Five Days of Peak Sporadic E

I am worried that this looks like boasting.

Probably, because I would be amazed by it if somebody else posted it.

I thought the last posting, with all those Japan and North America stations was fluke. But here we are again with quite a bag full of DX.

The purpose of this blog is to show what I do, with the general idea that anybody could do it. It is supposed to show what is possible. With a reasonable yagi mounted on a pole and a fair radio set, you can do amazing things thanks to propagation, other amateurs and (now) WSTJ-X. No need for a 20m tall lattice mast, a kilowatt and a mortgage.

So I claim not to be boasting. Really, I am just amazed.

My records go right back to day 1 when I got my licence (5 February 1975). However, what matters now starts from 2008 when we moved here. It took while to get the place built and a proper antenna up. Back on 18 June 2011 I worked my first trans-Atlantic station from here on the 6 metre band. That was VO1SO, worked on a Yaesu FT-897 and a two element mini-beam. On 11 July 2020 I worked VO1SO for a second time, using an Icom IC-7100 and 4 element beam. What is different is not really the equipment, it is that it took 5 years for me to work across the pond again after 18 June 2011. Even then, by 2016 I was happy with two contacts in a year. Now, as well as working VO1SO, I worked other 16 stations in North America the same day, some at twice the distance to Newfoundland.

Old hands said at the time (2011) that it would take a return to F-layer propagation and a sunspot peak to get back their fabled days of working all-day across the Atlantic on a hand-held or whatever astounding things happened when they ruled the air waves. Apparently not. All it took was WSJT and a bit of learning.

This posting was supposed to cover a week's working. In the end it is five days, during two of which I had no 6m antenna due to putting in new coax.

All QSOs at GM4FVM 9 July to 13 July 2020.

Before we get too carried away, not all of this is VHF. 4 of these 78 QSOs are on 10m, one each in Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Saint Lucia. OK, I got hooked by seeing Saint Lucia being a new country so I had a few 10m QSOs. Saint Lucia on 10m using 40 watts and a dipole in the attic. Just like me in 1976, except I never reached Saint Lucia then. It is the same dipole though. It might have moved house 8 times but that dipole is a fixture wherever I lay my hat.

Looking at the other 73 QSOs, 6m provided a regular series of openings.

50MHz QSOs at GM4FVM 9 July to 13 July 2020.

41 QSOs in 5 days, 36 squares, 13 countries. Loads of US states, plus three Canadian provinces. Best DX W3UUM in Oklahoma (EL29 at 7448km). I should have something profound to say about that, but I haven't.

I did turn the antenna towards Asia and heard Japan, South Korea and China, but I did not try to contact anyone in that direction. It was amazing to the West. I heard a lot of stations call CQ and then vanish. I developed a tactic to listen to a CQ but not calling straight away. I then set everything up, made sure I had not worked them 20 minutes ago, set up FT8 to call with a report. After that, if I hear them call CQ a second time I reply. Usually that worked for me.

Is there such a thing as one-way propagation? Can I hear some of them and yet they cannot hear me at all? Sure there is. Whatever the books say, and making allowances for the unknown noise level at the other end, you see it all the time. Here is clip from by WSTJ log, a 4m example, but you see this across all VHF bands during Sporadic E openings ...

Screen grab from GM4FVM's WSJT log on 13 July 2020.

With the signal strength swinging as it was then, a 49dB difference between reception at each end might be possible, but there were regular 20 to 30dB differences which were steady for a lot of the time. Then there was a long period when US stations were heard here but they could not hear calls from many GM stations. It cuts both ways depending on the conditions.

On the 4 metre band things were certainly good. While there was no double-hop Es, I was still very happy with the openings we did have.

70MHz QSOs at GM4FVM 9 July to 13 July 2020.

I have to face it that having been a fixture n 70MHz for many years, pretty well everybody has worked me. I know that reduces my response rate. I still enjoy meeting up with old friends. 22 QSOs with 18 squares in 6 countries - nae bad.

