Australia yet again on 10m WSPR today

Yet again, despite the low sunspot number  and "poor" prediction for 10m propagation, I have been spotted in Australia by VK2KRR (16789km) at 0914z. There has been plenty of short-skip activity from Europe on 10m already. 10m is still good.

ZL on 10m WSPR today

ZL2IT (18569km) running 5W was spotted here on 10m WSPR this morning at 0946z, not long after turning the rig on.  He was not strong at -25dB S/N.  As yet, no reports of my 500mW from Australia or New Zealand today.

Just Europeans spotting me so far this morning. Distances seem to suggest F-layer propagation, although I am unsure about some of the closer stations e.g. Italy which could be back-scatter or even Es. Every day now my 500mW is copied right across Europe.

UPDATE 1105z:   Just spotted LX and DL on 10m WSPR. This far too short for F2 propagation. I suspect this is Es as there are now lots of closer EU stations being copied. No Doppler evident on these signals.

UPDATE 2200z:  The day ended with reports of my 500mW WSPR from no further than the USA. In 2 years time I'd be thrilled to bits with this! Today, the USA and Canada are easy even with 500mW.

VK spotted on 10m WSPR today

VK3KCX (16883km) was spotted 4 times on 10m WSPR this afternoon. He was using high power (for WSPR) at 20W but his reports peaked at -19dB suggesting 5W or less would have been fine.

FR1GZ (9724km) has also been spotted 7 times today so far.  He also spotted my 2W at 1338z.

...and today 10m conditions were supposed to be "poor" - VK3, TJ3, FR1 and lots of USA stations - yes "poor" conditions! Wonder what "good" 10m conditions look like?

PA0O (440km) is being spotted again. Still unsure of propagation mode.

UPDATE 1745z: OH5XO (1943km) is coming through now, probably Es?

UPDATE 1900z: 10m is open to Spain. I assume this is Es? The opening seems to be confined to Spain only.   If this was F2 backscatter, I'd have expected a more widespread opening, but I am no expert.

UPDATE  2116z:  EA7IHT (1643km) was still spotting me at 2112z.

10m long-path to Australia? Not here!

After monitoring 10m WSPR last evening/night for long-path propagation to Australia, I drew a blank. After the 10m band died to the USA mid-evening, only Europeans by Es and GDX copied here. No ZLs and no VKs copied. Others with better antennas may have been luckier. 4X1RF was spotting me at 0658z.

With a sunspot count of 162 and 20-30MHz forecast to be "normal" propagation today is anyone's guess!

Australian QRP reports on 3 bands

Today VK6XT copied my 2W WSPR signal on 10m at 14719km. This now means my QRP WSPR has been copied in Australia on 10, 20 and 40 m these last few weeks. HF conditions are clearly in good shape of late.

VK on 20m WSPR this morning

5 VK (Australian) spots in the very first transmission slot

Whilst waiting for the bathwater to fill, I went on 20m WSPR this morning with the Par 40/20/10 end-fed antenna to see what was about. To my amazement I got no less than 4 VK reports (Australia) in the first transmission plus a lot of other reports too. The little antenna down the garden is certainly working just fine.