Have been watching cluster spots and MUF map all morning during QRL but couldn’t leave, things for a living first. 😉 As soon as I had a chance to leave early afternoon all the nice 4 m openings were already over. Band was still open a little to EI/GI but all else gone. But a big surprise on 6 m! The band was well open via triple and quadruple hop Sporadic E to the Caribbean and even Central America! No reason to grumble this time, lots of DX to be heard and worked even from JO73. 😎 There were at least four different stations from the Dominican Republic, the samer number of Puerto Ricans, two from Guadeloupe, a.s.o. I concentrated on working new ones and indeed was lucky enough to catch TI – Costa Rica as well as CO – Cuba for new countries! 😎 It never really opened to mainland North America, VE1PZ was in & out for a few minutes only. It all dematerialized around 16z over here (until then all the KP4’s were in as well as a few of the HI’s but I didn’t call them as I had worked most of them before already) and MUF went down quickly. I was not unhappy about it as I had an appointment at 16:30z anyway. 😉
------------------------------------------------------------------ TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB ------------------------------------------------------------------ 13:25 EI7HBB IO53SQ 57 53 4 m. SSB ES 1496 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 13:38 HI8PAP FK58AL -17 -13 6 m. FT8 ES 7987 13:42 HI3T FK49TL -08 -09 6 m. FT8 ES 7928 13:45 TI5/N5BEK EJ79TX -19 -15 6 m. FT8 ES 9682 14:03 CO8LY FL2ØCA -12 -18 6 m. FT8 ES 8236 14:09 VE1PZ FN85QR -07 -11 6 m. FT8 ES 5341 14:42 TO1T FK96GH +03 -06 6 m. FT8 ES 7609 ------------------------------------------------------------------
Before finally closing down the station to go back to the XYL I checked condx again and wow – as fast as the MUF went down before it now rose up again! There was an intense ionization cluster with a MUF around 100 MHz above Northwestern Germany which allowed to work a great series of QSOs into the U.K. I really love these openings, lots of stations QRV and great SSB activity (IO73 was even a new square). 😎 It could just happen more often. 😀 Eventually the ionization above Hamburg rose well above 150 MHz which allowed to work as short a distance as just 540 km into The Netherlands via ES … how cool’s that? 😎 No need to say 2 m was open at the time allowing QSOs from the U.K. to the Baltics as well as from France to Finland …
------------------------------------------------------------------ TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB ------------------------------------------------------------------ 17:04 MIØOUT IO65PE +01 -09 4 m. FT8 ES 1373 17:09 EI8IQ IO62SF +12 -13 4 m. FT8 ES 1391 17:12 G3SHK IO9ØDX +14 -04 4 m. FT8 ES 1112 17:14 G1PPA IO93OJ +12 -04 4 m. FT8 ES 995 17:18 G4IOQ IO82KT 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1157 17:19 M1EOP IO82XT 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1086 17:20 G3LQR JOØ2QF 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 870 17:21 GW4SHF IO82HP 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1177 17:21 GW4BZD IO73WF 59 57 4 m. SSB ES 1217 17:23 GØPQF JOØ1BU 59 57 4 m. SSB ES 962 17:25 G4CKH JOØ2UK 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 843 17:27 G4YTL IO92MB 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1029 17:33 PA3DOL JO22MT +14 +14 4 m. FT8 ES 614 17:35 G4CLA IO92JL 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1036 17:38 G6WRW IO82UJ 55 59 4 m. SSB ES 1110 17:39 G3NPI IO92MA 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1030 17:41 PAØFEI JO33BC 55 55 4 m. SSB ES 539 17:42 G6OHM JOØ2AL 59 57 4 m. SSB ES 953 17:43 MWØCXH IO71VQ 59 57 4 m. SSB ES 1256 17:44 G4BUD IO92EG 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1068 17:50 PE1CUL JO22DB -10 -18 4 m. FT8 ES 680 18:11 GI4OWA IO64IX +15 +15 4 m. FT8 ES 1410 ------------------------------------------------------------------