Italy returns to 70MHz, and data mode confusion breaks out

Italian stations were granted access to the 70MHz band again from 6 August until the end of 2023.

Here is the information for the many of you who read this blog who are fluent in Italian.

Italian 4m authorisation 2023.

OK, given that we are reaching the end of the 2023 Es season the timing could prove to be a bit unfortunate, but we might be thankful for what we have got.

Once again the authorisation is for spot frequencies and a band 25kHz around those centre points. As before the spot frequencies are 70.100, 70.200, 70.300 and new for this season is 70.400 - for FM I guess which was on 70.300 under previous allocations. Power is 10W and all normal modes and directional antennas are permitted.

It is a good 10 years since Italian stations could use 4m and a lot has changed in the meantime. For a start, many stations have equipment ready which can operate directly at those frequencies. Also, several more DXCC "entities" have appeared on 70MHz over the years which are new countries for Italians. 

So, as you might expect, there was an avalanche of stations from Italy seeking to work everyone around, including me. On 12 August I worked 20 Italian stations on 4m. Any why not? New bands, new DXCC, new squares, new "slots", all good stuff for the Italian stations. Only one new square for me though. I have seven or eight squares to get in Italy, plus a few more watery ones which look tricky. Mostly I need to work stations in squares in Apulia, Calabria, Campania, and Molise. Northern Sardinia and Eastern Sicily remain to be worked, as does one surprising square in Liguria and Piedmont right up on the French border. 

The reason why I have not worked these squares is no doubt simple. These are areas of lower population density, though the missing one in Sicily is a bit odd. Still, plenty of work to do there Jim.

I presume based on earlier authorities that San Marino, Vatican City and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta will also follow suit. Once again the timing is not great as there have recently been activations from all three of these DXCC and I worked them all on 6m. So far I have worked none of them on 4m. Ah well...

So what do I mean about confusion? Well, in those ten years of no activity from Italy, FT8 and MKS144 have appeared on 4m. As soon as 6 August came Italian stations and those wishing to work them had to decide on a common frequency. The usual ones, decided upon by German amateurs when they came on the band permanently, were 70.154 and 70.174. Neither of the existing frequencies fall within the Italian allocations, so they used 70.190 for FT8 and 70.210 for MSK144. Fair enough.

Nobody publicised the change of frequency required to work Italians, or not where I could have seen it. I just used common sense, looked at PSK reporter, and changed to 70.190. Since 6 August all my FT8 QSOs on 4m have been on 70.190. Once again, why not? Well, both frequencies are bit close to the SSB centre of activity which is on 70.200, but we can manage that with a bit of give and take. When a UK contest appeared some SSB stations stuck to "their" contest frequency. The UK regulator, Ofcom, says we are "frequency agile". We can move, and that applies equally to data mode users. We do not own the frequencies we happen to regard at some stage as fixed points.

As things stand today, 26 August, a majority of FT8 operators seem to have moved to 70.190. A sizeable number are still on 70.154. I often see UK stations calling CQ on 70.154 and working nobody, while there are many stations in various countries to be heard on 70.190.

If anyone does not want to work Italians they can stick on 70.154, but that frequency is now falling into disuse. 70.154 is also not good for Portuguese stations. Myself, I can listen on both. My preference is for 70.190, at least for as long as Italians are to be found there. I have worked about a dozen countries now on 70.190 so a lot of other operators take the same view.

What frequency you use is up to you folks, so long as it is legal.

Over the past 45 years plus since I started on 4m, the frequency allocation in the UK changed, and  various countries have slotted in slices and spot frequencies all over the band (and slightly outside it). Radio amateurs are ingenious people and we have got over all these things in the past. This is just another one.

I have a big knob on my radio marked VFO. I can change frequency, and I will if that makes sense and does not ruin everything for everybody else. Nothing stays the same for long in my world, and I would not try to keep them the same anyway.

73 

Jim GM4FVM

Progress of a 6m opening to Japan and South Korea

I have referred to this 50MHz opening from Scotland to Japan and South Korea on 23 July 2023
before. You can find it mentioned here.

Since then I have tried to follow the progress of the opening on a map. Here is the list of contacts on the map listed by time of working ...

50MHz stations worked at GM4FVM on 23 July 2023

You will probably need to click on this image to enlarge it to see the detail.

With two outlying contacts, the opening started on Hokkaido at 06:51 and then moved progressively down the East Coast of Japan until 07:52. At that stage I became interested in working South Korea and spent a bit of time trying to work three stations there. Between 08:03 and 08:22 I worked 3 stations in South Korea and three more in Japan, after which the opening faded out. 

There was a fairly steady progression down the East Coast of Japan and only real outliers were two contacts back in Hokkaido at 07:58 and 08:01, which I have marked with grey hatching. There may have been gaps when the propagation did not make landfall and the band was open to areas of sea.

Of course once a station has worked me, they are not likely to work me again. You tend to see the front of the propagation moving, while the band is still open for a while behind the front but those stations have already worked me. I think that the reversion to those two stations in Hokkaido does not necessarily mean that there was a new opening, but rather a couple of new stations have come on the band.

We have seen this type of thing before during single hop openings, for instance as reported here in 2019. The pattern of Es contacts moving in a (more or less) steady line over time seems well established. But it was interesting to see it happen at the end of a multi-hop path as far as into Japan. Is this multi-hop Es? Certainly it looks like Es at the far end. I suspect that a similar analysis viewed from Japan would have seen the propagation open in a path across Europe or the UK.

What we do not know is how the signal gets between Es at my end and Es at the far end, I am having doubts about whether the "bit in between" can really be multi-hop Es. If Es moves the way we can see in single hops or at the end of a long path, then similar moves along the path to Japan would knock the whole thing off after a matter of minutes. If there were several hops all inclined to move along as we know Es does, then the geometry would mean that the overall path would be lost very quickly.

I do not have anything to suggest for mechanism working in the "bit in between". A special type of polar propagation has been suggested and who am I to disagree? It would have to be pretty stable to work for  75 minutes over a path several thousand kilometres long.

Anyway, it was interesting to see the same pattern of contacts moving across the region but this time at the end of an extended path stretching as far as Japan and South Korea.

73 

Jim GM4FVM