I concede that 11 days is an unusual time period. It is however the time between my last post here and 6 November when I tallied up the figures.
So here goes with the contact count -
3 on 12m, 1 on 10m, 82 on 6m, 1 on 4m, 75 on 2m, 31 on 70cm and 2 on 23 cm.
It seems like the going was easier if I put it that way. It looks impressive on the map (or it does to me anyway):-
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| Contacts at GM4FVM 26 October to 6 November 2024 |
Click to enlarge the images if you need to.
96 squares, 28 countries and best DX to VK6LX in OF88 at 14630km.
On 6m there were quite a few new DXCC entities and squares in there too. Burkina Faso (thanks Richard), Philippines, and Indonesia were new ones, and I worked another territory in VK in the shape of Northern Territory. Lots of new squares were worked, including two watery ones thanks to UT1FG/MM. My last reported total of 584 squares has rocketed to 618 in those 11 days.
This is a good time to be on 50MHz. We must be somewhere near the peak of the sunspot cycle. It certainly looks as though there is "F2" propagation to the east, though it only happens when there is Es around too (perhaps this is coincidence?). To the south and west this is less clear as this looks like what - up until to last year - everybody called multi-hop Es.
Thanks to a high pressure system arriving over the North Sea, VHF/UHF conditions have been pretty good too.
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| 70MHz+ contacts at GM4FVM 26 October to 6 November 2024 |
The coloured pins represent 70MHz none, 144MHz red, 432MHz blue and 1296MHz purple.
We have had a high pressure for the past few days which, as I write, has just started to fade. This means that I am pretty active right now. Since completing this report I have already worked into Australia, South Africa, Sir Lanka and India again for new squares on 6m plus an increasing bag of contacts on the higher bands.
Please excuse me, I need to be off to work some more.
73 Jim
GM4FVM