Christoph PetermannHomepage

 Analysis of the "historic" DX Opening on 50 MHz (Europe - Oregon & British Columbia) on 10 June 2001

On the early (local) evening of the 10 June 2001 I had my antennas towards the U.S. as I saw some cluster entries concerning W3 and W4 being worked from PA0 and G. Indeed I could copy some weak signals in rapid QSB. They turned out to be indeed from the U.S. east coast. Alerted by this I kept my antenna ( 6 Element at 10m ) to the North-West, i.e. ca 300 degrees. From 16.00 UT I heard and sometimes called, as signals in peaks were strong:

W4MYA (FM07), K3ZO (FM14), K4QI (FM06), K8SM (FM16), K8GP (FM08), AA4ZZ (EM96) all at about 8000 km away from me.

W4MYA and K4QI were worked years ago. Signals decreases after17.00 UT. At 17.15 UT some inner European Es was going on and some stations were strong from the back of the beam. So was US0CD on 50.130 MHz. When I came across that frequency, I suddenly copied in CW: "7RAT K7RAT k" ... pause ... "CQ CQ DE K7RAT K7RAT K" I immediately gave my call "DF9CY DF9CY K". He returned "??" Me again "DF9CY DF9CY K" He again "DF9CY ??" (Switch on MD recorder here) Me again "DF9CY DF9CY 559 JO54" ... pause ... Then "DF9CY K7RAT CN75 CN85 K" Yes CN75 CN85 " I answered "RR 559 JO54 JO54 BK" I heard him repeating "DF9CY K7RAT CN85 CN85 BK" which was already very weak down in the noise. And then he was gone. It was unlikely that the QSO was complete.

I dropped a spot in the locol cluster. I started carefully tuning up and down, but I did not hear anything from QTF 330. I worked that US0CD on the back of the beam and continued listening from 50090 to 50140. The spot in the cluster appeared and I got the reply "K7RAT HAHAHA". Then Some PA0 spotted K7RAT. At 17.38 There suddenly was KB7WW with an aororal tone with 519. He shortly peaked 559. "CQ CQ CQ de KB7WW K". I gave my call, but he continued CQ. A little bit aside there was very weak "7XF" and "VE7" and then "VE7XF". Too weak for any try. After this nothing else was heard. I kept tuning until 18.15 UT, when it bacame clear fron the cluster, it is over. Later in the evening, the band opened again to PY2 and PY5.

Here is a summary of this "historic" event from my side:

17.22 K7RAT (CN85 599 CALLS exchanged, but NO QSO ! 
17.38 KB7WW (CN85) hrd peaking 559 with a bit of an auroral tone - called with no return
17.40 VE7XF (CN89) hrd weak

The map shows the propagation
of the event as seen by DF9CY in JO54

Why was this event so historic ?

Noone has ever seen a contact over this path before. Most parts of Europe are allowed for 50 MHz since the beginning of the 1990s, except UK and Ireland. So a contact from EU to W7/VE7 may have happened to UK, but none has been recorded so far. Looking on the map you will see, the path leads through the polar region. Is this new ? The answer is no ! Just a few days ago I copied JA over a similar path. Indeed that path is a bit more south, but not very much. The most interesting is, that the W7/VE7 path leads very close to the magnetic pole, and that is, what I believe, makes the QSOs so "historic". The signals from K7RAT, KB7WW and VE7XF to me in JO54 (Northern Germany close to Denmark) are indeed on the most Northern path yet recorded. All other QSOs and receive reports in this event are to more southern paths. The path from here to JA is far more off the magnetic pole.

Propagation ?

The distance to the Pacific-North-West (W7/VE7) is approximately 8000 km. The event happened close to equinox time (12 days before 22 June). It is very likely that we saw a Multi-Hop Es or Aurora-E/Es Event with at least 4 "hops".

Let us keep our "ears" open for the next event of this type.

Christoph DF9CY

 Compilation received from VE7AGG
Hello all,

Below a summary of all logs I was able to collect. Also to start, some
conclusions from all emails I received about the opening.I've cut and pasted
a few soap box comments in with the logs.

On June 10, 2001 it seems we have DF9CY, Christoph and K7RAT, Tree to
ultimately thank for 'starting' this opening. K7RAT operating in the ARRL
VHF contest had his yagi's split calling cq contest toward ve6 and w6 land.
DF9CY heard him and replied. Unfortunately with russian qrm and only 10w
Christoph could not complete with Tree. Tree, now alerted to the path,
switched to the northward yagi only and continued calling cq, eventually
working 5 countries and 13 stations (see below logs). Other stations on both
sides now either heard what was going on or saw posts to the cluster and
joined in.

