Q65, radio aurora and auroral Es.

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. 

The arrival of the aurora is clearly seen at about 18:00 on 19 January (Image GM4PMK)

The high averaged K number persisted throughout 20 January (GM4PMK)

The significance of the long 24 hour period is that usually the rotating "hole in the auroral oval" means that AU signals fade out between about 10:00 and 14:00 local time around the world. This aurora was strong enough that weaker conditions continued right through the period usually covered by the hole. A weaker bridge made the auroral ring almost complete.

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:-

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:-

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 

Conditions up, antennas down

Of course, once conditions improved the winch on my main mast failed. At least it locked up, and stuck in the fully lowered position. It did not freewheel down from the top. For this I am thankful.

Failed Rhino winch at GM4FVM

Yes, it is mounted that way up for a reason. 

Anyway, I may return to this topic later. For now I wish to deal with the VHF/UHF opening here between 23 and 28 December 2025. The winch failed on 26 December. That was not as bad as it seemed as it only affected my main mast which has the 2m and 6m antennas on it. My 70cm and 23cm antennas were fine and I put them to good use. And I could still use 2m, just with less height and thus with limited effectiveness.

So here are the bare facts about the 6 days in question - 133 QSOs to 13 countries with 56 squares.

VHF/UHF contacts at GM4FVM 23 to 28 December 2025 (image SQMap)

A smallish high pressure moved West from the European Continent, joining another high and developing further. It then remained fairly static for several days centered over Britain. As tends to the best case with these things propagation moved along, in this case early on to the East, then sweeping South. The various bands opened in different directions over time.

Contacts were to F (31), DL (28), OZ (20), G (13), SM (13), PA (10), GM (5), ON (5), EI (2), HB9 (2), SP (2), LA (1) and UA2 (1). 

If there seem to be fewer pins than contacts in that combined map that is because several stations contacted me multiple times on different bands and sometimes over different days. For example, six of the French stations accounted for 17 QSOs between them, and four Danish stations accounted for 10 contacts. Three stations were worked on 23cm and 70cm bands, and I had several more attempts to do this but 23cms proved difficult with long slow QSB.

My QSOs were over an average distance of 774km. 

144MHz

Turning to the individual bands, I made 75 contacts on 2m (mostly before the winch failed). Best DX was to Igor, UA2FZ in Kaliningrad, 1437km, on 25 December. I had worked UA2 on 144MHz before, but only by using meteor scatter. As it is theoretically possible to work all over Europe fairly easily by meteor scatter I never credit my contacts using that mode with the same value as other ways of doing it. Over the years I have chased UA2 on Sporadic E without success. To add it finally as a new country by tropo was particularly nice. 

144MHz contacts at GM4FVM 23 to 28 December 2025

Even more pleasant was the way the UA2FZ contact came about. As is often the case during openings, the "Senior Service" of the hobby, those with 1kW linears and 8m long multiple beams, were resting by listening for somebody sufficiently DX-y to stir them to transmit. I, on the other hand, believe that if nobody calls CQ then nobody will ever work anybody. So I persisted in making short calls and Igor duly came back to one of these. If I had waited for DX to come to me then nothing would have happened. Calling CQ too often can be annoying to others, but on the other hand just listening produces nothing.

432MHz

My 150W on this band was proving fairly effective during this lift with 53 contacts. I managed to work a new country on the band when I contacted HB9EFK on 28 December. This came out of the blue and presented me with the best DX on 70cm during this opening at 1315km. Nick has a superb location and should do very well from such an elevated site. Also in the good DX realm was F4IAA near Perigueux, a distance of 1218km. Not shabby at all and we worked twice on 70cm during this opening and tried 23cm too.

432MHz contacts at GM4FVM 23 to 28 December 2025 

Even with those pretty good contacts on 70cm I suppose that I am still disappointed that I am not doing better on this wonderful band. I would like to have a better antenna higher up, but this applies to all bands really. I had some plan to move the 70cm beam on to my main mast, and if I had done that it would have been stuck after the winch failed. That would also come at the price of a longer coax run. Hmmm.

