Radio Propagation
High pressure across northern Europe is again producing good tropo propagation on VHF. Ship AIS is being received from over 200nm into the Bay of Biscay from Plymouth, UK.
#radio-propagation โ Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #radio-propagation, aggregated by home.social.
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Radio Propagation
I'm pretty happy with my AIS coverage as reported by Marine Traffic following yesterday's very brief bump in tropo propagation. I even had hits from the west coast of Scotland and The Netherlands!
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Radio Propagation
High pressure over Northern Europe is producing tropospheric ducting, extending the range of VHF and UHF signals.
My AIS station in Plymouth is receiving ship AIS signals from over 250nm (460km) away across the English Channel and into the Bay of Biscay.
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Radio Propagation
Sporadic-E is back for the afternoon peak over Europe raising the MUF up into the FM band again.
An Es cloud is also present over the south end of Lake Michigan giving some Es propagation over N America.
HF bands are being depressed by an ongoing solar storm.
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Space Weather
A minor G1 geomagnetic storm is in progress. HF propagation will be degraded in polar regions.
Aurora may be possible at high latitudes.
#spaceweather
#aurora
#radiopropagation
#amateurradio
#g7izu -
Radio Propagation
A sporadic-E cloud over the North Sea is raising the MUF into FM band 2 in the area. FM radio is propagating between Scandinavia and UK/Ireland.
More Es clouds over the western Mediterranean are giving propagation there.
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Radio Nostalgia
52 years ago, a paging system called Eurosignal was introduced in Germany on four spot frequencies just below the lower end of the FM band. France and Switzerland were the only other countries to adopt the system. The system was in use for just 24 years between 1974 and 1998.
Eurosignal sent six-digit paging messages to subscribers who paid around DM1000 (Deutschemark) for a receiver and DM25 per month for the service. The receivers were large and needed long aerials, so weren't quiet small enough to comfortably carry around.
If you've heard the Eurosignal tones before, you'll never forget them. For listeners near the transmitters in Europe the tones would be ever-present, but outside the service areas mainly during tropospheric radio openings, DXers and normal listeners alike would hear the strange tone sequencies coming through their FM radios. They were mysterious, and special. The signals would become excellent radio propagation indicators for the DXers, and they were missed after the system was closed down.
In 1996, the band AIR used the signals to good effect in their track LES PROFFESSIONELS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FuKrPy6h80).
Just for fun, I've made a Eurosignal simulator. It faithfully recreates the tone sequences and plays messages at random (continuously), or manually one at a time if you input some numbers. You can even add FM noise and fading for that added authentic FM radio sound!
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Space Weather / Radio Propagation
HF conditions are starting to deteriorate as the solar storm commences. This matrix shows radio paths based on the UK.
For paths from other bases check out the Space Weather Ops Dashboard:
https://www.tvcomm.co.uk/g7izu/space-weather-ops/ -
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Radio Propagation
Meanwhile an Es cloud over Indiana is doing the same for North America.
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Radio Propagation
An area of intense sporadic-E clouds over south-eastern Germany is causing a high MUF, which is allowing FM broadcast propagation across Europe.
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Radio Propagation
Continuing high pressure over northern Europe is producing good tropospheric radio propagation between the UK and northern France.
AIS signals on 162 MHz are extending well beyond the normal range.
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Radio Propagation
FM Band 2 is open between Scandinavia and UK/Ireland this evening via sporadic-E.
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The Wireless Sovereign: Engineering Your Own Amateur Radio Station
1,745 words, 9 minutes read time.
Listen brother!
The modern world is a rigged game, a carefully engineered trap built to milk you for every cent while ensuring you remain completely helpless.
Every proprietary black-box system and โseamlessโ cellular network you use is a leash, keeping you tethered to a grid that doesnโt care if you live or die. These industries are fueled by a desperate, short-sighted hunger for the quick dollar, sacrificing long-term national resilience for quarterly growth. Theyโve offloaded their engineering soul, and now the workforce capable of actually designing, building, and fixing the hardware we rely on is shrinking to nothing. Donโt think for a second that importing cheap, mass-produced junk from China is a solution; that is just trading one form of dependence for a far more dangerous one. That hardware is a black box you donโt control, manufactured by a foreign power that views our infrastructure as a target, not a partner.
They donโt want you building; they want you consuming. They donโt want you understanding; they want you paying rent on technology youโll never own and can never fix.
Building your own radio station isnโt about collecting a hobbyโitโs about declaring war on that dependency. Itโs about walking away from the corporate trough and building something that actually works when the lights go out.
