Band conditions this morning are among the worst in memory. A index is at 49. I haven’t been able to hear a single EU activator. Good luck out there.
73, Barry N1EU
Apparently a big CME that hit us a day or so ago was the start of it…
73, Rick M0LEP
In reply to N1EU:
Pretty dire indeed.
Large sections of 20 & 40m sounded completely dead to me on G/WB-004 this afternoon, I think if I hadn’t taken the sainsonic amp, I would have struggled for any HF contacts with the 817ND
Having said that, did hear some South American activity on 12M, but just couldn’t get back to them.
Aurorawatch (*) seems quite a useful ‘warning’ service, they did send me an ‘amber alert’ yesterday at 6am or so.
http://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/cgi-bin/subscribe
Don
(*) Other similar services may be available 
Klaus DF2GN was on DM/BW-042 today, and made an interesting band condition indicator as he hopped around the bands. I eventually managed to hear him (but with deep QSB) on 15 metres mid-to-late afternoon, and didn’t manage to catch him 'til just after 17:00z when he was on 12 metres. There, by then, the QSB was slow and deep, so there was time for a QSO (my first 12 metres SOTA QSO) in one of the highs… 
73, Rick M0LEP
In reply to M0LEP:
Tom has monster 12m pile up right now. Suspect SpE.
In reply to G3CWI:
Yeah, I guess Es is the most likely explanation. Makes a change from what the upper layers havn’t been providing today. I think I’m hearing some of Tom’s chasers, but not him. 250kms is probably the wrong sort of range…
73, Rick M0LEP
In reply to M0LEP:
I can’t hear Tom but I can hear many of his chasers - interesting because I along with several other G chasers worked Steve G1INK on Kinder this morning! There’s a lot still to learn about this band (including me having the band plan pinned up in front of me!)
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to N1EU:
Bleedin’ diabolical Barry. I drove 260miles, walked thick end of 18kms to find HF was “poor”. Awful QSB, few chasers, a band policeman who just sent ??? (he was told what to do). If it wasn’t for the excellent weather and views I’d have been very, very upset.
Managed Rich N4EX on 18m. Just! He gave me 229.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to G3CWI:
Damn him! 12m was dead at 1230Z.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to N1EU:
“I haven’t been able to hear a single EU activator. Good luck out there.”
Conditions were pretty dire from G/SP-001 today. I heard someone calling me on 17m today but all I got was echo uniform so I thought it was you Barry, however it was so marginal that we wouldn`t have made it if it was you. I did manage Bob W1OW on 17m for my sole stateside contact today.
73 Steve.
In reply to MM0FMF:
Not nearly as bad as yeasterday. I was planning for SOTA pedition to participate to IARU FD but bailed out due to S9 aurora noise on Saturday.
One particular summit that we had been planning to activate with Hannu oh3kw was in our sight and since the conditions had improved significantly from yeasterday we decided to give it a go, since the weather below 30000 feet was absolutely fabulous.
After a quite a bit of hassle (I left the ladded line home from our doublet) we both managed to get the required number of qsos to get the activator points home. We were runnig about 100w (KX3 + amp) on 20 with ssb only due hassle with antenna.
Thank you for all the calls. Special thanks to those two brave ops who managed to chase me from their summits in these conditions!
Cheers,
Toni oh3t
I worked two summits and two new DXCCs with my FT-817 today, but I had worse signal reports on 20 than usual. 15 and 17 were good though.
In reply to G8ADD:
There’s a lot still to learn about this band
(including me having the band plan pinned up in front of me!)
Hi Brian,
Working HF from G/SP-013 Gun, yesterday was like wading through the proverbial treacle.
12m was pretty dire and as I suggested a couple of weeks ago, every 12m Challenge point had to be earned. Trust me, there were no gimme’s yesterday morning and early afternoon.
Timing is of the essence.
Congratulations to Carolyn GW6WRW/P on your excellent 12m signal from GW/NW-002 Carnedd Llewelyn yesterday, wonderful to listen to… Thanks for the s2s.
73 MIke
2E0YYY