Jim pointed out in earlier post the usefulness of grey line propagation
on bands 30m and down. 160m grey line peaks can be huge at times.
The EU window of propagation closed in early March this year with my
last good shot on March 8th. This was a month earlier than in previous
two years. By mid April most norther hemisphere operation ceased outside
of the serious die hard folks. This does not mean all is lost, read on.
Mornings in the western USA are really the only reprieve from the solar
and Geo magnetic activity. We also have a slight advantage of decreasing
seasonal QRN as the sun moves west.
Some Central American and south American activity is still there and
possible with the summer QRN levels here but hard to find due to time
zones and their focus on eastern directions EU and Africa.
Out west the sunrise activity is somewhat limited but there is a fair
number of stations active in VK and ZL with a sprinkle elsewhere. The
following are active on a regular basis to keep band alive. JA1LZR keeps
Japan on the map in the sunrise hours.3D2AG, VK3IO, VK6GX, VK2WF, VK6LW,
VK3HJ and ZL1AZ all have good seats in the down under group.
To fix all the broken stuff or make improvements in your station as a
measure of performance you can check RBN stations to evaluate your
system performance. KH6LC, NH6V, VK4CT and 5W1SA are decent performers.
Most JA RBN stations are noise limited and often I get no report
whatsoever even though stations report I have good signal throughout JA
land. All said some great 10,000 paths are available to those early
risers to the higher latitudes in the Southern hemisphere.
A QSO with 7Q5RU is quite possible from the west coast during this
period....Just say'n
73
Bob W7RH
--
W7RH DM35OJ
If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say
the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little. George Carlin
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