Hello May!
I woke up early and had a few extra minutes so I decided to turn on the radio to listen for any DX. It's May 1st, and I thought it would be nice to log a contact or two early, breaking in the month right. When I turned on my Icom 765PRO, all I heard was powerline noise on 20 meters, and lots of it. We recently received another 3-4 inches of fresh snow so obviously a transformer or an electrical connection somewhere is being effected by the latest accumulation. And not only that, but I found the bands to be totally silent. This led me to HAARP's website and in looking at the Magnetometer and the Riometer, it was obvious we have some solar activity that has effected propagation.
Like summer, I hope the propagation returns to Alaska. Like spaceweather and local weather, it seems to be one storm after another. But, I'm remaining optimistic that if May begins like this that maybe, just maybe, we will have excellent conditions for the CQ World Wide CW WPX Contest at the end of the month. That will be my last contest from this QTH so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can have the window open to the shack and work lots of stations on 10 meters! Wishful thinking? Maybe. But that's pretty good from a "Glass is half empty" kinda guy.
Hello Phil,
ReplyDeleteI too was astonished at the quietness and lack of ANYTHING on the bands this morning. It makes tuff going for a QRP operator. Somehow I managed to make a short contact with HK1MW in Columbia South America. That's about it !!
Time to get out the tin cans and string. hihi
Tin cans for sure, LOL. I would be tickled to of snagged HK1MW today. I just finished plowing snow and I am running out of room to pile it. :0)
ReplyDeleteIt's been hard going at this end as well, tried 20 meters today and it was dead along with 10 and 15m. I have managed to get my QRP signal out for some contacts now and then...but..not as often as I would like too.
ReplyDeleteMike