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Just before the 4th of July, several sunspot regions rotated into view. Today, they are significant players in elevating the solar output of Extreme Ultraviolet energy — the energy helpful in ionizing the F-region of our Earth’s ionosphere. That, in turn, means better propagation conditions, even on higher shortwave frequencies.

As seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Sun is sporting quite a few sunspots, today. These are helping elevate the 10.7-cm flux, which is a proxy for solar output that strengthens the ionospheric propagation of higher frequencies in the shortwave spectrum. Expect good conditions on HF, this weekend.

73 and best DX!

Overnight, I remained on 10m but the only spots were by Es were from Norway, France, Spain and Germany plus G4KPX( local). No Es “super DX” here sadly!

At around 0904z I moved back up to 6m WSPR. with 1W ERP.  G0OQK (98km) was spotted 3 times (so far)  with moderate drift or Doppler , G4IKZ (18km) was spotting me at good strength and OH7AI (2000km) spotting me by Es at 0928z at -21dB S/N for the best DX so far today.

Sunspot count is 72 and 20-30MHz propagation “normal” so I’d expect F2 DX N-S today on 10m.

It is now 2015z and on 10m the Es keeps on coming. This is a good, solid and widespread Es opening.

Recent 10m WSPR spots this evening

UPDATE 2110z:   10m Es still going strong a few minutes ago.

UPDATE 2145z:    Es seemed to have stopped (here) at about 2100z. Oh no it didn’t! IK1WVQ  was spotted at 2134z and 2142z..  HB9JOI spotted me at 2138z.  The Es is still going strong.

UPDATE 2220z:   Although Es has been good on 10m all day and F2 was good to FR1GZ earlier, there has been no F2 to South America on 10m WSPR at least not yet. This was surprising. EB3EPR  is still spotting me at 2218z.

UPDATE 2232z: Bed time, but 10m WSPR still running overnight, unless the PC does an update and closes the software again!

As teatime continues, yet more Es 10m propagation is evident.

DC3RJ (817km) is the latest who spotted me at 1754z. Earlier EB3EPR (1248km) spotted me twice. Now EA1KV (1304km) and DK6UG are spotting me at 1806z.

Some weeks ago I was questioning the propagation to a GM reporter on 6m, but realise now the distance is comparable with parts of Germany, so an easy Es single hop.

UPDATE 1840Z:    HB3YHB (793km) was spotted at 1838z on 10m WSPR.

During the afternoon G4FFC (45km) and M0BOB (74km) were both copied on 10m WSPR. These are both outside local range and I would class these as GDX (just). Both show some Doppler so may be helped by aircraft reflection.

On F2 FR1GZ (9724km, Reunion Is) was being copied until 1512z, so good F2 propagation. I wonder if we’ll see South Americans later?

Es disappeared (here) at 1404z but may return this teatime.

UPDATE 1740z:  EB3EPR (1248km) spotted me at 1736z and 1746z so Es is back (it is teatime!).

FR1GZ (9734km, on Reunion Is, south Indian Ocean) is still coming through here on 10m WSPR at -27dB S/N at 1444z  and again at 1504z at -25dB S/N.  F2 propagation N-S is still there when HF conditions are good.

Sunspot count today is “only” 80 – a year from now this will sound amazingly high – although 20-30MHz conditions are forecast to be “good”.

F2 on 6m is very rare except at high sunspot peaks and in latitudes nearer the equator. TEP involving F2 over the equator is more common, but it requires stations to be in the right places to work.  On 6m the paths from CN8 to FR1 were open by TEP this spring. Also 4X to FR1  and VK to JA.

On 10m TEP should be more frequent. Sometimes F2 links with Es further from the equator, allowing TEP to be extended to stations in higher latitudes.

G4DAY (142km) was again spotted at 1104z. It seems this sort of range is possible on 10m GDX. Doppler was a very large (4Hz) suggesting aircraft reflection or even back scatter?

G4DAY is using 10W and that may help. He was -24dB S/N with me, suggesting my signal (2W) would be buried in the noise at his end. WSPR usually decodes down to about -30dB S/N.