A number of stations wrote in saying they thought spots on cluster were a
joke at first and disregarded them.

Looking at station set ups power out and / or antenna gain seemed to make a
difference although there was less than 100w used....no surprise here.

The footprint was relatively small on both ends. The North American
footprint seems to be smaller but population / water and the fact that most
active stations were contesting ( most likely beaming south and not allowed
to use spotting clusters under single op rules). On the Europe side the
grids are all relatively coastal with the exception of the G's which are
coastal but on inland side from path.

48250 video was heard by NA stations during this opening.

Europe stations had been working the east coast area of NA prior to opening.

The ARRL vhf contest and the UKSMG contest was on during the opening.

Some said signals had an Auroral buzz over the tone others said signals were
pure tone. I heard what I would describe as typical over the pole HF
signals; slightly watery sounding, fading type signals but mostly pure tone.

All stations reported pounding heart rates, disbelief and amazment .... 'My
hands were shaking so much I had trouble turning the VFO' said
VE7SL......



Below the logs with (power out, antenna length and hieght, grid):



EUROPE STATIONS:


**DF9CY (10w, 6el at 10m, JO54):  incomplete with K7RAT 1722z
                                                           heard  KB7WW
1738z, VE7XF1740z

**PA3DOL (110w, 5el 4.8m boom at 18m, JO22)

 17.17 KN4SM still in

 PA2VST made an entry on the DX cluster saying: watch out W-America
 propagation is changing
 (I don't remember exact time , but at first I thougt he means the E-America
 guys HIHI)

17.29 K7RAT hrd from CN85
17.35 AA4ZZ 559/559 EM96 wkd on 50.107
17.38 K7RWT hrd                 50.100
17.43 VE7SL 559/559 CN88 wkd    50.106
17.49 K7RWT hrd 549             50.100
17.52 TF3GC hrd     HP94CD      50.111
17.53 W7EW  hrd                 50.096

**PA2VST ( 100w + PA, 5el 6m boom at 15m, JO22)

After a nice Es opening to K8, 3 and 4 from 15.30Z to around 17.00 I heard
the first solid signals from K7RAT at 17.30Z.

17.44Z K7RWT
17.47Z K7RAT
17.55Z KB7WW
Heard VE7XF but no complete QSO.
No more stations heard. So it seems to me it was a very local one!

**G0LCS (3cx800, 2 x 5el 6.5m booms 1 wl apart at 17m to top, IO91)

Worked K7RAT and VE7XF.
Heard no other stations

**GW4TEQ (PA, 7el at 25m, IO73)

 I was called by W7UH at 17:27 whilst chasing a new
 East coast square.....turns out he was only in Maryland!.....I didn't know
 this at the time, so up went the beam to 325degs....heard K7RAT (CN75) at
 17:37 on 50.129, he was qrz dx EU in cw, there was a big pileup of PA & ON
 stns calling him (S7-9 rx here on B/S).....I dropped my call in a strategic
 place, and he came back......not sure who the operator was, but I know N6TR
 of  the same radio club quite well from 160m, and have worked K7RAT there many
 times....this may have helped in pulling my call out?......I listened very
 hard from .100-.110, and heard VE7XF in CN89 at 17:45, but he was at my
 noise level, and was receiving much louder signals from SE G and accross the
 channel, so never made that one :-( I would agree that the European linkup
 was attributable to E's, not sure it was E's all the way though, it could I
 suppose have been some other propagation in the middle, and E's at the NA
 end?......Anyway, it was nice to work a new State (Oregon), and a new big
(CN)
 square.


**ON4ANT and ON4GG (200w, 4 x 9el   H frame at 80 ft, JO20)


ON4ANT

10 june 2001
17.39 K7RAT
17.42 VE7SL
17.44 VE7AGG
17.47 VE7XF
17.50 K7RWT
17.54 K7RAT insurance qso
18.01 NN7J
18.07 K7OFT


ON4GG

17.40 K7RAT
17.43 VE7SL
17.45 VE7AGG
17.52 VE7XF
18.08 NN7J
18.13 VE7DXG


QTF 330 degrees, signs at low angle !
VE7SL strongest, peaked 599 at one time

73  Johan


W7 STATIONS:


