking. Note that none of the planes are near enough to the direct path to be coloured red and they would not have been considered candidates without tracking.

The result of changing from beaming along the direct path to tracking the aircraft was remarkable. QSOs were longer and signals stronger. We had three or four contacts for each plane, allowing repeated QSOs to check the outcome. 

It has to be said that this path to GM4OAS possibly favours this approach. On long paths, perhaps over 400km, the difference between the beam heading for a usable plane and the direct path will be smaller. For long paths planes in some directions would be below the radio horizon if far off the direct path.

While it was not easy to calculate the exact distance away from the direct path we were able to use, we estimated it as in the range of 25 to 40km. This brought many more planes into consideration. Once we were both using tracking, we had a series of near-continuous contacts over a period of two hours, selecting likely planes as they arrived on the screen.

Somewhat chaotic screenshot taken during the tests. Two aircraft following each other off path provided time for repeated QSOs. The two traces can be seen on the screen.

Why use tracking? 

It would of course be possible to estimate the position of the aircraft and simply point the beam manually in that direction. The plane could then be followed by dead reckoning using the map and constantly updating the rotator via the controller. This would require a lot of guesswork and antenna repositioning. As a halfway house, the on-screen compass bearing could be used to follow the plane whilst controlling the rotator by hand. However, as AirScout could do the whole thing automatically that seemed like the best way to proceed given that aircraft scatter contacts require full concentration on their own.

Compass shown on AirScout while tracking an aircraft

We used tracking not just because it takes all the hard work out of keeping the beam pointed at the aircraft (but it does that nicely). It also finds the correct angle far more accurately than would be possible chasing the plane manually. I do not yet have antenna elevation, but it would set that automatically too. And finally it solves the biggest problem - it can keep pace with the fast moving planes.

Which mode to use? 

For the tests we started by using FT8, which failed. We then switched to Q65 version 15B. Q65 is particularly good at handling Doppler shift created by the motion of the aircraft. A 15 second tx period is short enough to complete a QSO during brief flyovers. We did not just use Q65 because I like it (though I do like it). We then tested Q65 against FT8, FT4 and CW, using aircraft tracking. 

We became familiar with the plane passes which worked with Q65. Over a number of these passes FT8 was a failure.

Typical failure to make contact using FT8, with zero decodes reported at either end of the path. Note the exaggerated Doppler shift common to all these tests.

FT8 failed for several reasons. It is less sensitive than Q65 - its coding makes it less suitable for scatter use as it cannot deal with what Doppler there is - and its longer 30 second periods allows for twice as much Doppler shift in the first place. 

We then tried a comparison with FT4, hoping that its shorter period might help. However, FT4 is even less sensitive that FT8, so the benefits of the shorter period were largely lost. Still, over a period FT4 give roughly one decode for every five decodes using Q65 on comparable plane passes. 

This is not an ideal way to rank these three modes as it did not directly compare them at the same time but instead measured decodes per plane pass. However, with a fairly large sample size I think it gave a representative result. Broadly we found the FT8 did not work at all whilst FT4 worked to some extent but not as well as 15 second Q65. These results were what you would expect given that Q65 is designed for scatter propagation and FT8 and FT4 are not. 

As an experiment we also exchanged callsigns on CW.  Later we tried to complete a QSO on CW while using tracking and this was successful. The signals were quite strong so this should succeed but the effect of Doppler was rather off-putting. At some stages the Doppler shift meant that the CW station fell outside the receiver's CW filter as the QSO progressed. 

We did not try SSB, which is often used for AS contacts during contests. Whilst tracking increased the duration and strength of reception, it also increased the potential for Doppler shift. Whether this would cause problems for SSB contacts is something which needs to be investigated. It may be that at 432MHz, where the shift would be smaller, there could be useful gains to be had.

Doppler shifts of 400 to 700hz over four minutes were common and this is difficult to deal with in most modes except Q65 and similar protocols specifically designed for the purpose.

