Could hear you were there but not enough for a QSO.
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Same here in Wales at the moment but condx may pick up.
Don - GW0PLP.
Update. Hearing VK3OZY at 07:13z here 5.7 on 14,195mhz.
Don.
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Thanks for the contact, Andrew. You were my only DX contact this morning.
My look at Greyline was a failure, not because it wasn’t there, but rather as the band was so full US/UK/European(West and East) stations all on top of each other- so any ZL or VK station would simply have not got through. Perhaps we need to work split with the VK/ZL station in the 7.2 - 7.3 MHz section, saying where they are listening in the 7.0-7.2 MHz section?
Also, as I got to use the linked dipole again on 20m, I can see that my phased array is the better antenna for DX - directivity and lower take off angle. So it’ll be the phased verticals for the S2S action on October 17th.
But once again, thanks for hearing me on 20m, Andrew.
73 Ed.
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Maybe throw in an occasional “CQ ONLY S2S”.
Yeah I know, some ops can only recognise their own callsign in cw 
73, Martin - PE1EEC
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20m QMX QRP SSB long path summary:
25 QSOs with EU stations. Summit to Park QSOs with Ed DD5LP and Darren M7KOD near Wales. New Zealand and Japan featured in the DX contacts.
Propagation at QRP level was IMHO excellent 
. 20m long path opened at 05:56 UTC with a 5-3 report from Pasi OH1MM and closed at 07:43 UTC after working Thomas DF7TR.
Had a 10 minute armchair chat with James G0IDX South-west England near Bath. Amazing clear audio with James. At one point James reported my signal as 5-8. His yagi array was lending a hand
Eastern grey kangaroos arrived later in the session as long path was fading. No bonus skip 
I have attempted to upload my log, however the import script is producing an Object Object error which I have reported to the MT.
Mandatory sunset and kangaroos
Until next time
Andrew VK1AD
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You are in my log Don 
Andrew VK1AD
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Yes, it’s becoming more and more common.
You’re making an S2S call; they can hear you because they’ve just finished working with you, but their call is more important, so they’ll keep calling until the SOTA station replies.
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I’m wondering if the ground will be frozen on the summit in three weeks? It was this morning, in my garden so I may need a hammer to drive the antenna ground spikes in.
73 Ed.
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Update - it looks like the last few days weren’t that good (always assuming that my local noise level didn’t change too much). Can anyone confirm this?
Tx is VK3QN, Rx at my home in JN48, antenna is a vertical at the roof top, times are in UTC.
73, Roman
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Hi Roman
In the southern hemisphere we have observed an elevated K index over the past three or four days.
While daytime MUF frequencies are well above 14 MHz, which is okay for LP, our local FoF2 frequency is barely reaching 7 MHz.
Regards
Andrew VK1AD
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Today (28-09-2026), long-path communications on 20m SSB were GREAT! Lots of strong signals out of VK & ZL, late into our morning here. 0500 -0800 UTC. The previous days have not been great, as a CME hit.
73 Ed.
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To illustrate the short and long paths, here are some pics I have taken of a world globe.
Next the other end of the path.
Upside down, so next here it is the “right” way up.
A piece of elastic cord has been placed so that it is in a straight line all the way around the globe. At one point it passes through eastern australia, at the other it passes through Europe specifically Finland, Sweden, Norway and the north of the UK. I could adjust it to pass through any two points, obviously.
On the long path, here it goes.
And the final run to Australia…
However what this demonstrates is the countries and areas the SP and LP passes. We know that a continuous line all the way around the globe represents the only paths possible, since radio travels in straight lines (other than at the polar anomalies which we will ignore for this exercise). Any other direction from a point on this line will not get to the same destination by normal propagation.
South of the equator in the Pacific, the line goes down to 70 degrees of latitude and north of the equator the maximum latitude is also 70 degrees. The short path passes through the Russian Federation, Mongolia, China, the Phillipines, Indonesia then eastern Australia.
As globes used to be commonly available this used to be easily studied, but these days you can still find globes in a school or public library.
Of interest also, is the path between Japan and Europe. The short path is indeed very short and the long path is far longer. I would be backing the short path as the one most commonly supporting propagation between Japan and EU.
Another perspective on the LP/SP discussion…
A postscript;
-
adjusting the angles slightly yielded a lower SP direction from SE VK to the usual targets in DL, F, G, modifying the LP trajectory slightly south of that illustrated above. Get a globe and some elastic cord, have a play, it’s fun seeing the reality of global directions.
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A common misconception among some hams in VK was that SP to EU was north West and LP was North East. A North East line going through Texas then goes out into the Atlantic then passes through middle Africa and arrives roughly south of Perth, Western Australia finally arriving back in Sydney from the SW.
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If all else fails, stick with the concept that long path is the reciprocal direction of the short path, ie. 180 degrees from the short path.
-
we are completely misled by Mercator projections that make maps look flat for atlases, which flattened the globe and made some countries seem larger than their actual size, some countries and continents look smaller.
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FYI, I have turned my 20m 200mW WSPR beacon back on and will leave it running for a week or so.
Andrew VK1AD
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…is’t the world flat then? 
Geoff vk3sq
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First EU rx at 04:42 UTC, Canary Islands.
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Actually, the Canary Islands are officially in Africa. Point made, though the earliest LP from VK to (Southern) Europe starts around 0500 UTC, but it’ll take another 45 minutes to an hour for the total path to the UK’s MUF to rise enough for that path to work. 20-30 minutes for Central Europe.
My path from here in Germany just skirts the top of South America, the UK crosses Florida and the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico.
73 Ed.
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Wrong!
Ever since Monty Python, at the very least, we’ve known that the world is banana-shaped!
73 Armin
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I had a similarly frustrating experience with a Japanese POTA activator. After nearly an hour, I gave up and posted a spot for myself and wrote"Looking for P2P with Japan". Two minutes later, the operator appeared on my frequency, and we completed our P2P contact.
73, Chris
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The propagation path between EU and JA on 20m can be quite surprising.
During CQWW in 2010, DL4AAE was using a two element Delta Loop on which the main heading could be reversed instantly. On Saturday, signals from JA were stronger on LP, on Sunday it was the other way round. The opposite was true for South America
73, Roman
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