Light at the End of the Tunnel?

On the Bands
141

I think it’s good to just give the radio a go though. It’s funny how propagation suddenly improves during contests!

I think too many look at their widgets saying the sky is broken and then go off shopping or something rather than switching the rig on and calling CQ.

Yesterday I was playing with my ‘Heard Island Special’ antenna for the first time and A65DR was booming in on 20m. There was very little other activity on the band at that time. I thought A65DR’s voice sounded very similar to mine and then he mentioned that he was originally from Halifax, just a few miles from my QTH! I didn’t try to call A65DR in Dubai as my antenna is tuned for 17m :smiley:

73, Colin

142

I totally agree. Though we should not discredit the theoretical predictions either as it does deepen our individual understanding. Sometimes we need to plan and getting to the radio isn’t all that easy.

Last weekend it went south. The weekend before that 5/6th March I was working ZL2 on 17m, its all over the place.

:frowning:

Jonathan

143

Thanks for confirming this Jonathan. I was beginning to think someone had thrown a huge Faraday cage over my QTH. Being in the middle of evaluating changes to the HF antenna, this solar activity is definitely not helpful. :frowning:

144

But that is the joy of it, the sheer unpredictability!

Brian

1 Like
145

Oh exactly Brian, It would be boring otherwise.

Jonathan

146

Out today on DL/AL-171 Eisenberg and I thought something was wrong with the antenna or something local to me was causing an S7-S8 noise level on 40m. 20m was quiet with hardly anyone audible - even late morning, I can usually bag a few contacts on 20m - today I managed only TWO! Perhaps this was due to the atmospheric conditions.

18 contacts on 40m, but fighting the noise there, both a high, base noise level and SO MUCH QRM from stations - was there a contest on 40m today or has everyone moved from 20m to 40m beacuse of the conditions?

It was so bad, I thought something must be wrong with my antenna and so decided not to activate a second summit down the road.

Ed.

147

Think more like conditions being some what poor today :cry:

No heard on 20m. :tired_face:

Did hear you at first for while on 40m till Spanish speaking stations took over and when they cleared only hear the chasers talking to you.

Oh well :smile:
Karl

148

Well to be fair Karl VK0 is setting the bar a bit high :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

2 Likes
149

I really should learn to take a look at band conditions before leaving home at 0500 local time to activate a summit. If I had done so, it would have been an about turn and straight back to bed this morning.

Once again, I had an appointment in Llandudno and thought I may as well take in an early doors activation of Great Orme GW/NW-070. Rather surprisingly, this summit hadn’t been activated for four months. As usual, when activating Great Orme, I went for a bullet proof option of the Antron-99 on 15 feet of poles.

However, I was in for a rude awakening. When I had a listen to all the HF bands above 20m, it was like a graveyard. A self spot on 20m at 0738 brought nothing for about eight or nine minutes, before Jan OK2PDT popped up to answer my begging. Four minutes later the summit was qualified by Viktor RX3AIK in Moscow. A s2s call was recieved from 9A/S56LXN Bojan, then a call from Phil G4OBK in Pickering…nice work Phil!

Phil, was followed straight in by Matt VK1MA. This really took me by surprise, I didn’t expect to hear a VK chaser today, let alone work one…Great contact Matt! I hung about for a while, making a couple of s2s with Christos SV2OXS and Stavros SY2BIK and a few more EU contacts, before having to leave for my appointment.

My meeting finished at 1300z and being a glutton for punishment, I made a return visit to the summit. Once again, I persisted with 20m band and found it suffering from wicked, deep and rapid QSB. Nevertheless, the radio gods took pity and gave me six North Americans on the trot.

After this the going was becoming painfully slow, so I chucked up the little X-50 colinear and played a bit of VHF. I was rewarded with 20 contacts, including EI, GI, G, GD, GW and a couple of s2s iincluding Andrew G4VFL up on G/LD-045 Dent and Lewis M3HHY on Winter Hil.

Just 37 contacts on 20m and 20 contacts on 2m.

A tough days radio :frowning: However, every cloud has a silver lining. The recently refurbished pay and display, parking ticket machine, has been trashed once again and so, for the moment, parking is free.

Mike 2E0YYY

2 Likes
150

I’ve posted the following on the WAB reflector and I hope you’ll forgive me for reposting it here! It’s mostly relevant to inter-G (M & 2?) condx on the LF bands, but it does provide a few hard facts & figures.