**K7RAT (1500w, 7el 37ft boom at 45 feet, cn85)

Heard better on 45ft yagi than on 95 ft yagi
17:11 KB5MY dm13
17:14 AC7BN dm25
17:18 KF6JBB dm12
17:22 heard DF9CY - no QSO
17:23 G4FUF jo01
17:27 ON9CFB jo20
17:28 PA5EA jn21
17:29 PE1LCH jo23
17:30 F2YT jo10
17:32 G3SNN io81
17:33 GW4VEQ io73
17:39 ON4ANT jo20
17:39 ON4GG jo20
17:43 G4IGO io80
17:45 ON9CFB - dupe jo20
17:46 PA2VST - jo22
17:49 PA7MM - jo23
17:52 G0LCS - io91
17:54 ON4ANT - dupe
17:47 ON4GG - dupe
18:01 VE6SV do33
18:11 KL0RG co45
19:03 VA7TF co54
19:56 VE6TA do33

Tree

**K7RWT (1 kw,11el 50ft boom at 55ft, cn85)

PA2VST 1742z
ON4ANT  1750z

I've been operating on 6 m from here (Portland) since 1963 and this was the
FIRST EUROPEAN OPENING in all that time that I or anyone else who has been
on
6m has ever seen!! It truly was a RARE and PHENOMENAL EVENT



**KB7WW (500w, 11el 28ft boom at 75ft, cn85)

F2YT 1741z
G4FUF 1750z

**NN7J (75w, 11el 50ft boom at 60ft, cn85)

ON4ANT 1802z
ON4GG    1811z

**K7OFT (100w, 2 x 5el 18ft booms at 40 & 60ft, cn87)

ON4ANT 1807z

.....slight aurora "buzz" on all local stations......    ON4ANT's signal had
no buzz or meteor bursts, and sounded like a typical Es propagation with qsb
into the noise at times.

**W7FI (500w, 5el 24ft boom at 60ft, cn87)

I first got on this band forty-one years ago (as a 13 year old soprano), -
this wasn't supposed to happen, although I always thought we would have a
better shot on sporadic e than f2. I wasted about fifteen minutes (probably
when signals were better), believing that the OH2AQ posts were the work of
some demented bloke, as occasionally happens. I didn't log anything, and
could only hear very weak signals coming back to RAT and others. Called
K7OFT on the phone, heard him work ON4ANT on 50.1. I copied ON4ANT about
419. I got a QRZ from him twice, but then he dropped down and that was that.
Did have 48.25 and .26 good in here, up to S5.



VE7 STATIONS:

**VE7XF (170w, 2 x 5el 16ft booms at 49 & 62ft, cn89)


1745z ON4ANT JO20
1757 ON4GG JO20
1758 PA0HIP JO21
1800 F2YT JO10
1802 PA7FM
1807 G0LCS IO91


**VE7SL  (1100w, 4el 5m boom at 18m, cn88)

ON4ANT 1740Z     **note: first VE7 to Europe that we know of**
ON4GG 1741Z
PA3DOL 1743Z
Heard F2YT PA0HIP ON4AOI

**VE7DXG  (150w, 5el on mast operating on mountain top, cn88)

ON4GG 1813z
HEARD F2YT

....Signals sounded like Au-E and were quite strong...

**VE7SKA (200w, 7el 27ft boom at 54ft, cn88)

1712    VE7FG/b    -    direct beam
1723    briefly hear VE7POI (CO88)
1732    Ralph reports that K7RAT in '85 is working a G on .130
1733    hearing bits & pieces of CW between 50.080 & 50.115 - beam:40 degr
1735    48.250 video noted - 40 degr beam
1740     hear VE7SL work ON4ANT - can only hear bits of the ON4
1742    get partial "QRZ VE7??A" from ON4ANT
1743    hear ON4GG (aparently same tx/ant)
1752    get a "QRZ VE7" from ON4GG  50.100 CW - cannot complete
1755    hear a PA3 on 50.103
1801    PA0?? cannot get suffix
1810    hear F2YT - cannot get thru pileup
1823    last of Euro signals heard (sigh)


**VE7AGG (700w, 9el 40ft boom at 75ft,cn89)

ON4ANT 1743z
ON4GG    1745z
F2YT        1810z

Heard pieces of PA's and other ON's. Noted 48250 was in during a quick
check. Heard no beacons, also, during quick checks.


There you have it folks...history

Respectfully submitted by:
Jason Timmis
ve7agg cn89
Richmond BC Canada (Just outside Vancouver)

© Christoph Petermann DF9CY 2001

Last Update: 2 July 2001

 Text and All Images are Copyright by Christoph Petermann DF9CY

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