Missing from my 70cm DXCC list (now totalling 23 with Switzerland) are Jersey, Guernsey, Austria, Italy, Luxembourg and Slovakia, all within my best DX distance. I suppose I just need to try harder. 

1296MHz

As always, I enjoy 23cm contacts even though they are fewer and not so distant. The point is that as I am not expecting anything then everything is a bonus.

1296MHz contacts at GM4FVM 23 to 28 December 2025

Maybe these were not so far but they were interesting all the same. I had a good CW contact with F6DKW in JN18 square, 840km. This was the best DX on 23cm, with the two contacts to OZ2ND at 770km and OZ9PZ at 689km being FT8. With G3SQQ being SSB and G4YTL Q65 I covered a few modes. I also had several tries with other stations on CW, but propagation was against us. The main snag, which also affected the other two bands to a lesser degree, was very strong long QSB. I think it was possible that some of those attempted contacts would have succeeded if we had waited for a peak in the QSB.

In Summary

In my last posting I hoped that there would be some good openings soon, and the next day this started. Had I been looking at Hepburn? Well maybe but I cannot rely on predictions like that matching up to the real world. The real event was good in terms of length and stations worked, but it lacked a bit in terms of real DX. It added one more DXCC to the 2 metre 2025 list and one to the all-time 70cm list, and that is good. Also, I have now worked one new square on 2m and two new ones on 70cm. After 133 contacts I might have expected a wee bit more distance.  

Still, I can hardly complain. 

Now I can concentrate on trying to fix the winch. 

Nothing there to complain about.

At least it will keep me awake. 

73 Jim

GM4FVM

The Sound of Silence

 I have not been reporting much as not much has been happening.

This photo of me and Paddy below is not very complimentary. We were of course deep in conversation, my eyes closed in serious concentration. I admit that I was breathing slowly and very deeply, but this is just to help consideration of weighty technical matters. It was definitely not the case that radio conditions had driven me to sleep.

GM4FVM and Paddy concentrating on the DX (Photo Mrs FVM)

There were lots of things to work at times, but very long gaps in between.

 

The four propagation methods which are likely to apply at this time of year are - Sporadic-E, Meteor Scatter, Auroral, and Tropospheric.

 

Sporadic-E 

This has certainly been Sporadic.

Take for example 19 December 2025. Prior to this there had been very little on 6m for over a week. Then this:-

50MHz contacts at GM4FVM on 19 December 2025

Previous week - zero. 

Next day, 73 contacts into 17 DXCC, 39 squares, best DX to YT3N at 2044km. 

Following day - zero.

Such is the way things are at this time of year. 

Sometimes, like on 10 December, it also bursts forth, and other times it doesn't.

50MHz contacts at GM4FVM on 10 December 2025

That time it was 23 QSOs in 9 DXCC and 17 squares, with the best DX being UT7WZA at 1944km.

Once again, previous week - zero, and this time no more Es until 19 December. 

Weeks on end with no 6m contacts at all. I will not show a graph with no contacts on it. 

It would be easy to fall asleep with a cat on your lap and miss all this type of thing. Not me of course. I keep my guard up because you just never know. It could easily link into some real DX (but it didn't). 

 Meteor Scatter

I am not sure that I have the patience for much meteor scatter these days. Sometimes I would rather sit down and take a nap.

However, I was active using MSK144 on 14 and 15 December. There seems to be a lot less activity in Europe on meteor scatter these days than there used to be, especially on 6m which is now often missing any meteor scatter reports even during major showers. North America seems to have a lot more business. Anyway,it is still a good way to fill in some gaps in the square total.

Meteor scatter contacts at GM4FVM on 14 and 15 December 2025

On this diagram, 144MHz contacts are in green, 70MHz in red and 50MHz in blue. As they once said on the television snooker commentary, "for those watching in black and white the green ball is the one beside the blue" (that only makes sense if you know about snooker and are a bit colour blind, as I am).

Eight contacts in five DXCC, eight squares and best DX was OH8HTG on 2m at 1851km, OH7RJ on 6m at 1837km plus a very nice one to EA2LU at 1450km also on 2m. I also made my 126th meteor scatter QSO on 4m with Henning OZ1JXY. All very agreeable.