For all its charms, the 70MHz band is slightly downgraded here at the peak Es period to provide warning of likely Es events on 144MHz. It is a bit of a stretch. Not many 4m openings reach 2m. However, I have learned to watch the OIRT broadcast stations for a series of clues.

And so to 2m. I had been hoping for a tropo opening. There was one, on a Southerly bearing, with the best DX being to G0RQL in IO70 at 569km. That is good, but more was to come. On 13 July I had been watching things develop on 70MHz, with extremely strong signals (+31dB, see above). Broadcast stations filled the band and I thought it was likely to reach 2m.

An early sign was when I heard SP8WJW on 2m which produced a lovely map on DX Maps showing exactly where the Es ionisation was centred.

DX Maps on 13 July 2020, showing Es at the intersection of the various paths

All the signs were there at 13:30, but nothing was being received here for long enough to decode, let alone work. I knew which direction to look as 4m revealed that the ionisation was peaking to open paths towards the Eastern Baltic.

Infuriatingly the 2m FM calling frequency was filled by stations jabbering on in what I took to be Latvian. Not a common language so I am not sure (could have been Latgalian - tricky to tell apart?). They did not allow a gap between overs ending with few garbled callsigns. Typical FM stuff really. To all those good people out there who love only their FM, I say "good on you", but you are limiting your radio experience to a terrible degree ("capture effect" - FM-ers should look it up in a book).

It was not until 18:30 that I started to decode stations. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were all worked over a space of 30 minutes. Lithuania was a new country on 2m, Latvia and Estonia I had only ever reached before on meteor scatter, so they are now added to the "terrestrial" list.

144MHz QSOs at GM4FVM 9 July to 13 July 2020.

Four countries got away during that 144MHz opening- Russia, Belarus, Sweden and Finland. All heard and called, but none worked. The UA1 near Saint Petersburg who got away would have added Russia to that terrestrial list as I have only worked Russia on 2m by MS and EME. He heard me, I heard him, no QSO. More to do there then.

I am less bothered by Finland, Sweden and Belarus which I have worked several times before. However, that is hardly the point. New records are good, but which GM4 station turns down the chance to work Belarus on 2m? Just because I have worked them before does not really take away the joy of the band opening before me.

Kaliningrad would have been nice though. The Gods of Propagation did not even offer that one as a "one that got away".

11 QSOs on 2m, all in different squares, 5 countries, best DX ES4RM in KO49 at 1822km.

I'll take that on 2 metres anytime. Kaliningrad can wait.
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So to return to my theme. On these postings I feel the need to show what is possible. It was great joy for me to see several friends of this blog working across the Atlantic on 6m and into the Baltic on 2m (that Russian was hard to reach, eh?).


I look those DX stations up in QRZ.com you know. Nosey sod, me. Some of those US stations on 6m were superstations and no mistake. To me most superstations can do 10dB better than me, but those guys....

I may return to the subject of superstations later. Well, I never stop talking about it really, do I? If I had those extra 10dB (and yes, that is what my local superstations have over me) maybe I would have worked all the possibilities I missed over the last 5 days. China, Russia, ... and what would I do then? What would I do once I had put the last piece in my radio jigsaw? Take up quilting?

Just a bit of DX, and not too much please. Leave me something to do in future.

Today (14th July) things have been pretty quiet. The Sun has thrown a bolt at us and a small aurora overnight put a stop to any Es this morning. The day is yet young though. Who knows what this evening may bring?

Small aurora! Is the Sun coming alive again? We need an F-layer opening to make 6m worth it, or so somebody told me 10 years ago.

73

Jim
GM4FVM

It is worth bodging coax after all

Just a few days since my last post. I now have my replacement plastic block for my "Dual" antenna. Goran suggested that I contact Nevada who hold stocks of spare parts in the UK for him. Two days later and the part had arrived from Nevada at no cost to me. Pretty good service that.

I had explained last time that I had bodged the thing up again, just to keep 6m working during the peak season.

