HF Highlights
Steve Telenius-Lowe PJ4DX reports an improvement in solar activity, hopefully leading to better conditions on the bands.
Steve Telenius-Lowe PJ4DX reports an improvement in solar activity, hopefully leading to better conditions on the bands.
At long last our six-month rolling snapshot of the solar flux (SFI) and sunspot number (SN) figures on the 11th of each month shows distinct signs of an upturn in activity as the new Solar Cycle 25 eventually grinds into life. Although at 36 the SN was the highest recorded this cycle during our spot checks on the 11th of the month, it did rise as high as 68 on 25 April before falling back again. Despite the highest sunspot number in a very long time, the solar flux remained relatively low at only 78.
The small increase in solar activity does seem to have improved conditions considerably. From here in Bonaire there was a ‘pipeline’ to Japan with strong signals on 14 and 18MHz on both 22 and 23 April, although this was followed by several days of less good propagation. Conditions improved again at the very end of April. On the 30th I worked a number of European stations on 14MHz SSB, some of which had signals as strong as S9+30dB, whereas those with more modest setups, including Gopan M0XUU in Reading, who uses an indoor loft antenna, were still a perfectly readable 59.
Several UK stations reported working or hearing Tony 3D2AG on Fiji on 14MHz CW on 11 May around 1630UTC, an unusual time of day for the South Pacific to come in.
All this, coupled with the start of the spring/summer Sporadic E ‘season’ with propagation on 28MHz from the UK to South America and the Caribbean from the end of April onwards, means that even without any DXpeditions there has been plenty of DX about and bodes well for the next few weeks at least.
DXpeditions Again
It’s difficult to write with any certainty about forthcoming DXpeditions because so many have been announced but have then had to be postponed or cancelled. However, one this month is looking probable. Originally scheduled for June, an IOTA DXpedition to two rare Alaskan islands in now scheduled for July. KL7RRC/P by members of the Russian Robinson Club is expected to be active from Kiska Island (NA-070) from 7 to 12 July, and as KL7RRC from Adak Island (NA039) from 14 to 16 July. Further details are at:
Back in March, the DX-World website quoted Ed VK2JI, Publicity Officer of the VK9HR Willis Islands DXpedition, as saying “I am glad to report, on behalf of the group, that all is going well and all is on schedule for November. The boat is chartered to leave Australia on 3 November returning 13 November.” The group plans to operate on 1.8 to 28MHz on SSB, CW and digital modes. dx-world.net/vk9hr-willis-island
The Willis Islands are three small sandy cays located beyond the Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea, about 450km east of Cairns in Queensland. Back in 2008, the German-organised VK9DWX DXpedition,
Fig. 1, to Willis made in excess of 95,000 QSOs, quite a target to aim for!
ZL on 60m
On 7 May a press release from NZART, the New Zealand amateur radio national society, gave the welcome news that New Zealand amateurs now have access to the WRC 60m allocation, 5351.5 – 5366.5kHz, on a Secondary non-interference basis. In order to use the band ZL amateurs must first apply for a so-called ‘sub-licence’. The power limit is 15W EIRP, the same as in Europe (although here in Bonaire we are lucky enough to be able to use a relatively QRO 25W EIRP).
In New Zealand 5351.5 – 5354kHz is for CW and narrow-band digital modes only, 5354 – 5366kHz is for all modes, including SSB on upper sideband, and the top 500Hz of the band is for WSM (weak signal modes) such as WSPR, with a maximum of 20Hz bandwidth.
Most activity will undoubtedly be on 5357kHz using FT8, particularly while the power level is limited to 15W EIRP. The New Zealand allocation is for a trial period of a year, after which it will be reviewed with the possibility of higher power being permitted in future.
Fig. 1: QSL from VK9DWX, a major DXpedition from Willis Island in 2008. Fig. 2: Some of the PJ4DX/PJ4EVA antennas: left, support for the 16.5m high 7MHz inverted-V dipole; right, 7MHz vertical reflector element, with 50MHz beam mounted 6m high. Fig. 3: John King ZB2JK operating pedestrian mobile from Old Signal Hill, Gibraltar. Fig. 4: Etienne OS8D with his other great love: a BMW motorcycle. Fig. 5: Members of the Riviera Amateur Radio Club will activate GB8AFD on 26 June. Fig. 6: Great 28MHz opening to Japan and other countries in Asia, spotted by Tony G4HZW on 5 May.
I would be interested to receive any reports of ZL stations being worked in the UK on 5MHz. nzart.org.nz/info/60m
News from Bonaire
Some of the antennas I share with Eva PJ4EVA had needed some maintenance work but we had to wait until lockdown in Bonaire was lifted in early May before we could get some assistance. Peter PJ4NX and Bert PJ4KY came around and the 7MHz inverted-V dipole has now been raised to 16.5m in the centre, Fig. 2.A reflector wire has been added about 10m behind the 7MHz vertical to provide a twoelement parasitic array, beaming at Europe.
