What a great day it was, the temperature got up to a fantastic 23C. I couldn't let that go to waste, so it was off to play some portable radio with the KX3.
Once again the actual propagation numbers belied how the bands were actually performing. Propagation numbers this morning were: SFI=119, SN=89, A Index=6, and the K Index=1. However, there was very deep QSB on 20m which certainly didn't help matters. It took me exactly 30 minutes to make 20 contacts, the furthest of which was in Washington State.
After 13 contacts I moved to 40m and made another seven contacts there. I had been sitting on 14.297, and out of nowhere a noisy Over-the-Horizon Radar (Russian or Chinese??) started up on that frequency and that was it.....time to QSY to 40m. The IARU Region 1 Monitoring System has been trying to keep track of these interlopers, who seem to keep popping up all over the 20m, 15m, and 10m bands. I am going to suggest that this will continue as long as the conflict in Ukraine continues.
Apart from the QRM and the bad QSB, it was very nice to be able to operate outside in shorts and a t-shirt again.
Todays QSO Map:
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