The Engineering Imperative: Cut the Cord or Get Cut Down
We come from a line of men and women who built the world with their own two hands, but today, the technocrats and their political puppets want you soft, compliant, and addicted to a steady stream of pre-packaged garbage. They sell you โinnovationโ thatโs just a thinner way to keep you in the cage, legislating against your right to repair so youโre forced to crawl back to them for every upgrade.
Itโs a pathetic cycle of planned obsolescence where these sealed-shut, disposable devices are engineered to fail, cluttering our landfills while simultaneously exporting our wealth to foreign lands.
Every time you ignore how your gear functions, you surrender a piece of your autonomy. We need people who look at these disposable paperweights, recognize them for the environmental and strategic liabilities they are, and choose to build, strip, and master the technology themselves. If you canโt maintain your own tools, you arenโt independentโyouโre just a mark.
The Sovereign Right to Build
One of the most powerful realities of the amateur radio service is that it is a protected sanctuary for the builder.
When you earn your license, you arenโt just getting a ticket to talk; you are legally securing the right to design, construct, modify, and test your own transmitting equipment.
In a world where the authorities and corporations try to lock you out of your own hardware, this is an open invitation to defy them. The amateur radio community is filled with men and women who have spent decades doing the heavy lifting, keeping the spirit of technical self-reliance alive through sweat, soldering, and pure grit. You are allowed to participate in this. You have a seat at the table with operators who donโt just buy their capabilityโthey forge it. This is where you learn to build the tools that keep you functioning when everything else goes dark.
Engineering the Signal Chain: Physics Doesnโt Negotiate
Competence is the only thing that matters when the social contract rips apart. While the masses are distracted by the latest โplug-and-playโ garbage, youโll be in the dirt, calculating resonance, refining your impedance, and sweating over the connections that actually get a signal out. This isnโt for the desk-jockeys. When you build your own array, you learn the brutal reality of physics. You donโt get a โuser experienceโ here; you get a system that either works or it doesnโt. Youโre learning to master the airwaves by putting in the hours to understand the mechanics, the signal loss, and the propagation that no marketing brochure will ever admit exists. Stop buying solutions and start forging them.
Navigating the Spectrum and Legal Hardscapes
The airwaves arenโt a playground for amateurs; theyโre a tactical domain.
The licensing process isnโt a barrier meant to keep you out; it is the baseline requirement to prove you have the discipline to operate within your authorized privileges, the technical rigor to build or fix equipment without electrocuting yourself, and the professional integrity to protect the finite spectrum we all share.
Youโre going to master the frequency allocations and the standards, not because youโre a bureaucrat, but because an operator commands his territory by knowing the rules better than the people who wrote them. You arenโt submitting to anyone. You are arming yourself with the technical authority to command the medium. Demand excellence from your own mind, or step aside.
Maintaining Operational Integrity in a Degraded Environment
Here is the bottom line: if your station needs a grid, a commercial server, or a steady supply of retail parts to function, youโre just playing house.
Real operational integrity is measured by what you can do when the world goes silent. Youโre building for the day the supply chain snaps and the power goes dark.
That means hardening your hardware, mastering your power management, and learning to squeeze performance out of gear that others would have thrown in a dumpster. This is economic and physical resistance. Youโre decoupling your survival from the people who want you dependent. When the system collapses, everyone else will be looking for a signal that isnโt there; youโll be the one with the station, the power, and the proof that you didnโt need their permission to exist.
Conclusion: The Responsibility of Knowledge
Building a station is the ultimate rejection of the consumer trap. You arenโt just soldering circuits; youโre building a foundation of capability that no one can take from you. This is about stripping away the comfort that keeps you weak. The ability for citizens to design and build their own communication gear is a vital pillar of national security; it ensures that when centralized networks fail or are compromised, there remains a resilient, distributed web of operators who can move information. Every hour you spend mastering this tech is an hour youโve spent bulletproofing your own future and the future of this country. Your ability to understand and operate your own tools is your only real defense. When the grid fails, the men and women who know how to build their own path are the only ones who survive the fallout. The era of being a consumer ends now. The era of the sovereign operator begins with the machine you build today.
The Call to Action: Become a Sovereign Operator
This isnโt about collecting certificates or filling a shelf with plastic gear. This is about crossing the threshold from a consumer to an operator. The infrastructure of your survival is currently held hostage by manufacturers who prioritize quarterly profits over long-term reliability. Commercial gear has its place, but when a โSHTFโ (Shit Hits The Fan) moment arrives and you are plunged into an extended blackout, that is when the vulnerabilities of mass-produced, sealed-shut equipment are exposed.