Auroral propagation

There have been predictions for several large auroras, but here the radio effects have been very meagre. I worked GM7PKT and M0XVF on Q65 on 50MHz on 12 December. Nice, but not great DX. Maybe we are due a major aurora event but if this is the down slope of the solar maximum I would have expected more. Or maybe the down slope of the solar maximum has not arrived yet ... ???

Tropo

There has not been a major tropo event here since 10 to 15 October. Perhaps I should write that one up. Still, I have been trying. I was taking part in part of the RSGB 432MHz UKAC FT8 contest on 10 December but conditions did not seem to be very good. Quite different was the 1296MHz version on 16 December.

1296MHz contacts at GM4FVMon 16 December 2025

Using SSB I worked six stations in three DXCC and six squares. I was only on for 45 minutes. Best DX was to MW0LKX/P at 380km. It is worth bearing in mind that this is only the second GW sations that I have ever worked on 23cm. I also worked G4CLA who is just 1km nearer but that QSO needed some aircraft scatter assistance.

A nice contact on 2m was with UT1FG/MM in JO25 square in the North Sea between me and Denmark. I have picked up a few watery squares over the years thanks to Yuri - long may he continue to brighten up otherwise dull silent days.

In Summary

Sudden bursts of activity with long gaps in between can be very frustrating. However, this shows my chosen mode of operation which is to spread out across the modes and bands. 

Is working 73 contacts in a day on 6m "better" than six in 45 minutes on 23cm? Not in my book, as in total it all adds up to me keeping on learning about radio. I especially enjoyed working some friends on SSB on 23cm, but I also really enjoyed the DX on meteor scatter.

In some strange way I enjoyed the many periods of complete silence too. If it was always busy it would be no fun, or not for me anyway. That gives me time to send QSL cards and fix various bits of electronic equipment brought round for repair by others in the village.

Perhaps we are about to get big openings on all bands and modes. I doubt if that would be better, but it would be a change. 

Now, I must get some sleep.

73 Jim

GM4FVM 

How is 2025 6m Es doing compared to last year?

 All QSOs are good. This year's QSOs are appreciated as much as last year's.

When I compared the two maps, the difference becomes clear. Both are of the same period, last year at the top, this year at the bottom...

50MHz contacts at GM4FVM 1 October 2024 to 17 November 2024

and

50MHz contacts at GM4FVM 1 October 2025 to 17 November 2025

Not much more for me to add really. 

73 Jim

GM4FVM 

Effects of inflation on amateur radio prices

I came across a receipt from GI3KDR (sadly SK) who sold me a new FT707 and microphone on 16 June 1980. It cost £535.90 then. John was the local agent for South Midlands Communications. He kindly knocked the price down to £520.

These were huge sums for me at the time. That would be more than three months salary for me and I had to take out a loan to afford it.

I have also been listing my Yaesu FT-710 Aess for sale second hand and it occurred to me that it is not bad value compared to what I used to spend. I thought I could compare these two fairly basic 100W HF rigs and find out how prices had changed. I would price the FT-710 without the Aess to make it more comparable with the FT-707

There has been 331.6% inflation in the intervening 45 years, according to the Bank of England inflation calculator. The full price was £535.90 so that would now be equivalent to a cost of £2312.83. The FT-710 is currently £899.00.

A rig which is a good mainstream radio for the time now costs £899.00 and not the equivalent of £2312.83 as a similar one did 45 years ago. Or, put another way, the rig I bought in 1980 cost 2.5 times more than a new basic rig might now - adjusted for present value.

I have looked up the price of the FT-707 as it appeared in the Short Wave Magazine of June 1980. This quotes a price of £466 including the mic for the FT-707. This did not include Value Added Tax at 15% - a clever way of suggesting that things were cheaper than they really were. Add 15% for the tax and you come to the price I paid. Advertising prices without the tax was later banned.

I found this nice photo of an FT-707 by EI5DD on the internet.

