28 Apr 2009

Sporadic-E

For most of April I've been putting out CQs on 10m CW/SSB/FM and checking the DX cluster for signs of sporadic-E propagation into Europe. So far, all is very quiet. It is still early in the season, but usually there've been some openings by now. May, June and July are the best months in the northern hemisphere.

At times, sporadic-E signals can be very strong indeed. I recall some Icelandic stations on 6m SSB 2 years ago who were truly S9+50dB suggesting that, on a clear frequency, they would have been workable with microwatts!

There is a nice tutorial on sporadic-E at this link.

As of April 29th, still no spor-E yet detected this season here.

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