Summary
Tracking the aircraft rather than beaming at the distant station produced improved results in the tests. This can be done automatically, which was something I had not considered. It is a method which I will be keen to try more often in future. Provided AirScout can access a reliable feed of 1090MHz plane data (something which it sometimes fails to do) this approach seems to have merit.

Q65 seems to offer benefits over other data modes and CW.

Thanks to Gordon GM4OAS for guidance and encouragement with this experiment.

References: 
[1] http://airscout.eu/index.php. The latest issue of the AirScout Aircraft Scatter Prediction Manual may be downloaded from here: http://airscout.eu/downloads/AirScout_V1_4_0_0_EN.pdf
[2] Information about PstRotator – Software for Antenna Rotators may be found here: https://www.qsl.net/yo3dmu/index_Page346.htm 

Ionoscatter 2026

Ionoscatter ("ionospheric scatter") is forward scatter in the ionosphere. I often work stations on 2m from 800km out to about 1600km at around this time of year, but I reckon that ionoscatter has potential for use during much longer periods.

In the past ionoscatter was only thought useful for very high powered stations. Now with the benefit (?) of FT8 I find it useful at moderate power (200 to 400W) with an equally moderate antenna (9 elements) during June and July. With a more suitable data mode I suspect it would be useful for longer periods during the year.

Right, on now to this year's results so far:- 

144MHz Ionoscatter contacts at GM4FVM on 2 and 4 July 2026

Click to enlarge image etc. 

OK, so first issue:- this looks like the time of year and direction you might be working Sporadic E, so how can you be certain this is not Es?

Well, Ionoscatter (should we call it Is to distinguish it from Es?) is generally much weaker. Also, unlike Es it hangs around for ages and can last hours on an individual station. And thirdly it tends to occur only at this time of year (using FT8). So, in 2023 I heard it four times between 30 June and 12 July, in 2024 only once on 23 June, in 2025 not at all, and so far on two days in 2026, 2 and 4 July. Generally the times were between about 10:00 and about 13:00 but one as late as 14:39.

Left: a tropo signal (MM0CEZ), right ionoscatter (SM0LQB)

Ionoscater leaves a unique trace on the FT8 waterfall. It is often broken and patchy but stays at the same strength. Often you can see meteor scatter bursts which usually prevent the transmission from decoding. Using FT8 it can take a while to get the QSO finished. The key point is that although it is weak, the signal can been seen for long periods at fairly steady strength. The ultimate limit is FT8's ability to decode it because FT8 is not a very good mode for very weak signal work.

Second issue. You may ask what is the point of looking for this form of propagation when it is weak and only usable for a short time of year. Well, it seems to me that if we were unleashed from the limitations of FT8 it would allow decodes over long distances for much longer periods of the year. 

The mode I would suggest which I fancy would work better would be Q65. Much work was done by G4CDN and others using JT65 and QRA64, the modes which were available to them at the time (see  https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/search/label/Ionoscatter and please don't blame me if this link stops working - look it up instead). JT65 certainly works, but surely Q65 is much better suited to this type of work.

Ionoscatter is in fact working at the higher end of its frequency range at 144MHz. It is suggested that it works best at 35MHz and it should therefore be a good target for 50 and 70MHz experiments. And yet I rarely see European stations trying this. If I look at DXMaps I often see US and Canadian stations working to these sorts of distances using Q65, but I do not see that on this side of the Atlantic. Anyone interested? 

Some of you used to read my old blog, where I often lamented the use of FT8 on VHF/UHF. I feel sure that Q65 is far better suited to these frequencies. Well here I go again and I am not finished today. If you read the WSJT-X Users Guide you will see the uses Q65 can be put to. It even shows a Q65 Ionoscatter image. I'll print it below here because I suspect that very few amateurs ever read the guide, but instead use WSJT-X without really knowing what they are doing....

So for now I will continue to look for Ionoscatter on 2m for a few weeks each summer, mostly in the mornings. I know that it has far more potential, but if everybody insists on using FT8 then that is the only few weeks I can use it.