A new antenna is a 10MHz ground plane, with the feedpoint and two elevated radials about 6m high. Finally, we put up a twoelement HB9CV beam for 50MHz – but that is a story for Tim’s GW4VXE World of VHF column!
There are now nine amateurs resident on Bonaire, probably the highest number ever. One is inactive at present and another is active on VHF only but the other seven are all active on HF, mostly using FT8/FT4, though several of us are also on SSB and CW.
Readers’News
First up this month is our man in Gibraltar, Kevin Hewitt ZB2GI, who wrote that during the month he had made over 500 FT8 QSOs from his home station plus more than 100 SSB QSOs while operating from the club station, maritime mobile, portable from up on the Rock – and even while pedestrian mobile. Kevin’s pedestrian mobile operation was with John King ZB2JK, Fig. 3, and used a Yaesu FT-817 to a 5m wire wound on a 4m telescopic fishing pole connected via a 9:1 balun and tuned with an LDG Z-100 ATU. Everything is mounted in a backpack, including the 7Ah SLA battery.
“On 1 April I copied moderate 17m CW signals from both French Guiana and Thailand”, reports Victor Brand G3JNB,
“which I hoped might herald further improvement in HF propagation. The month’s opening QRP contact was a ‘first call’ to C37AC Andorra working split on 40m. Then, despite recent weeks of failure, I was delighted to re-establish contact on 30m CW with Jeff TZ4AM Mali and also to enjoy a good QSO on 40m with VE2CSI at Sept-Iles, Quebec, with only 2W. But then, at teatime on the 7th, I could hear E29TGW Thailand on 40m working a pile-up on split. Undaunted, I called for 10 minutes on 10W until back came a strong, clear ‘G3JNB 599’. Again, at bedtime, to my delight, a call to 9Z4Y Trinidad and Tobago also brought ‘G3JNB 559’.
“But DX conditions did not improve, became erratic and, for me, really awful for the rest of the month. Who would have believed that I would hear the rare T6A [Afghanistan] needing to call CQ in the ‘MM’ contest with so few responses? Much the same occurred with VI100AF, JT1BV, C92RU (the Russians in Mozambique) and FK8IC New Caledonia, all lonely for answers instead of their customary massive pileups. For me, that same sorry state of affairs continued for International Marconi Day, with but a sole contact with EI1IMD!”
Etienne Vrebos OS8D, Fig. 4, says that he made about 250 QSOs this month, all on SSB and about 90% with European stations on 7MHz. “I had the pleasure to talk to many Portable and Mobile [stations], with very low power some of them. I made several QSOs with Peter GD1JNB on the Isle of Man, who has a great magnetic loop working very well.” Another interesting QSO that Etienne
reported was on 14MHz with KN6IPA/ AM in a military Boeing refuelling fighters above the Pacific!
Steph Foster G4XKH of the Riviera Amateur Radio Club, Fig. 5, in Torbay says the club will be putting on a special event station for Armed Forces Day on Saturday 26 June, using the callsign GB8AFD.
Tony Usher G4HZW reports plenty of short skip to Europe on 28MHz as well as “my first VK of the year and, on 5 May, returning from a morning spent birdwatching, I found the band open to UA0, JT, JA and even my first HL on 10m FT8
(Fig. 6). All heard only unfortunately: try as I might I had no luck... I tried my luck on 7MHz from time to time but nothing to write home about.” Owen Williams G0PHY wrote to say that
there was “plenty of activity this month with two lots of Russian special event stations: a series dedicated to the 60th anniversary of Gagarin’s space flight at the start of the month and the RP76 special event stations commemorating the end of WWII in Europe, but not much DX. One of the Gagarin stations, RM60YG, was operated by UA9BA and I worked K1S, also a Gagarin station, in New Hampshire. The connection with spaceflight is that Alan Shepard was the first American in space. The RP stations were primarily in European Russia but a number were in Asiatic Russia. There were also a number of Hungarian special event stations in memory of Samuel Morse, born 250 years ago. I managed to work them all, ironically on SSB!” In fact, all Owen’s contacts were made on SSB, using 200W to a quarter-wave inverted-L and dipoles. PW’s World of VHF columnist Tim Kirby GW4VXE has also been active on the HF bands: “Most of the HF activity at GW4VXE has been CW this month, with the Wednesday CWOps sessions providing a good chance to see how the propagation is changing from week to week (the answer is very quickly at this time of year!). It’s nice to see 20m open much later in the evenings now whereas a month or six weeks ago, I would struggle to make any North American contacts in the 1900UTC CWT event, but there’s been plenty to work for the last couple of weeks.
