There was an aurora here on 19 and 20 January 2026 which was one of the longest and most powerful that I can recall. Overhead conditions here were cloudy so there was nothing to see, but the distortion and dispersion of signals was very strong indeed. The most unusual aspect of it all was that it ran, at varying strengths, for around 24 hours.
I had 45 auroral contacts between 21:45 on 19 January and 18:04 on 20 January, at which stage I was exhausted and took a few hours off. I returned at 21:59 to work five stations with Auroral Es until 22:23, at which time some distorted auroral signals were still to be heard.
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| The arrival of the aurora is clearly seen at about 18:00 on 19 January (Image GM4PMK) |
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| The high averaged K number persisted throughout 20 January (GM4PMK) |
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| While not entirely complete, the gap around the Arctic Circle almost closed (Image Solarham) |
It has to be said though that despite a few contacts between 10:00 and 14:00 the difference in outcome was quite small. Also, the PMK magnetometer was quieter during the period, though the averaged K number stayed high. I have had some thoughts about the Bz number which I hope to put into a post here soon.
I have logged 286 auroral contacts before this event, and of those 2.1% were between 10:00 and 14:00. In this event 12.3% were between those times. On the other hand, the usual peak between 15:00 and 19:00 applied - my all time figure is 66.9% of contacts then whereas this time it was 62.2%. Thus if I want to look for an auroral contact the period to try would still be 15:00 to 19:00 but this event shows that other times are definitely worth trying during a major aurora.
There had also been a small aurora on 11 January and we could have expected another at some stage as auroras are more common as the Solar Cycle starts to decline. This period often lasts for about two years or so after solar maximum, so perhaps we should be hopeful of more occurring for a while.
Of the 45 auroral contacts in this event:-
6m: 25 QSOs, 10 DXCC, 19 squares, ODX SM6LJP in JO68 (1002km)
4m: 8 QSOs, 5 DXCC, 8 squares, ODX OZ1FKZ in JO56 (757km)
2m: 12 QSOs, 5 DXCC, 9 squares ODX DK5KMA in JO50 (1044km)
And of the five later AU Es contacts:-
6m: 5 QSOs, 4 DXCC, 5 squares, ODX YL3HA in KO26 (1619km)
I did listen on 432MHz but nothing but a loud noise heard there ...
The AU contact map looked like this:-
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| AU contacts at GM4FVM on 19 and 20 January 2026 |
Click images to enlarge if necessary.
The key is that 6m contacts are blue, 4m are red and 2m green.
The later auroral Es event map looked like this:-
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| Auroral Es 6m contacts at GM4FVM on 20 January 2026 |
The auroral Es contacts were generally a lot further than the AU ones.
All my auroral Es contacts were on FT8, and all the auroral ones were on Q65 save for one 4m SSB contact. At times there seemed to be very little SSB or CW activity while Q65 contacts were continuing apace. Overall I would say that all activity was fairly low.
Until this event my AU QSOs have been 13 on CW, 105 on Q65 and 168 on SSB. These days I find SSB via AU to be just too difficult to hear and this is especially so on 144MHz.
When it came to operations, this was a fairly chaotic event. The aurora was strong and the distortion was considerable, and this caused more problems as the frequency went higher. SSB is always difficult during an aurora on 144MHz but was even worse this time. The Doppler shift was even greater than usual and of course it also increases with frequency.
Usually it is perfectly possible for me to use Q65-15A on 50MHz during an aurora. 15A occupies 433hz and allows well spaced out signals to be seen on the waterfall and decoded by the software. This time people were using 15C which occupies 1733hz. While the software can cope with several signals inside the standard bandwidth, the Doppler shift meant that I found the received signals would often fall partly outside my 3000hz bandwidth. This was progressively more of a problem as the frequency increased. Several operators had tried to put their transmitted signal on my frequency but they were seeing my Doppler shifted frequency. When I did the same we ended up chasing each other up the band. On reflection I should have made more use of RIT.
At an early stage I was in touch with a station on the KST chat room who was having difficulty decoding me. Another comentator chipped in and suggested that we use 15C to deal with the dispersion, saying that the wider tone spacing would help. The station I was trying to work then said he would switch to 15C but actually changed to 30B and we completed on 30B. I have not seen any evidence that 15C works better in practice (though I understand the theory). In most situations I have found 15A to be fine. A compromise might be 15B. That leaves a bit of room on the waterfall to see what is happening and nobody is likely to fall off the edge of the bandwidth.
I think that part of the problem here is our unfamiliarity with Q65. The Q65 Quick Start guide on the WSJT-X site (link in the sidebar) does not really cover aurora. It, does not explain how best to use Q65 during an aurora and does not explain how to set FTol or Max Drift in these situations. WSJT-X often seems to need a couple of reception periods before it decodes a new station for the first time, and users appear to get frustrated by this. I suspect that all of this is due to us amateurs applying Q65 to an unexpected purpose. We cannot expect the WSJT-X team to be covering every use the software can be put to. We are learning as we go along. It is great that we have this tool and we need to be a bit tolerant of the problems we experience at the start. The fact that it works at all is brilliant, and I for one am very grateful.
This was not a major DX event. In the past I have made 13 contacts at greater distances. However, all the data shows that I get further with Q65 than I do with SSB or CW. My best DX contact with Q65 is twice my greatest distance with CW. Maybe this says something abut my CW proficiency. Whatever problems there are with Q65 and which tone spacing to use it still gets me further.
Why was the distance limited this time - ODX of 1044km compared with my all time best of 1739km and five others over 1500km?
With such a powerful event I suspect that a number of weak stations were lost in the distortion or covered by stronger signals. On 144MHz signals could be well over S9 and very wide which covered large portions of the passband. It was notable that there were fewer stations to the North (LA), East (OH and ES), South East (DL, I) and South (F) than I might have expected. Am I complaining? No Sir. This was really great fun. Auroral propagation is very selective and those places just did not come my way. Another time maybe. If I had been more attentive to the AU Es event I could have done better there too.
Learning points for me:-
1) Take Doppler into account more
2) Keep watch earlier in the day for major events
3) Find out a bit more about the best tone width and time period to use for AU on Q65
4) Keep watching Solarham so that I can be prepared
5) Be ready for AU Es after the main AU event.
A great event, brilliant fun, tiring but exciting.
What is next for this remarkable hobby of ours?
73 Jim
GM4FVM
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