This past week saw an increase in the solar flux index, helped along by a
gaggle of sunspots. The SFI hovered around 117 mid-week which, when coupled with
relatively settled geomagnetic conditions, brought some life to the upper HF
bands. Andy, M0NKR reported working Japan on 20 metres from his car at lunchtime
using a monoband whip and 150 watts. Australia has also put in an appearance on
10m at times.
Next week, NOAA predicts the solar flux index will be
around 110 to 115, with generally settled geomagnetic conditions. There is the
chance of unsettled conditions later in the week with the K-index predicted to
hit four on Thursday and/or Friday. This is due to a high-speed solar wind
stream from a recurring coronal hole. So the message is, get your DXing efforts
in earlier in the week.
The critical frequency as measured by the Chilton
Ionosonde was 8.6MHz at noon on Wednesday the 10th. This translates to an
estimated maximum useable frequency of 31MHz over a 3,000km path and explains
why DX was to be found on 10 metres. It may be worthwhile keeping an eye on
28MHz this week to see if the good conditions continue.
VHF and up
propagation news:
It’s been a poor winter overall for tropo and there are
few glimmers of hope in the coming week. After we have shunted the cold wintry
weather into the continent, indications are that it will be Monday when a ridge
of high pressure moves into Ireland and western Britain. This will migrate
eastwards across the country, being replaced by low pressure again from Thursday
onwards. This means that we may have a mid-week opportunity to get some marginal
tropospheric enhancement on the VHF and UHF bands, before it fades away
again.
This is not a particularly strong ridge and is unlikely to bring
widespread good conditions. The best tropo prospects are reserved for the
eastern Mediterranean, around Cyprus and Crete, and also from Portugal to the
Azores and Canaries.
There is still no respite from the annual dip in
meteor rates so early morning continues to be best time day for random meteor
scatter operation.
The Moon declination increases all next week, reaching
maximum on Thursday. So long moon windows, with associated low losses, means
it’s a good week for Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) operation. If you aren’t equipped
for EME, or Oscar Zero as the Moon is sometimes called, artificial satellite DX
is always available. Maybe take this slow week as an excuse to try satellite
operation.
