Spectacular Opening into USA / Canada and the Carribean – 50MHz Sporadic E (FT8 / SSB)

So its after the UKSMG contest and i was bored, thought to myself well as the 7300 is now connected to the shack PC i will update WSJT-X and JTAlertX and try some FT8,

Updated WSJT-X and then realised the audio levels are completely messed up – The New Client is 64bit and handling the audio drivers differently. Adjusted the audio levels and made sure the Operating System wasn’t going to do its usual trick of auto-adjusting levels, and we were up and running again.

several hours passed by and looking at the DX Cluster could see that Europe were working into Carribean and USA

Suddenly WSJT-X Burst into life  JTAlert Screaming “CQ” “CQ” “CQ” i look at the WSJT-X screen and to my surprise screens full of USA and Carribean Stations working UK/EU on FT8

so i attempted to call a few with my measly 50W and made a few contacts into USA/Carribean then took a break and let dad work a few.

 

Inbetween the OVF overload on my IC-7300 of dad operating FT8 i could see a strong signal on 50.110 and switched to USB and tuned down the band to investigate “CQ 6 CQ 6M Victor Oscar one fox oscar golf CQ 6M” followed by “CQ 6 victor oscar one kilo victor tango” shouted to the other shack to stop transmitting when he had finished his FT8 QSO and called the Canadian VO1FOG – 55 report from my measly 50W into Canada not bad i thought – then followed by dad finding who i was working and called him also at this point his signal was 59+40 and again i could also detect VO1KVT calling CQ underneath him on the same frequency.

Dad went to bed and i carried on attempting to call stations on FT8 until the Sporadic E opening finally dropped out around 1am Local Time (BST)

So all in all the usual quiet UKSMG contest and then followed by probably the best opening i have ever seen on 50MHz into USA/Canada and the Carribean

More info on stations worked and screenshots/pics to follow…