Tuesday 16 August – When will the bands be open?

Our regular August monthly meeting, held at The Collective in Johnsonville considered the nature of propagation and tried to answer teh question of “What time of day to look for DX from what direction and on what bands?”.

With magnetic activity increasing on the sun, the DX bands are now open, and they are not subject to the same QRM in the ‘burbs as 80m and 40m.

Mike ZL1AXG discussed how solar activity impacted on DX possibilities, through its impact on the ionosphere. This will be in a presentation  and discussion format.  

Shed Workshop 1 August 2021: Four approaches to knowing whether a band is open

How do you know whether a band is open?

There are a number of different ways to know if there is propagation on an HF band. Listening for stations on a band is not necessarily the best way to determine whether there is a band opening. If everybody is listening, and nobody is calling then the band will still seem to be dead. 

John ZL2XJ and Mike ZL1AXG demonstrated the use of beacons, DX clusters, the reverse beacon network, WSPR that can all help in determining the likelihood of a band being open.

The QTH for the Shed Workshop held on 1 August 2021 was that of John ZL2XJ at 9 Ridley Green, Churton Park.