After my posting re the ARRL-DX-SSB I got an email from John, VE8EV, concerning his night time 10 m propagation. Interesting experiences on his side, but read for yourself (reposted with John’s kind permission):
Hello Olli,
Thank you for the 10m contact during the
contest. I enjoyed the write-up on your web
page and was especially interested in the
Ovation auroral image you captured at that
moment. I do not believe our contact was via
auroral-E, just the regular F2 skip. From my
QTH at CP38di I can frequently make a good opening on the high
bands to Europe in the 0600z-1000z hours. As you can see from the
image attached, the aurora was mostly to my south and it is only
about 2000km from here to the sunlight side of the earth. This
path is quite common on 20m and 15m but thanks to the high SFI
numbers it was open this day on 10m as well.
73
John VE8EV
Don’t miss to also read John’s contest write-up. Besides this he has some very interesting propagation analysis on his blog, too.
He is certainly right, as we have that kind of 10 m night time openings in Europe, too. But it is only usable at high latitudes, i.e. LA, SM, OH can enjoy those openings while propagation stops about 500 km north of my location. His grid square CP38 is equivalent in latitude to the JP & KP locators of SM & OH. I already noticed these openings in the past giving our friends in Scandinavia a small advantage. Sorrily these openings never extend to us in “southern northern Europe”. Well, Scandinavia is otherwise propagationally challenged due to the Aurora, so we’ll let them enjoy this advantage. 😉