2 May 2014

After local midnight transatlantic on 10m

Well, 10m is full of surprises!

As late as 2318z  (after our local midnight) I was still spotting K3NAL on 10m WSPR. He was using just 5W and was a decent -17dB S/N suggesting he could still have been copied at 500mW on a clear noise-free frequency. This is very late for 10m and way after dark here.  I was surprised to see the band open to the USA at all. W4MO was also copied until quite late.

This morning, 4X1RF was spotting me on 10m as early as 0636z, so maybe conditions will be good again today? Sunspot count is 93 (a tad higher than yesterday) with 20-30MHz conditions shown as " normal" whatever normal means! The WSPR kit is running on 10m in readiness.

UPDATE 1000z:   Apart from 4X1RF, all reports so far have been Europeans, presumably by Es propagation. Nothing special as yet.

UPDATE 1615z:  DX into South America (PY2RN) in evidence, but no signs here of  North Americans.  Maybe the 10m band will open up to the USA and Canada much later this evening as it has done a few times this week?

UPDATE 1800z:  4X1RF has been pretty consistent on 10m all day. Several Europeans are coming through now, presumably by Es.

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