I learned this lesson the hard way in the Army: downtime wasnโt just an inconvenienceโit was a death sentence. We were trained not just to operate our equipment, but to pull the chassis, identify the failure, and repair the circuit boards ourselves. Because in that environment, if the signal died, soldiers didnโt come home. You need that same mindset.
The path is clear:
- Study the Craft: Grab a study guide, find a local club, and stop waiting for permission to understand the physics of your world.
- Secure Your License: Treat the exam as the first test of your commitment to independence. It is your legal key to the spectrum.
- Build Your Capability: While you may use commercial equipment, you must master the ability to maintain and repair it. Buy the soldering iron. Learn the schematics. If you cannot fix it when the supply chain collapses, you donโt actually own itโyouโre just borrowing it until it breaks.
- Join a Net/Club: Find the men and women who are already doing the work. You are invited to participate, to learn, and to share in the responsibility of keeping the airwaves alive.
The grid wonโt stay up forever, and the supply chain is fragile. Every day you remain dependent on a system you cannot repair is a day you are at risk. The era of the helpless consumer ends when you decide to take responsibility for your own communications.
Donโt just watch the world burnโbe the one who can still signal through the smoke. Get your license. Build your station. Become the operator.
SUPPORTSUBSCRIBECONTACT MED. Bryan King
Sources
- ARRL Technician License Study Resources
- ARRL Learning and Educational Programs
- Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) Overview
- ARRL Exam Review and Practice Resources
- Ham Radio Village: Study Guides and Licensing
- HamStudy.org: How to Get Licensed
- ARRL ARES Manual (Emergency Operations)
- DIY Electronics Repair and Soldering Guide
- How Ham Radio Saves Lives During Emergencies
- ARRL: What is Amateur Radio?
- FCC Amateur Radio Service Overview
- ARRL Emergency Communications Training
- Find an Amateur Radio License Exam Session
- ARRL Guide to Getting Licensed
- ARRL Technical Training Resources
- The Amateur Code: Standards for Operators
- ARRL Public Service Communications
- ARRL Emergency Preparedness Resources
- ARRL Experimentersโ Resources
- ARRL Station Building and Setup Guides
- ARRL Operating Manual for Amateur Radio
- The ARRL Antenna Book
- The ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications
- ARRL Radio Kits and Construction Projects
- Amateur Radio Safety and Health Guidelines
- ARRL Guide to FCC Rules and Regulations
- ARRL Volunteer Examiner Program
- Find an Amateur Radio Club
- Resources for Youth in Amateur Radio
- Collegiate Amateur Radio Program (CARP)
- ARRL Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology
- ARRL Webinar Series
- ARRL Net Directory and Information
- Understanding Radio Wave Propagation
- Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES)
- Spectrum Management and Protection
- ARRL QSL Bureau Services
- Amateur Radio Contest Calendar
- Logbook of The World (LoTW)
- DX Century Club (DXCC) Program
- Operating Special Event Stations
- Amateur Radio Operating Specialties
- Amateur Radio Activity Reporting
- ARRL Membership and Benefits
- Supporting the ARRL Foundation
- ARRL Amateur Radio News and Updates
- ARRL Privacy Policy and Data Practices
- Contacting ARRL Headquarters
- About the ARRL Organization
- ARRL Copyright and Usage Guidelines
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this post are solely those of the author. The information provided is based on personal research, experience, and understanding of the subject matter at the time of writing. Readers should consult relevant experts or authorities for specific guidance related to their unique situations.
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#AmateurRadio #amateurRadioAntenna #amateurRadioClubs #amateurRadioExam #amateurRadioLicense #amateurRadioRegulations #amateurRadioResources #amateurRadioTraining #CommunicationResilience #communicationSecurity #DIYElectronics #DIYRadio #emergencyComms #emergencyNetwork #EmergencyPreparedness #emergencyRadio #hamRadio #offGridCommunication #portableRadio #radioBuildingGuide #radioCircuitRepair #radioElectronicsRepair #radioEmergencyServices #RadioEngineering #radioFrequencyManagement #radioGear #radioGearRepair #radioHardwareMaintenance #radioHobby #radioIndependence #radioKnowledge #radioOperation #radioOperator #radioProject #radioPropagation #radioSignalMastery #radioSkills #radioSoldering #radioStationBuild #radioStationSetup #radioSurvival #RightToRepair #SHTFCommunication #signalPropagation #sovereignOperator #survivalRadio #tacticalCommunication #technicalIndependence #wirelessTechnology -
Radio Propagation
Sometimes it's the local station that has the best tunes on a hot afternoon! ๐ฅต
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Radio Propagation
How to spot a sporadic-E signal in the melee of tropo signals? Look for the rapid signal fading.