Any Q65 skeds from stations in the 800km to 1600km range welcome. 

73 Jim

 

 Below: From WSJT:X users guide (link to QSJT-X site is in the side bar of this blog)

12.4. Q65

Q65 is designed for fast-fading signals: EME, tropospheric scatter, rain scatter, ionospheric scatter, trans-equatorial propagation (TEP), and the like. The following screen shot shows the Wide Graph and decoded text windows after processing a Q65-60A sequence received via EME on 6 meters, by W7GJ Transmissions are decoded from N0TB, N8JX, W1VD, and VE1JF, all by the EME path.

The Q65 decoder takes advantage of a priori (AP) information such as the encoded forms of one’s own callsign and the message word CQ. In normal usage, as a QSO progresses AP information increases to include the callsign of the station being worked and perhaps his/her 4-digit grid locator. The decoder takes advantage of whatever AP information is currently available.

Here’s a similar screen shot for a 6 m ionospheric scatter signal over the 1155 km path from K9AN to K1JT, using submode Q65-30A. The received signal was barely audible most of the time.

Mostly more Sporadic E

It is not easy to describe recent Sporadic E.

VHF/UHF contacts at GM4FVM, 23 to 30 June 2026

Click to enlarge the images if necessary. 

You see, Sporadic is what I am used to. Sporadic. Like this:-

It is not there - it is there - it is not there.

So it has distinct phases of happening and then not happening. You usually have time to recover and work out what has been going on.

In midsummer on 50MHz there is often Es to be noted on most days, but not always. This is manageable without a lot of frantic action. The length of opening declines and the panic rises with the frequency. On 70MHz it has occasional events lasting a hour or less, and on 144MHz sudden opening lasting maybe 5 minutes.

Because I am interested in better understanding Sporadic E I watch it across all three bands, and operate on the highest band possible. I go to the highest band I can but I do slip up and down when I see something interesting lower down.

This all works nicely because you never get long openings on the the higher bands, 4m and 2m. And you have more time on 6m for consideration. That is my plan of operation.

My plan completely fell apart recently when there were long openings on the higher bands.

For example, on 21 June 2026 there was an opening on 144MHz to Italy. However, this did not last two minutes as I might have expected, but 35 minutes. I worked 21 stations on 2m during those 35 minutes, with more attempts being made but failing. In the usual 2m Es style the opening moved around the country with stations coming and and it going at a frantic pace, but it appeared to keep going for a long time.

A 35 minute opening for Es on 2m is very very unusual. Maybe it happens that we have a longish opening, but it moves between countries, has gaps, and does not last 35 minutes. In my experience this was remarkable.

Since then I tried to analyse what was happening by relating the map and the timings. It seems to me that there were three distinct phases to that event. First an opening down the Adriatic Coast from Padua in the north as far as Puglia in the extreme south. Then there was an opening around Rome. Finally there was a third event starting in the north around Verona and spreading down the centre eventually ending around Naples. There was a final twist to one station near Matera in the south. 

It is hard to tell, but this looked like a succession of three separate openings, each of which would have been more like what we normally see, plus a single station at the end. Looked at that way this was in fact three large openings, rather than one huge opening.

Maybe. It is easy to look for patterns in things. But it certainly was unusual.

Just as 144MHz was going for longer openings, 6m was going the opposite way. It was open routinely into Europe and no DX was to be seen. Then suddenly I missed XE2X on 17 June, also missed JA5AUC on 21st, worked BD7IS and BD0DLA separately on 22nd, HI3T on 28th, plus CO8LY, VO1HP and FP/KV1J all separately on 29th. These were not part of long openings, but random single QSOs separated by periods of no DX.

So, 2m Es was behaving like 6m Es and 6m Es was behaving like 2m Es.