“I have also been enjoying making some slower-speed Morse contacts on 80m in the evening and note that you get a lot more callers if you call CQ at 15WPM than you do at 25WPM. I find sending on a paddle quite hard at slower speeds, so have been using the CWType program on the computer to send the Morse. Very enjoyable it has been as well. I was really pleased to have Andy G1AJH come back to one of my slower calls. Andy explained that he had been practising his Morse ‘off-air’ and he had been plucking up courage to answer a CQ. I was very pleased indeed that he chose mine to reply to and we had a great contact and a nice email exchange afterwards.
“Of course, 10m and 12m have been a lot more fun in recent days with Es keeping the bands busy, especially on FT8 – though I have also heard people mention QSOs through European 10m FM repeaters in the last few days. I was surprised to hear 10m open to the Caribbean and South America the other evening around 2145UTC with PJ4EVA coming through very nicely. Although I didn’t manage to crack the pileup to work Eva, I was heard in Chile and Peru, which was very interesting.
“Finally, through Facebook, I became aware that Saturday 8 May was Armed Forces Day in the USA. The Potomac Valley Radio Club had arranged to stage a Field Day type operation from the US Navy station NSS at Annapolis. The team operated crossband, transmitting on MARS frequencies and listening in the amateur bands. I was delighted to work the station on both 17 and 20m. On 17m, the operator was Iain AD5XI/M0PCB.”
Around the Bands
Kevin ZB2GI, ZB2GI/P, ZB2GI/M and ZB2GI/MM: 5MHz FT8: TM60YURI. 10MHz FT8: KW4XZ, N2TK, N3NT, N7PX, TF3JB, W6NWS, W8LMG. 14MHz
SSB: EA8EZ, HA230A (Samuel Morse 230yrs), K2ANZ, KA1SNP, KB9AVX, KD4LT, OS21WARD (World Amateur Radio Day), PY1GV, R60MCC (60yrs first manned space flight), R60CTC (Cosmonauts Training Centre), T6AA, TI2SD, VE7SNC, VO1SDS, WG3C, WP3R. 14MHz FT8:
K1ETA, K9ARZ, KC8YG, LZ1612EN (St Euphrosynus of Novgorod), PA21WARD (World Amateur Radio Day), RL60YG (60yrs first manned space flight), VE2BR, W4PFM. 18MHz SSB: R7AY. 21MHz FT8:
8P5RE, AP2TN, BG8SRK, BH7ACO, CE5OS, CX3ABD, JE4LPS, JK3NSD, K0LB, K1MDA, LU9QFM, PJ4NX, PS8RV, PY2VM, W4GHW, YY8PME. 24MHz FT8: 9Z4Y, CE3BT, CR5OIDH, CX7SS, L21RCA (100yrs Radio Club Argentino), LU8EMI, PT2ARR, PU4CEP, PV8RR, PY1IP, V51LZ, ZS6NJ. 28MHz FT8:
9G5FI, CX7SS, EG5WRD, LU3DJ, LU4EN, PP1WW, PP5DZ, PY2AB, VP8NO, WP3VV, XR96IARU (Chile), YV4BCD, ZD7JC.
Etienne OS8D: 14MHz SSB: 9M6TMT, AP2SD, BD7MHZ, E21EIC, E29TGW, FP5CJ, JE1SSE, JH1GEX, KN6IPA/A, PY6RT, T6AA, VU2DSI, VU2XO, VU3WEW, YB0AZ, YB9BHJ, YB9ELS, YI3WHR. 18MHz SSB: YB0ECT. 28MHz SSB: PY2TMV.
Tony G4HZW: 7MHz FT8: CE3TMM, HI8K, K1FT, K6FNV, KA2HTV, KR0P, N4MEC, RL60YG, UA0SR, UN7ZV, VA3FF, VE2DA, VK3EGN, XQ1KN. 7MHz FT4:
4K1AZI, CX2AQ, K1ECU, KC2QZT, KE5HDE, YV4GMG. 28MHz FT8: 5T5PA, 9Y4DG, CE2SV, CX8DSK, EA8MU, HK3X, LU3GHF, PP5ZP, PT2OP, PU1ERS, PY4WL, PY7ZBK, PZ5RA, VK6IR, VP8LP, VP8NO, YV5KTM, ZP4KFX.
Owen G0PHY: 7MHz SSB: RP76MP,
RP76TG, RP76TK. 14MHz SSB: K1S, RM60YG.
Signing Off
Thanks to all contributors. Please send all input for this column to teleniuslowe@
by the 11th of each month. Photographs of your shack, antennas, or other activity would be particularly welcome. For the September issue the deadline is 11 July. 73, Steve PJ4DX.