And then, not only has the price more than halved in real terms, the radios are hardly comparable. The FT-710 is better than the FT-707 in the following ways:-

Touch screen display

Band display including (if you like that type of thing) 3D panoramic view

USB connection to PC for CAT connection 

Built in sound card for data modes etc.

Digital audio processing and speech compression

Huge number of filtering options 

Built in CW keyer

Dual VFOs 

Better PA cooling system

Full coverage of 7MHz, plus 50MHz, 70MHz, and 5MHz 

Plus loads of  other things like being properly stable frequency-wise etc., etc.

The only real downside I can find is that modern rigs are not really fixable by the amateur. You used to get a circuit diagram showing discrete components ...

Faced with the choice between the ability to fix their rig themselves or buying it for less than half price I guess many of us would prefer the half price deal for a vastly better radio.

I paid £535 for my (new) FT-707 which in today's value is more than 3.5 times what I am selling the pristine (used) FT-710 for, and the FT-710 is a vastly better rig.

We live in inflationary times again - but nothing like the 15% of 1980 or 22% in 1975. Even excluding world tensions and the effect of tariffs (which thankfully do not affect amateurs in the UK much ... yet) and I hear amateurs complaining about the cost of the hobby.

Well, it used to cost far more. 

73 Jim

GM4FVM 

P.S. in June 1980 an RTTY terminal unit complete with keyboard was £670 (= £2891 today) and that was before you bought a radio to plug it into. An FT101ZD was £661 when you add the tax (= £2853 today) and the FT901ZD was £920 (= £3971 today) - hybrid valve era rigs with few modern features.

The return of me, TEP, and a tentative theory of how I hear TEP in Scotland

 At last! Something to attract me back on to the radio. Over the past two days I have been able to work into southern Africa via Trans Equatorial Propagation (TEP). Great to see TEP again. I am still puzzled as to why this is possible but I am happy enough to work it.

I have had a few good contacts over the past six weeks, but mostly on 432MHz and above. 6m has seemed pretty mediocre as is often the case at this time of year. I even took some time off to visit EA6 ...

GM4FVM looking thoughtful but thirsty in Cala En Bosc (JM19) in Menorca

Although tropo conditions looked very good, I did not take a radio to Menorca. At one time I took a radio wherever I went, but these days I have too much other stuff to carry.

Anyway, after returning to IO85, on 20 September at 18:56 I worked ZS6OB and ZS6NK. On 21 September at 17:27 I contacted V51WW, having missed him the previous day at around the same time.

50MHz contacts at GM4FVM on 20 and 21 September 2025

The best DX was to ZS6OB in KG44 at 9513km and even V51WW is 8505km from here. 

Now, these contacts are not unusual. Between them, I have worked these three stations 12 times. All of these contacts were after April 2023. Before that I had become accustomed to watching other stations working TEP which never came far enough north for me to reach it. Particularly galling was reading reports of stations elsewhere in the United Kingdom working into southern Africa, the Indian Ocean and South America when nothing had been heard here from those areas.

I have mentioned all this ad nauseam on this site (search this blog for TEP is you don't believe me) but I feel obliged to go at it at great length again today. 

So - first part to the puzzle, is the appearance of TEP here since 2023 due to the proximity of the solar maximum? Will TEP disappear again as solar conditions worsen? Or, another possibility, is the fact that more stations are looking for DX on 50MHz simply making this possible? Does gathering together on a single FT8 frequency make a difference?  

My ARRL Handbook states that TEP "supports propagation between 5000 and 8000km", but these contacts are further than that. It also states that "stations attempting TE contacts must be nearly equidistant from the geomagnetic equator", providing a handy chart which shows a northern limit of TEP passing through southern England. I am about 600km north of this Northern Limit of TEP.

So the second puzzle is how this happens this far north. The simple answer is "Sporadic E linking into TEP", which would extend the range by one Es hop. One would guess that if there was any Es around I would hear stations within one hop as well as the TEP stations. However,  on neither date did I hear any other stations on Es. Maybe the one hop took me to the middle of the Mediterranean Sea where there might not be any stations (though the paths seem to pass near to 9H1 and EA6 after passing over most of Europe). Nor did any stations in those areas seem to be working TEP at the same time. So some other explanation is needed here.

