It seems to have got worse again. Today I’ve been making a number of FT8 contacts on 20m around Europe. The waterfall is normally buzzing with signals but for around 20 minutes at 1840z it was silent. I heard one or two stations and then at 1900z I managed a contact with a Norwegian station. As I’ve been typing this it has come alive again. Either everyone was having a nap or someone turned a big off switch in the ionosphere.
Between 2100 and 2200 UTC this evening I worked 4 South Americans and numerous Europeans on 20 metres.
Between 2200 and 2230 UTC I worked 7 stations on 40 metres, all around the Mediterranean area.
The bands have been up and down all day, with several brief complete blackouts.
I’m glad to say I don’t get any VDSL QRM here, because mercifully there is no fibre broadband in my street … and no prospect of it until after the year 2020.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
FYI: On Wednesday, September 6, I managed to work JF1IRW in Japan with 5W in CW from Crete on 30m and got 559 - 579 and could hear the station with bold 599+. My best DX so far! Of course, I was lucky to find a sweet spot in the current propagation turmoil.
I used my 5m vertical on a 6m mast + a small loading coil + an Elecraft T1 tuner for the final matching. The location close to the sea (5m) and my single counterpoise almost directly on the beach might have worked in my favor.
Still, I am impressed of how HF radio can feel like, having not yet experienced any solar maxima (licensed only in 2016).
73 de Martin
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If the sky is broken, then rather than not go out and play SOTA, go out and play VHF and Microwave SOTA. A QSO with Andy GM8OEG/P on GMES-037 where he told me how dire he was finding HF in Scotland today persuaded me to stay on 2m and 13cms. 6 QSOs on 2m using just the handy and rubber duck. Another 4 QSOs on 13cms made the day very good. Maybe HF would have worked as conditions are up and down, but I missed the rain and qualified the hill on 13cms.
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