19 Mar 2015

Cameroon and Canaries - but no USA on 10m today

EA8/LA3JJ (2870km) and TJ3TS (5478km) have both been spotting my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon, the former many times, but, no USA spots so far again today. TJ3TS is Cameroon (Africa).  The band is obviously quite reasonable for  N-S paths, but E-W paths don't seem to be as good. Maybe it will open to the USA later?

As the solar conditions decline on the higher HF bands, this sort of pattern will become more common on 10m. Of course, well into Africa and the Americas is possible via Es propagation on some occasions. Best months are June/July. In June we sometimes get weak openings on 6m from western Europe to Japan. Some theories put this down to noctilucent clouds. I think we really don't know, but this is very consistent.  Signals are usually weak and best times are in the mornings in Europe.

UPDATE 1718z:  Still no USA stations spotting me today. I shall be on 10m for a few more hours, but I think there will be no spots from the USA today.  Since 0916z EA8/LA3JJ has spotted me 115 times.

UPDATE 2040z:  No USA spots at all today again on 10m WSPR, so now going QRT on that band. EA8/LA3JJ (2870km) has spotted me 130 times since breakfast time.

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