[SEDXC] More Notes on 40M

[Hal Kennedy]

Heard/worked on the dipoles before sunrise this AM:  DU, YB1A, VK, HK, JA,
OH, DL, GI, G and others.

The last three are not errors - I was spotted in England at local Noon their
time.  The band was essentially open to everywhere at once (except Africa)
this morning.

YB1A was S9 yesterday afternoon at our sunset.

Most SEDXCers are familiar with gray line DXing, no doubt - but DXing just
above the MUF is a subject not discussed very often.  The MUF over Georgia
and off to the North East along the gray line has been running between 6 and
8 MHz for the past three days.  You can watch it at:

http://solar.uleth.ca/solar/realtime.html

Note the MUF just to the left of the gray line, wherever it might be when
you look.

When operating at or just above the MUF, only very low angle signals will
'skip,' resulting in unusually good SNR for long haul DX (closer-in noise
does not 'skip').  We are at the confluence of the Winter Solstice and that
part of the sunspot cycle where MUF before sunrise is around 6-7 MHz.
Meanwhile, K has been as low as 1 and no higher than 3 for the past three
days.  Translation:  This is about as good as 40 ever gets.  We may enjoy
this for another month or so if K stays low.  After that, it could be as
long as the next solar cycle upswing (10 years away) before we are back to
MUFs of 6-8 MHz on the gray line.

If the MUFs go lower still, 80 and 160 will enjoy the improved SNR.  JT1CO
was spotted on 80 this morning although I did not hear him.

DX is.

73,
N4GG