Christoph Petermann | Homepage |
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 |
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)
Last Update: 2 July 2001
Text and All Images are Copyright by Christoph Petermann DF9CY
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