Looks like my low weight J-Pole antenna wont be replacing your ANTRON A-99 for a while. This mornings activation was a total failure with only 1 contact Z35A - Trajko in Macedonia 5-9* reports both ways Receive seemed to be working as I heard a couple of expat Germans in different African countries, a net in VK with VK4, VK2 and VK7 heard. Italians and an extreemly strong Scandanavian net (Finland I think) were also on the 20m band but call as I may to these stations, I got no reply - most of these stations were running beams and at least 400W PEP - my J-Pole and 20 watts didnāt seem to cut-it. I wonder if Iād have been better using the Inverted-V but with the damp/rain from the morning fog and the cold, I didnāt want to put up both antenna systems.
Thanks for the nice activation reports. Now I donāt feel so bad about making no contacts on 17m or 20m on an activation I did yesterday in France. 80m and 40m saved the day.
Probably not light at the end of the tunnel yet but someone has found a torch (flashlight) - look at the Solar Figures today (shame that the MUF is quite low though):
SFI over 100 & K Index 1.
Interesting Ed, you must have a different sun as 30 minutes later I get this solar weather report.
SFI 83 and K 5
Compton
07:18 UTC - still SFI 107
Your graphic is so small that I can read the date and time on it - perhaps it needs a refresh ?
Ed.
The Zed shows 107, Spaceweather.com shows 112. Sunspot 2644 (which has produced a couple of M-class flares) is nearing the limb and will be gone in a couple of days so we need to make use of the conditions while they last!
Its this one. Make it as big as you like!!
Yes and it currently shows SFI=107 and K=0
I think you need to refresh your browser cache Compton - CTRL+F5 or shift-refresh symbol, should do it.
(Iāve been caught by this before, where the ISP stores a page and doesnāt see it has updated so you get the copy from a couple of days ago!).
73 Ed.
Activator from Hungary booming in here 5-9+ so band conditions are good at the moment.
Well, if my early morning activation on Friday 31 March of GW/NW-076, Mynydd y Cwm is anything to go by, it cant get much worse. I had alerted for GW/NW-076 Great Orme but the high winds meant I would have trouble getting the A-99 up and in the end, opted for Mynydd y Cwm instead.
My first spot appeared at 0650z and I found that the 20m band was in a shocking stateā¦ couldnāt buy a contact. Took me nearly an hour to qualify it and a couple of those were ground wave contacts. The best part of two hours produced just ten contacts, with no DX.
Mike
2E0YYY
Nup Ed, I notice that it changes quite quickly. The date is also helpful in knowing how current the details you are looking at are.
Well I still donāt know where you got your SFI of 85 from today, itās been consistantly 107.
In fact K is now down to Zero!
Aha I can JUST read on the graphic in your post 30 Mar 2017 !
EDIT: - from spaceweather.com - "stay tuned for more flares on April 3rd as the sunspot shows little sign of quieting "
so we should have a few days of better conditions it seems!
Must be me then, thanks for pointing that outā¦
Compton
Quick Activation and Band Conditions Report, G/CE-001 Cleeve Hill 04/04/2017.
Once again, I arrived at the summit far too early really. Got the Antron-99 in the air and had a listen to the 20m band. It was very quiet. My self spot appeared at 0650z and my first contact RN3QGL, made it into my log at 0659z.
Half a dozen EU contacts were logged, when Jonathan VK7JON from Tasmania, came in with a nice signal. Next was Peter VK3PF and then Ernie VK3DET who was doing a great job with his QRP power! A very big signal was sent by Tony VK3CAT and then Geoff VK3SQ made the trip, for his first SOTA DX contact. A few More EU contacts were logged before Paul VK5PAS gave me a call with another big signalā¦Cheers Paul. My last DX contact of the morning was Steve VK7CW, many thanks to Steve.
As Iād taken the X-300 colinear with me for some 2m fm, I though I may as well have a play for an hour or soā¦ A total of 27 contacts were rattled off.
The K index seemed to have taken a jump again, making the path to VK, somewhat selective with nothing heard from ZL. All in all not a bad result though.
Thanks to all the callers. Nice mornings radio.
29 contacts on 20m ssb, 7 VK
27 contacts on 2m FM.
73 Mike
2E0YYY
Nice to see the stretch in the days though. A more exotic haul than my recent visit, well done!
Hi Andy,
It was only when I packed up that I noticed that the K index had jumped to 5 again 
So I think todays result flattered to deceive somewhat. Nothing from VK1,2 or ZL told the real story.
Best 73
Mike
2E0YYY
What power do you usually run Mike? Iām still relying on my trusty end fed and dipoles. Canāt seem to get much joy out of the verticals 
I usually work with about 40 Watts. Funny enough, Ernie VK3DET dropped his power to 5 Watts this morning and I had no problem working him long path.
73 Mike
Good to hear your efforts were rewarded again this morning Mike. I listened for you both on 40m and 20m when you spotted but nothing heard. Didnāt see the K peak at 5 - itās back down to three now in any case and SFI still over the magic 100 mark at 106. Looks like MUF is rising as well - canāt be bad!
73 Ed.
I worked vk on the s2s event and i used 5w into a resonant end fed for 20m. It was in a sloping setup on a 10m mast. So it can be done, as long as you can get out of bed at silly o clock in the morning lol.