Over a week I completed 197 QSOs to 42 countries, 12 on 6m, 53 on 4m, 115 on 2m and 17 on 70cm. There was also a moderate tropo opening from 23 to 25 June, but this paled into insignificance when the Es started. During tropo on 2m you can bank on fairly stable conditions and you have the time to work your stations but with Es you have only minutes. You have hop around, jumping on any contact that looks likely to last the 60 seconds or so you will need. The standout aspect of these conditions was that there were long periods of continuous operation which is very unusual on 2m Es.

It was after 25 June that things went really dooh-lally. There were a series of openings on 70MHz and 144MHz the like of which I have never seen before. It was like being in a continuous contest. 

On 2m: 25 June I made 20 QSOs, on 26 June 42, on 27 June I was away, and on 28 June 23 more. I worked 20 DXCC in 46 squares in 4 days on 2m. The figure for the whole of 2025 was 25. 

Austria 3, Belarus 5, Bosnia-Herzegovina 2, Croatia 6, Denmark 4, Germany 17, Hungary 6, Ireland 1, Italy 15, Kaliningrad 2, Lithuania 6, Netherlands 4, Poland 2, Romania 1, Scotland 1, Serbia 1, Slovakia 4, Slovenia 2, Sweden 2, Switzerland 1. 

Best DX was to IZ7EZN at 2285km, with 24 other contacts over 1600km. 

144MHz contacts at GM4FVM 24 to 28 June 2026

On 4m, 40 QSOs, 6 on 25 June, 16 on 26 June, none on 27 June and 18 on 28 June reaching 35 squares in 20 DXCC. These 40 QSOs were made despite the fact that France, Germany and Italy are not currently on the band.

Austria 2, Belgium 1, Ceuta & Melilla 1, Czechia 1, England 3, Estonia 1, Finland 3, Greece 6, Hungary 2, Latvia 1, Lebanon 1, Netherlands 1, Norway 5, Poland 1, Portugal 2, Serbia 1, Slovakia 1, Spain 3, Sweden 3, Swtizerland 1.

Best DX OD5ET 3766km, after that  six stations in Greece from 2458km to 2636km and then EA9IB at 2289km. 

70MHz contacts at GM4FVM 24 to 28 June 2026

I said that the start this is hard to describe. Do I think of it in terms of distance worked, number of stations or countries, or of duration of the opening, Do I try to analyse the events? Well, apart from the Italy opening I have not had time to analyse anything. It has just been a blur.

This has been outstanding. As I say, I have never experienced anything like it. 

I hope others were able to join in too. 

73 Jim

GM4FVM 

Stuck masts and falling screwdrivers

I thought my greatest problems at the moment were the holes made in the drive by a marauding hedgehog. I even have pictures of him/her (can there be two of them?) wrecking the place thanks to an infra-red trail camera. They are entitled to be here, but can they not use the drive to pass along rather than dig it up?

No, things got worse when my main mast suddenly started to give problems. The main mast is a CUG 12m three part square section mast, with my 6m, 4m, 2m and 70cm antennas on top. I will no doubt give more details on the antennas later, but for now it is the mast itself that took all my attention. The mast is raised and lowered using a lead-acid battery powered winch. I recently replaced the winch and the wiring and then fixed up the original winch as a spare.

First problem was that it started to go up and down slowly. Having replaced the winch I thought that it was unlikely to be the problem. Then it would only go up twice before the battery needed to be recharged while before it would go up and down eight or ten times between charges. Although the battery appeared flat and it would not raise the mast, the smart charger declared that it was 100% charged. Most odd.

Then it blew a 25 amp fuse. I had increased the fuse from 20 amps to 25 amps during the re-wiring because the previous one had got scorched but it had not blown. It seemed unlikely to me that the 25 amp fuse would blow under normal circumstances.

GM4FVM fault finding with his mast and almost new winch (photo Mrs FVM)

Clearly something was adding a heavy load to the winch. I would have to investigate further. 

