12,475km opening on the 40 MHz band from South Africa to the USA – Dec 2022
With the solar flux now reaching the 150 mark, the MUF (Maximum Usable Frequency) is now allowing more paths on the 40 MHz band to open up.
Tim, WW1L in the state of Maine in the USA reports reception of the FT8 signals from ZS6WAB in South Africa on Monday the 26th of December 2022. The distance was about 12,475 kms.
The Red lines on the map above are for the 50 MHz band and the Purple lines are for the 40 MHz band. On the 8m band, WW1L was hearing two of the US experimental stations as well as ZS1WAB in South Africa.
The main frequency for SSB and FT8 on the 8m band is 40.680 MHz, right in the middle of the ISM band (Industrial, Scientific, Medical).
Wed 7th Dec 2022: This day seems to have been even better with WW1L hearing ZS6WAB & ZS6OB from South Africa and G9PUV from England.
A note of caution about the map above… there may be some mistaken reports from other bands but overall, it seems about right. ZS6WAB and ZS6OB can both be seen in South Africa and they had 8m paths to Europe and the USA.
PJ4MM in the Caribbean is hearing 8m signals from Europe. The station in the south of Portugal and in the Canary Islands are hearing 8m signals and reporting them.
As you can see, there is quite a bit of activity on the band.
It looks as if one of the US experimental stations WM2XAN in Michigan exchanged a signal report with ZS6WAB on 40.680 MHz…
160015 -20 0.3 1399 ~ WM2XAN ZS6WAB R-02
Link…
1) For more info on the 8m band, visit my 40 MHz page.
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