Bas, PE4BAS, commented that the path to Japan on 6m did indeed open regularly, but only for a short time.  This cheered me on, and I had an idea that I might be able to work North America again too if I found the right time. Mike, GM3PPE encouraged me too by noting my efforts to reach the USA.

So with new-found vigour, I decided to try my patched up, stuck together, lash up to see what could be done.

50MHz contacts from GM4FVM, 5 to 8 July 2020.

Bas was right. 28 QSOs, 25 squares, 10 countries and best DX was JG1TSG in QM05 at 9285km. Nine of the QSOs were to the USA and Canada, and nine more to Japan. Japan of course is a new country for me on 6m, and almost every contact there and in the US was to a new square.

Whilst the opening to North America was a longer affair, the one to Japan lasted just 11 minutes with one part-finished QSO completed an hour later. Both involved pile ups with people calling me mid QSO, and with several never completed attempts at contacts mixed in.

This result is not really my doing. I just happened to be around for the few minutes when the band opened. I was good fun though, and I claim full credit for good operating which is, of course, the key to my success. And my modesty as well.

So I have broken my duck with Japan on 6m, and I did it with a lashed together length of coax held up by tie-wraps and joined and patched along the way. The rig was the £300 second hand Icom IC-7100. Nothing but the best for me on 50MHz.

Thanks to everyone for the various messages of encouragement for this and all my other exploits.

The new coax is here now and all I need to get it installed is a spell of good weather ...

73
Jim
GM4FVM

Oh deer, the QSL card mountain, transcontinental DX and things that go clunk in the shack...

Just as I was considering putting my HF wire antenna back up, something has been tampering with the tree I used to attach it to. Also, something clearly stopped at the water feature pond for a drink and then decided to cross the pond and exit via the fake river, creating a mini-tsunami along the way. Exit many scared frogs stage left, never to return. It took much work to remove a mound of silt dislodged in the pond.

How do I make sure that this rampaging thing does not pull down my carefully arranged wires (or they will be carefully arranged, if I ever put them up)? What is it?

Enter the FVM detective agency, secret filming and ... tah dah!!! The culprit caught red handed breaking Jason Leitch's lockdown, eating my apple trees and charging about in broad daylight at 04:30 in the morning

Roe deer in GM4FVM's orchard on 3 July 2020 (not 3 June - FVM does not know what month it is)

If you are a deer stalker, click this or any other image to enlarge.

Moving on ....

When I get an envelope of incoming QSL cards it usually contains about 10. Me being mainly a VHF man usually keeps the numbers down. Also, I do not initiate sending any, so none are replies to mine. I only send my cards if requested, usually in reply, which should keep the numbers down. I do like them, but I do not collect them. eQSL is my best friend.

There must have been some hiatus in the RSGB QSL bureau system. We had a change in the local bureau sub-manager for my block of callsigns and maybe I missed that I had not received an envelope for a while. Then I got two at once, my last two he had in stock, with a note inside that the new manager had over 300g of cards for me. I sent him a "small packet" rate Jiffy bag which cost £3.10 to send back but even that was not enough and he had to use the second of my new envelopes to send a fourth package.

Time to spend an hour or two on administrative duties Jim

129 incoming QSL cards. A record. I take this seriously. I check and reply to every one. They are a diverse lot, ranging from 40m to 70cms, including 6m FT8 from USA, 2m MSK meteor scatter from Russia, 4m CW from Hungary. Eh? CW? Me? Oh yes, I remember that mode now.

Seriously, I do appreciate every one of these cards. It might take me a while to get through them. If yours is delayed, I apologise. I have a lot to catch up on. I have been busy photographing deer at half past four in the morning.

Some nice propagation on 6m recently. I like to take advantage of that opportunity about 21:30 GMT on days when 6m opens across the Atlantic when I can be fairly sure I will be heard over there. I have said before that I look for that little window when the rest of Europe has faded out, but those of us in the West - GM, GI, LA, OY etc - are the only people with a path across. Then, without so much competition, I might be heard.

