Moderate (G2) to strong (G3) geomagnetic storms will be in the forecast beginning on Wednesday. A pair of coronal mass ejections that were observed on Monday are predicted to combine into one larger shock front and impact Earths geomagnetic field.
The forecast calls for a passage by late in the day Wednesday (UTC time) and into early Thursday. The forecast doesn't look too good!
Here you go:
Carlos Nora CT1END, Emergency Communications Co-Ordinator for Portugal reports that a group of nine Radio Amateurs in the towns of Velas and Calheta are working to support emergency communications locally through VHF/UHF repeaters but also long range links back to Portugal on:
80M – 3,750.00 MHz. — 3,760.00 MHz. – LSB (Overnight)
40M – 7,100.00 MHz. — 7,110.00 MHz. – LSB (During the day)
20M – 14,300.00 MHz. USB (For outside region)
This external activity being supported by the Azores DX group and the Portuguese national society REP.
Other radio amateurs are encouraged to listen carefully and avoid causing any QRM to emergency operations on the above frequencies.
It was still fairly cold when I left to do a POTA activation this morning at VE-5141, Lemoine Point, but not enough to be uncomfortable.
Because of the CQ WPX Contest on this weekend I chose to avoid 20m and 40m. Contest traffic on those bands was crammed into every inch of those bands. I decided to get on 17m and avoid the congestion. However, as soon as I starting calling CQ, the deliberate QRMing started. Apparently the Children don't like POTA on 17m, that's too bad, I kept going anyway.
Propagation today was: SFI=112, SN=50, A Index=10, and K Index=1.
There was some very deep QSB and lots of noise on 17m, which made things quite difficult, along with the deliberate QRMing, to actually complete a contact. But after a pretty slow thirty minutes I had 14 contacts in the log, including 2 into Spain, and so I went QRT.
I have to say that I was actually quite proud of the fact that my puny 10w into a 17m hamstick had so many of the regulars on 17m in a complete meltdown. Some people just don't like to share their space I guess. They insist POTA is a contest.....which it isn't.
By tomorrow morning the madness of the contest should have settled down, so I'm planning on another portable operating, this time on 10m and 15m, and see what DX I can work.
Here's todays QSO Map:
What a great day to be out playing portable radio today!! It's a balmy +11C here, best day all year...so far. It's warming up fast here, in fact in less than a week the ice has all but disappeared from Lake Ontario.
This mornings propagation was "interesting". The numbers were: SFI=95, SN=39, A Index=9, and the K Index=1. There was a great deal of very deep fading, and a fair bit of QRM going on.
The best contacts of the day were to Jean-Luc, F4GWG, and Jean, F4ILH, both located on the French mid-Atlantic Coast. Not too shabby for 10w into a 20m Hamstick 😀
The bands are definitely getting better, but they are sure taking their sweet time!
Here's todays QSO Map:
Stay Safe Out There...
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The bands were full of contesters all screaming "CQ Contest", so it was off to 17m where the more saner operators had decided to hang out.
First up this morning was Bob, M0MJA, who gave me a nice signal report of '54'....not too bad for 10w into a 17m hamstick on my vans roof....and that was my last DX of the day. I managed 7 contacts on 17m and then moved to 40m, which while busy, was still a comparatively sane place at that time of day.
Weather wise it was actually comfortable today, the temperature was hovering around 0C, but there was no wind at all. Hopefully we'll start to get more days like that now that March is here.
Here's todays QSO Map:
Stay safe out there!
Slava Ukraini !!