This is Radio Marca in Mallorca again.
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Radio Propagation
Under the heat dome of Europe, very good tropospheric propagation across the north and north-west.
Here, the FM band is jammed with tropo signals from France. The capture shows my full FM band.
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Radio Propagation
A strong sporadic-E cloud over south-western France is now providing propagation between the Mediterranean countries and the north of Europe. Madeira is getting a lot of spots, including for me 91.6 Radio Marcia.
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Radio Propagation
Algerian FM station Radio Mรฉdรฉa, Djebel Dirah, on 93.3 MHz via sporadic E into South West England.
Note the totally illegal deviation of the signal which is >175 kHz, causing splatter and distortion.
FM specifications for Region 1 define 75 kHz as the maximum deviation.
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Radio Propagation
High MUF caused by strong sporadic-E clouds over central Europe are allowing very good propagation upto the FM and 2m bands.
Orange=50 MHz
Hot pink=FM Band 2
Red=144 MHz -
Radio Propagation
A very high MUF over the France/Germany border, caused by an intense sporadic-E cloud, is allowing for very good FM across the continent.
Hot pink=FM Band 2
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Radio Propagation
With one day to the summer solstice, we've almost reached the theoretical peak for sporadic-E in the northern hemisphere. Since upper-air weather plays a part in sporadic-E formation, the actual activity peak won't normally coincide with the theoretical peak.
This year it coincides with a weekend and a couple of 6m activity contests, so the bands will be rammers from around 15h UT today.
This is the current 6m to 2m situation over Europe. FM band 2 and 144 MHz are enjoying strong Es conditions over the south and south-east.
Orange=50 MHz
Hot pink=FM Band 2
Red=144 MHz -
Radio Propagation
A strong sporadic-E cloud is located over The Bay of Biscay.
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Radio Propagation
Strong sporadic-E propagation is affecting Europe, particularly between the UK and the Iberian Peninsula.
Orange=50 MHz
Hot pink=FM Band 2
Red=144 MHz -
Radio Propagation
The MUF is not so high over North America.
Orange=50 MHz
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Radio Propagation
Strong Sporadic-E conditions over Europe now.
Orange=50 MHz
Hot Pink=FM Band 2
Red=144 MHz -
Radio Propagation
Northern hemisphere sporadic-E propagation is looking good again today. High MUF near Scandinavia is producing some good FM Es propagation around Europe.
Orange=50 MHz
Hot pink=FM band 2
Red=144 MHz -
Radio Propagation
A strong trans-Atlantic and N Hemisphere sporadic-E opening is in progress.
Orange=50 MHz
Hot pink=FM Band 2
10 minute cadence -
Space Weather
CME WATCH RESTARTED:
Proton levels as measured by the EPAM instrument on ACE at L1 are rising quickly.
This is a sure sign that the CME hasn't missed us entirely and that we will be catching the westward leg of it very soon.
If you imagine the shape of a croissant, the thinning "legs" extend all the way back to the sun to the east and west, whilst the fat core heads far away from the sun.
We can expect a long period of storming with fairly chaotic Bz values whilst the structure passes through.
#spaceweather
#aurora
#radiopropagation
#amateurradio
#g7izu -
Space Weather
CME Watch: We're waiting for the first signs of the CME arrival. As of 10h30 UT we don't see much going on, but stay tuned as I'll be very quick to let you know of it's arrival.
No major changes in the prediction - G3-G4 is possible, but not guaranteed. We're unlikely to see the core of the CME as it's somewhat offset to the south-east, but the effects of a following coronal hole may just push it further west, causing it to have more effect on us. We're likely to see "flux rope" conditions from the edge of the storm, which tend to be very turbulent.
If the storm arrives earlier it will be stronger than if it arrives later. A second eruption from a neighbouring active region may slightly complicate the structure of the CME, so we don't really know how the next few hours will play out.
Stay tuned, or better still monitor my Space Weather Dashboard. It'll be interesting if nothing else!
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Space Weather
CME update
Latest analysis suggests the CME is slower than first suggested by models, and impact maybe after 12h UT on the 8th (but no guarantees!)
The chance of visible aurora in Europe in the evening is increasing!
#spaceweather
#radiopropagation
#amateurradio
#aurora
#g7izu