On 2 July I managed to work two stations in Brazil,  PV8DX, then PV8AAS, followed by 9Z4Y, my first contact with Trinidad on 6m or any band come to that. In case anyone thinks this was well planned and executed I might point out that it was only later that I remembered that I had worked PV8DX before (though this one was a much easier contact with no doubts about completion). And then again, when I worked PV8AAS he turned out to be 3km closer to me than PV8DX (who is 7847km away from me), meaning that no DX record was going to fall that night. I might well have tried the many other Caribbean and South American stations that were available. But ... that went well by my standards ... so far.

50MHz contacts at GM4FVM on 2 July 2020 (PV8AAS covers PV8DX's contact)

But the chaos at FVM continued when I called CQ. I try to avoid calling CQ DX if I can. With only stations on the Western edge of Europe around there was not much chance of a European calling me anyway. I am never comfortable calling anything other than an open CQ. Sure sometimes if I am on 2m beaming South over the great other place which separates Scotland from Europe I might sometimes call "CQ Es", but I rarely turn away all callers.

EA7Z came back and I thought this was not the best use of my short DX window. It turned out to be for the best. Suddenly there was a loud clunk and my power meter settled back to a very low level. "Oh bother", "Jings Crivvens", "Help my Boab", I said, in Dundee fashion. Fortunately I could complete with EA7Z with the puny 5 watts at my disposal. As it was already 22:45 local I was not thinking clearly and I started changing about patch leads before abandoning for the night and thinking about garden deer instead (he arrived a few hours later).

When I finally worked it out, having changed every cable I could and tried three SWR meters and and two antenna analysers, I found that I had a tricky intermittent coax connection at the antenna end.  When there was a sufficient break in the wind I tipped the mast over and it is clear to me that I had left a bodge-up on the 6m coax for far too long. 6m is not really my favourite band, and it still has my last stretch (erm, stretches) of ancient RG213. Plus a PL-259 to N-type adapter. Plus a joint half way along. Plus a worn section of coax outer patched over with self-amalgamating tape.

Oh I hate intermittent faults. Anyway, after deciding it was not there, and then discovering it was, several times, action is called for. I am not about to waste even one N-type plug on that old RG-213. I cannot rely on that joint, or on that taped-up patch, or on that old coax. Time for new coax. I could use something thinner than the Hyperflex 10 I have been using, but I decided to replace in Hyperflex 10 anyway. In the past this policy has paid dividends because I can then change around my antennas easily. I might put my 2m or 70cms antennas on that mast, and if I do I can use the existing coax. Plus, it is good stuff anyway. So the coax is ordered and awaits a chance to change it. Meantime a new bodge has been layered on top of the old bodge and we are back on 6m again.

Just to put me in the right frame of mind, whilst I was working on the plug, I managed to break the plastic mounting on the N-type socket on the antenna. I may have been a bit abrupt when I tightened the plug and twisted it out of line.

It is only plastic ...

I took the chance to ask Goran in Serbia, who made the antenna, if I could get a spare. He replied promptly, on a Saturday evening, and I hope to fix this too at the same time as renewing the coax. It is not crucial to the functioning of the antenna so I have waterproofed it and tie-wrapped it up so I am going again.

Moral of the story. Sure, you bodged it up, but do not leave it like that until it fails.

Is it just me, or do things seem to be somewhat troublesome at the moment?

On the other hand, good old peaceful 4m seems spared from all the drama. Here is what I have done since the last report, and no loud clunks, alarmed frogs or splashes to accompany it.

70MHz contacts at GM4FVM 24 June to 4 July 2020.

 45 QSOs, 34 squares, 18 DXCC, best DX EA8JF in IL38, 3123km.



Now that is more the way I like it.

Put simply, that is what I enjoy. Using the propagation to the full to gain the maximum advantage, and maybe learn something along the way.

I hope the QSL cards for that lot arrive soon.


73

Jim
GM4FVM