I then recalled an occasion 10 days before when I had tried to lower the mast on a windy evening. The middle section of the mast had jammed about 30cm before the bottom. This was due to the wind pushing the mast aside in the bottom tube and it then caught on a piece of poor galvanising and stuck. There are a couple of bits of poor galvanising on the mast and this has caused trouble before. Perhaps this was the cause of the current problem.

As in all good scary TV police reality shows (isn't "24 Hours in Police Custody" the best of these??) I had to go and seek CCTV images to find the culprit. Luckily the Anti-Hedgehog Trail Camera (AHTC) recorded the whole event on 4 June 2026 starting at 21:25.34 when the temperature was 11C (flaming June weather in IO85) and the sound track proved it was windy. Ah ha! Evidence. PC Dixon has found the culprit - me. Well, actually a combination of the construction of the mast and the wind - and me.

I had trouble lowering the mast fully that night ten days before. When I tried to lower it the middle section stuck and the cable lowering the upper section (which confusingly is on the middle section) fell slack. Now I was worried at the time that when the slack middle section cable eventually tightened up it would not fall back fully on the pulley, so I reckoned I had better get the thing down properly.

By repeatedly raising the mast a small amount, about 50cm in total, and lowering it again I kept returning to the point at which it was sticking on the way down. I only did small movements to prevent the slack cable from failing to seat back on the pulley. Eventually a slight drop in the wind allowed the middle section to drop past the sticking point and it was fully down. 

What I had not noticed in the dark evening was that the very thing I had been trying to avoid had happened. When the middle section cable had tightened up again it had fallen down the side of the pulley. This meant that the cable on the middle section was turning round directly into the inside of the mast rather than going smoothly over the pulley. This increased the resistance, added strain on the winch and was potentially going to lead to the cable wearing and breaking.

It was hard to see this from the ground, but up close the problem was obvious:-

Cable down side of pulley

The danger of this wearing down strands of the cable to the point where it snapped was sufficient to get me to fix this right away. I happen to know that I started to fix it on 15 June 2026 at 09:32:10 and when the temperature was 15C. This is from intelligence gathered by the hedgehog detection system.

I knew that all I had to do was to generate some slack in the cable and then pull it over the pulley. To do this all that was needed was to push the middle section of mast into the bottom section while holding the top section fixed to the middle. Impossible in my current ancient weedy state as I do not have the strength left to push the mast in while it is lying on its side with rotator and antennas on top. Simple, just fix the upper section steady and tilt the mast vertical when it will fall back together under gravity and the cable will go slack. That is how it went slack in the first place. Well, maybe.

I had got confused because it was the upper section that I needed to fix in place whereas I tried to fix the middle section. I did this by wedging two large heavy screwdrivers into the gap between the sections and turning the mast vertical. So I wedged the middle section rather than the top one, but it worked and at least I had proof of method for getting them in the right place next time.

Two old heavy screwdrivers in the wrong place, but the idea works

While I had the mast vertical I momentarily pressed the "In" button on the winch control rocker switch rather than the "out" one. It only moved a fraction, but that was enough to release both screwdrivers from a height. They clattered down the back of the mast, hitting the mast brackets before scattering. One has never been seen since. I have no idea where it went. What could I do, apart from sending Mrs FVM to look for it and she has not reported back since. It a big thing but it is lost. This just shows that a hard hat is needed for working on antennas as a large screwdriver falling from a height could do a lot of damage to the head.

Luckily it turned out that one screwdriver was enough to hold the top section up and everything worked out fine. The cable is now happily seated on the pulley and everything runs smoothly. 

Next snag is that the mast jammed briefly at the same point last night during windy conditions. This time the cable did not lift, but it could have. I must get round to filing down the uneven galvanisation at the point where it jams.

Things to note:-

Beware slack cables on masts 

Beware falling screwdrivers

Beware large screwdrivers disappearing into thin air

Beware hedgehogs vandalising your drive.

Hedgehog attacking GM4FVM drive around 00:20 local time

In fact, just be careful.

73 Jim

GM4FVM