Friday morning it was fascinating to see DU9/N0NM pop out of
the noise for about 3 minutes. What surprised me was how
quickly Jon went from a mere trace to solid 559 (about 15
seconds!) and then dropped into noise again (perhaps 45
seconds, hard to say as he was not transmitting
continuously during the fade). That is the only time I
have heard him in months of listening.
20 minutes before sunset Friday 8Q7DV was 449 here, but not
workable. They have a HUGE signal on all bands! I
understand they are there until after the WPX SSB. Maybe
some of us can catch them on higher bands and beg for more
160m activity in the coming week.
Last night I could barely detect the big guns out of EU.
Terrible conditions. This morning I had only the slightest
trace of V73KJ, and VK3ZL was completely inaudible. No
trace of N2G (Guam) here either. Even condx to the south
(YV1DIG) were severely depressed. Wouldn't you know, with
FT5X, V7, and 8Q all potential new ones this week, the band
goes DEAD. Hopefully it won't take long to recover.
On geomagnetic activity vs 160 condx...
I didn't finish the amplifier and really get active until
early December, but have been listening since mid
September. It is no surprise the best condx of the season
(overall) seemed to be in October when geomagnetic activity
was low. Geomagnetic activity was slightly higher in
Nov/Dec following the very severe disturbance in early
November, and conditions were notably worse. Geomagnetic
activity during Jan/Feb/Mar has been much higher with
frequent major disturbances, and condx have been very much
worse at least from my location. I'm glad I don't live any
further north!! I am looking forward to the natural lull
in geomagnetic activity around solar minimum and early in
the new cycle.
73 & GL to all
Paul N1BUG
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