19 Sept 2015

Sunspots and 10m - Sat Sept 19th 2015

Sunspot number is 62 today (K=4) and 10m propagation is expected to remain "poor" today. With moderately disturbed conditions, it is unlikely that great things can be expected of the higher HF bands today. As always, 10m may throw us a surprise. I am on both 10m and 6m WSPR, ever hopeful.

UPDATE 0915z:  Just local G4IKZ (18km) spotting me, so far, on 10m WSPR.  6m remains dead here! Not sure why I still bother with 6m.

2 comments:

Todd Dugdale said...

"Not sure why I still bother with 6m."

Roger, I haven't been in this game for very long, but it seems to me that 6M is over-hyped relentlessly. Nearly all of the fantastic stories of success that I've heard from "old-timers" are from decades ago. No matter what the conditions are, you still need someone on the other end to make a QSO. Like so many aspects of the hobby, nobody's on the band because nobody's on the band.

Conversely, if you have enough operators on a band you will find success stories no matter what conditions are.

Roger G3XBM said...

Some truth in this Todd. You indeed have to be active to "catch the fish", but it was 2007 that I last worked the USA with my QRP. I have been disappointed with 6m WSPR. For 2 summer Es seasons my 1W ERP 6m WSPR has been copied regularly in N.Africa and Israel (3519km), but no further. One of the problems has been too few USA and Canadians active on 6m WSPR. I stick it on as I have the antenna, but will soon stop.