I’ve been having a quick look through the records for Fairford 11 years ago (2005). I’m sure you’ll realise the significance of that! They don’t make for particularly good reading. I may have only scratched the surface, but whilst the records are not complete, it’s hard to find a day in summer where the critical frequency rose much above 5 MHz. Couple that with the records from the database, which shows that mixed band claims were starting be the norm, as opposed to 40m only during 2004, with 80m taking over as the predominant band in 2006. It’s looking as though we’re going to have to brace ourselves!

1 Like
151

yep always gotta have a look Just in case the signals are appearing, most times not but just that once and I get it.

Look at 15m mid morning that 4X banging in here 5/8 yet forecast said terrible conditions. Don’t always believe it, always check it, you just never ever know something may occur and bingo your in there.

Trust my ears over what some chart says on internet about conditions :smile:

Karl

152

Well, its not as if its the end of the world, its just the natural changing of the seasons in an eleven years long year! There is no need for doom and gloom! The “light at the end of the tunnel” is still there, it will just shine on different bands until the solar spring returns. Meanwhile we just adapt to the weather and enjoy the better opportunities on the lower bands. On the bright side sporadic E tends to be better at sunspot minimum so there will still be opportunities on the higher bands, we’ll just have to do what hams have done for a hundred years and adapt, relishing the change in challenges.

Brian

3 Likes
153

You can be ignorant and turn a blind eye to the data or you can use it combined with your ears to gain a better understanding of openings and likely skip paths.

Yes it isn’t always right. On the ‘good’ weekend VOACAP suggested the best time to work ZL was indeed on 17m around the time of 11AM. I don’t believe that was accurate with the correct data entered. It is usually around 8AM as I am sure YYY and others will have found.

The amount of people who dismiss scientific data in the modern age makes me sad. It is all about the interpretation of it. You can go back to the days of putting your finger in the air, or you can be a little smarter.

154

Absolutely. As far as WAB’s concerned, it’ll be business as usual, just on different bands. I did the research and made the posting to forewarn WAB’s newer licencees as to what to expect, as they would not have experienced a solar minimum before. Of course you’ll no doubt have seen one more than me, Brian! I hope to still be around for the next maximum!

155

Possibly. I remember listening to large numbers of S9+ Brazilian and other SA stations on 15 metre AM on the short wave band on the family radio in about 1958! That got me hooked.

Brian

156

Whoopee doo! can’t wait for the bands to get back to “Normal” :wink:

157

The SFI showing as 66 yesterday, may well have been a typo, however, there can be little doubting that the HF bands were pretty much broken. I’ve done a whole heap of HF activations over the years and never experienced such deep and rapid QSB on 20m. The rest of the bands were deserted, although I did hear some YC on 15m, needless to say, they couldn’t hear me. Great Orme, has an excellent take-off and produced some great results (I note you’re activating it on the AM day…Smart move) Other things that need be taken into account, is that weekend activations are likely to produce more chasers than weekday activations.

Mike 2E0YYY

158

I agree with Brian originally that was a mistake. There was a bad CME the day before or so that shot the K-index up to above five. I think some of these widgets use their own averaging techniques and produce different figures.

That will be the easiest summit Mike, although now having acquired two reasonable batteries to power the 19 Set portable I could possibly take it to a higher summit. I will need another helper - its going to take at least three people to make that work.

I am off for the easter break, theoretically I could do it on the Friday. Better for people to work it on the Saturday as you mentioned.

Might even do a bit of CW :smiley:

Jonathan

1 Like
159

No worries Mike, good to get you in the log again. Not particularly strong, but without the intermitent powerline QRM, not too hard to work.

Talking of the Heard Island special antennas. I am rather dissapointing performance from one that a mate and I have finally put up at a reasonable height. It is an optimised 5 Element 20m yagi on an 18m long boom (on a tower at a wavelength above ground) is not outperforming a 2 element delta loop at about 15m above ground. More work required to improve it to enhance the chances of getting through to VK0EK I am afraid.

Matt
VK1MA

1 Like
160

Well 20 metres is really popping today - like a Black to White contrast, yesterday to today at the same time of day. Just had a contact with Antonio EC2AG on EA2/BI-062 and he was belting in 10 or more dbs over 9 on the meter (and sounding that strong as well). I think he said he was just using his FT817 - so only 5w.

I agree with Karl, while propagation predictions can give a guide to how a band should be doing, nothing beats going on and giving it a try.

That being said, I think I’ll need to add 80m back into my SOTA activation pack, 40m is becoming a real pain when 20m is closed.

73 Ed.