Now That's What I Call Sporadic E! (Number 113)

Or should that title be, "Now That's What I Call an Obscure Cultural Reference To A Music Album! (Number 114)" ???

There was a nice Es opening here on 6 and 7 August.

Contacts on 70MHz at GM4FVM on 6 and 7 August 2022

That looks like a pretty good haul to me, considering that it was completed in just over 26 hours. That was 30 QSOs in 26 hours, whereas it took me 37 days to make my first 30 70MHz QSOs in 1977. There were only 10 callsigns in those 37 days back then because we used to work each other a lot [that's because there was no other activity then Jim]. We did not have the Maidenhead square system then either, but I guess that all of those 1977 contacts would have been in one square or two at the most. But we were happy.

Anyway, returning to the real world of modern communications, 30 QSOs on 70MHz, 26 squares in 11 countries. ODX LZ1ZP in KN22 at 2455km. Nice enough, but what makes this opening special?

Well, seven of those QSOs were made between 20:50 and 21:30. Working DX on 4m during night time Es is pretty usual, and my beam was swinging around all over the place. OH3NE is 1605km to the North East, LZ1ZP is 2455km to the South East and they were worked with minutes of each other. Sure, I have heard 4m Es at night, but usually only one or two stations on or near the same beam heading.

I eventually went to bed in a huff on 6 August with the bands still open. I called an SV station on 4m but we did not get a completed QSO finished. Then the big guns started working him and I decided to call it a day. Hey, I had worked him before. I was really quite surprised to find things still underway early on 7 August and I worked some more to the East before some solar activity triggered an aurora and Es vanished.

During all this I was paying attention to 50MHz as always, but I did not have enough resources to try to do much. The QRO guys were working the US and Canada, and there were some contacts over to the West Coast of America. Not for me though, of course.

In fact I only worked one station on 50MHz during those two days [one station - this had better be good Jim].

The only 50MHz contact at GM4FVM on 6 and 7 August 2022

JX/LB4MI on Jan Mayen caused a bit of a stir on 6m. He was on CW on 6 August but I missed a chance to work somebody then at a keying speed I could probably just about match. Then on 7 August he re-appeared on FT8 on 50.305. I was pleased to work him though Jan Mayen is not really very far away. I believed that he was in IQ50 square, but his QSL confirms that he was in IQ51. A new square for me then.

Yes, I have worked Jan Mayen before. However, I had never worked IQ51. At the time when I thought he was in IQ50 I worked him as the previous QSO had been on SSB. It made for a new "data square" - now you probably never heard of data squares before and neither did I. But the info about the square on KST turned out to be wrong. Who would have thought that info on KST could be wrong.

When I looked up the squares it turned out the original info would have had him in the sea, whereas the QSL square shows him halfway up the rather mountainous central section of the island. I cannot be responsible for where he is, I can just believe the square quoted on the QSL card.

I like that type of Es opening. I love the cut and thrust of it all, stations popping up and then vanishing. Spinning the beam and in this case, enjoying an unusually late night long opening.

I normally think that the harvesting of the very large field beside GM4FVM marks the end of the Es season. Of course the farmer plants the crop to suit himself, and the weather can move it several days either way.

This year even more extraordinary weather meant that the field was harvested on 6 August and baled and cleared on 7 August. After that the bands closed and there has been very little Es.

The harvest is almost a month early this year, and several fields I can see were brought in a week earlier still. This has been a very dry and at times extremely hot Summer. Global heating is a fact (the thermometers do not lie). What is causing it is open to some debate. I like a debate but that one is not for here.

Bringing in the Sheaves? The crop was got in, baled and cleared in 24 hours.

No, this surely cannot be the end of the Es season. Can it? Some wag suggested that we now have two Es seasons, one in May and June, and then another one in August. Certainly July was pretty poor and overall I would say we have had a fairly quiet season so far.

Let us hope that there is life in this this year yet. And maybe there will be some tropo on the higher bands soon - I heard Belfast Coastguard today - real DX!

73

Jim GM4FVM