[PPRAANet] giant 2-meter Es opening in Europe

[K3ILC]

Gee -- I hope we get some 2-meter E-skip openings this summer. Europe 
had one of the best 2-meter E-skip openings ever on May 29.

Some of the quotes:
"May 29th 2020 will remain in many brains since this day was one of the 
most remarkable when we talk about Sporadic 'E'. Almost 19 hours of 
continuous high MUF beyond 144 Mhz, until the very late night with last 
signals disappearing at 03.00 AM local in Western Europa."

"It started early in the morning round 08.00 UT concentrating in Central 
and Western Europe and it remained for 19 hours. We saw a High MUF 
bubble covering up to 1.3 million square kilometers at its peak with MUF 
reaching almost 300 MHz. And we had several different high MUF bubbles 
every now and then close to the center of the main area. That is a very 
unusual event, to be honest and the editor can't find anything similar 
from the last 40 years."

"D4VHF was heard in Central Poland, which is well beyond 5.500 kilometers"

"It was like 20 meters in a busy DXCC contest in times (sic).  We heard 
from guys working a pocketful of EA stations in FM just with their small 
handheld in the garden running 3W into a rubber stick."

This was one of almost daily 2-meter E-skip openings this summer. One of 
the big gripes everyone is sharing, is that everyone is using 144.174 
FT-8.  Bad QRM, and it takes too long to complete a QSO during Es, which 
may rapidly fade in and out, because of the high frequency.  They 
recommend SSB (which is very rapid), or CW.

See https://www.mmmonvhf.de/es.php?year=2020&month=05&day=29 for more 
details.

We can always hope and pray we have an opening like that --

73

Jim Madsen
K3ILC