I suspect, with no particular empirical evidence, that the explanation for this is that these were indeed Es linking to TEP paths. However, the link may have occurred at a height above ground level which prevented local stations being involved near the link site. While others call anything occurring above ground level "chordal hop", that is a term I would not apply here. I suspect a good many multi-hop Es contacts involve a path which does not come down to ground level, and TEP may do the same. If you look at the diagrams in books you often find a plot of ionospheric propagation which is not refracted to ground level as ionisation at the time is not strong enough. Also, minor variations in Es layer could result in a refracted signal not reaching ground level. These effects could happen on both the Es and the TEP parts of the path, meaning that no station on the ground below the link would hear the signals.

The third puzzle is the time of year and time of day when I could expect to hear TEP. TEP is reported to be "equinoctal". Whilst the solar Autumnal Equinox is on 21 September and the Vernal one is on 21 March (give or take a day or two for leap years etc), it is the geomagnetic equinox which matters here. This varies with the position on the geomagnetic equator but should still be at the same date each year for any particular path. My other contacts with these stations range for the ZS stations from April, June, September (2), October (2) and November (2). For V51WW the dates are one each in June, July, August and September. These dates do not seem to fit easily int0 the idea of a group around the geomagnetic equinox at any point. My ARRL Handbook states 5 to 10pm, though there is a well known early afternoon peak too. For these stations my contacts are at the following hours of 11 (2), 12 (2), 14, 15 (2), 17 (3) and 18 (2).

Into this well mixed data group goes the further variable of Es linking. If there is Es linking then there has to be Es around at the time. For the recent contacts no Es was observed at the time. A popular band conditions site showed "6m Es - Band Closed". September is a very poor months for Es at GM4FVM. 

Basically the text books say that we get Es in the Summer, and TEP in the Spring and Autumn, making linking of the two a bit improbable. Nevertheless, I have the QSOs in the log to show it seems to be happening.

Thus to explain what I see I suspect a combination of weak Es and weak TEP linking well above ground level at some point along the path, possibly over southern Europe. Ironically, if either Es or TEP had been stronger it might never have happened and stations within the "Northern Limit of TEP" would have had a chance instead while I would have had a good path into Italy.

Well, that is what I think. As for definitive evidence of this - I only have the contacts in my log to suggest it. Nevertheless it has happened 12 times so far and I am happy to accept the QSOs.

I look forward to more of this over the coming months, but we just do not know for sure. What about some to South America.

73 Jim

GM4FVM 

The Sound of Silence

My last amateur radio contact was on 3 September, over a week ago. Even then, I have not been really active since 28 August, two weeks ago.

I am not one of those who relentlessly calls CQ on a flat band. I do not weigh my contacts as a measure of success, I view each one as worthy in itself. If I isn't worthy of a QSO then I just remain silent. If people call me then I reply, otherwise I often listen. Lately there has not been much to hear.

50MHz seen on DX Maps at GM4FVM on 11 September 2025

Perhaps at times I have been busy with other things, I have not been paying attention or just lazy. But for a lot of the time the VHF DX landscape has been looking like the map above. Nothing of note. At the time all five bands I monitor looked totally blank - 6m, 4m, 2m, 70cm and 23cm. No Es, no TEP, no tropo, no aurora, no ... signals.

Life cannot be a constant VHF opening. Sure I ramble on here about great contacts made, but I only see the ups because I have sat through the downs. If propagation was constant there would be very little to interest me about amateur radio.

So I do not complain. I just note that nothing much is happening. I hope for things to improve.

Last year was much the same in September, but then things improved dramatically. Do I expect that same thing to happen this year? No. Another joy of VHF/UHF propagation is that it almost never repeats itself. Something will be different. Sure if you plot a graph over a year, or a decade, you can see patterns. But does this allow me to predict today or tomorrow? Not a chance.

Frankly I would not want it any other way. Good times come and good times go. You don't miss what you have got till it is gone. Hopefully it will be back soon. 

73 Jim

GM4FVM