Understanding Sporadic E Propagation for VHF DX

This is a recording of a Sporadic E propagation presentation that I did for the Oro Valley Amateur Radio Club in Tucson, Arizona, USA. They graciously asked for me to give a presentation on 21st of March 2021.

In this presentation I go through the mysteries and theories of how Sporadic E forms as well as:

- What is Sporadic E propagation
- When the skip occurs
- Bands affected
- Predicting openings using WSPR

RSGB talk:

⏱️TIMESTAMPS⏱️
0:00 Understanding Sporadic E Propagation for VHF DX
1:10 What is Sporadic E?
3:23 What causes Sporadic E?
7:57 About the "Clouds"
9:19 Skip Distances and Bands
12:30 Multi Hop
14:34 When does the band open?
16:49 How often does it open?
19:47 Relationship between MUF and cloud
22:43 Example of a short path E cloud allowing a higher MUF
24:02 What Antenna and Polarization do you need?
25:24 How do we know when it opens?
27:10 WSPR Overview
28:17 Using WSPR to detect paths on 50 MHz
30:37 Using WSPR to detect paths on 144 MHz
32:02 Long Sporadic E paths USA to Australia
33:38 Using WSPRView to detect the MUF rising to 144MHz
35:48 Understanding the results
37:48 Resources and further info

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Music:

[EastAngliaUK]

5 days ago this was going over our local FM signals.

[MrEdTraveller]

Thank you for this very interesting presentation. The British meteorologist is Jim Bacon G3YLA, and his talks / presentations are always worth watching. In addition to his talk about Sporadic E that you have linked in the description, may I also recommend his talk "Why radio and weather go together" which is also on the RSGB channel. It does cover Sporadic E but also tropospheric ducting, meteor scatter etc. Well worth watching! I hope this helps. 73 from Ed M0MNG.

[daviddavidson]

Love sporatic e. I listen to 30 to 50 mhz band and listen to military exercises at fort brag in nc.and also fire depts from all over. Great video

[combatwombat]

My best 2m Es to date was when I was a VK2, from Sydney suburbs to far North Qld... with 50 W and (wait for it) a white stick fibreglass vertical! S9 copy both ways. An amazing opening. 73 de G0MOH.

[pauls]

The amusing thing is that I can hear WHISPR signals over S9 pointing towards the major city (Melbourne) 200km away but can’t raise them on 50.110 calling

[mostlypostie]

Great video. - FYI, I'm actually finding FT8 a better tool / indicator of Sporadic E openings on 10m than WSPR, due to the shorter TX/RX periods, and at most times, the greater number of active stations. 73

[ONARQ]

Very good, I can comfirm it, starting on 6m about 25 years ago with the 2m<>6m transverter from Elektor in those days and a Ft260, my first qso on that band (1W output ) and a antenna !? I was still building with only a dipole and a reflector 1m ( 3 feets ) above the grass was OE ( Austria ) <> ON (Belgium) you can imagine that I was sollt for this band, so later I bought a Ft 690 ( 10W ) and a 5 ele Tonna second hand, with this equipment I made a lot of qso's even intercontinental to south-Africa (ZS) and the America's (PY) these qso's were made end Oktober while the best season is from end April to middle August with a peak in June, at the best you don't need much power, have make qso's from a ship in the mediterran sea to home (Belgium) with the Ft 817 ( 2W on battery-pack) and the rubber-duck-antenna, since past year I bought a transvertor 4m <> 10m and work in July CT ( Portugal ) & 9A (Croatia) with 10W output and a omnidirectional antenna horizontal polarizated under the roof ! made also a few qso on 2m but these a really rare, the last years I was not anymore able to make intercontinental qso's why ???, but have to say not anymore qrv as before, my english is bad, but never learn it at school, sorry

[littlerhino]

What frequencies do all generally use for your citizen's band? If an American truck driver wanted to try and call an Aussie trucker what would they generally be listening on? I'm aware of 27.555 MHz but that's more of a universal call frequency, is it not?

[fungo]

American DTV reception via E Skip isn't even super rare, and will probably get more common as ATSC 3.0 gets deployed on a wider scale. DVB-T2 and DAB+ via E Skip is the one you need patience for.