Click for previous years 1999 - 2022

Jan
9th Some nice EU Es around - spent a few minutes only to work a few with my hexbeam at home and 50w.
GOOD TIMES ARE A COMING! 15th @ 22:10 UTC: With plenty of visible sunpots currently facing Earth, the official solar flux index for January 15th is 234. This is another new high for young Solar Cycle 25 and the highest since 2014. Should the SFI pass 237 this week, it would be the highest since 2003 during the previous Cycle 23.
Good copy on TN8K but no QSO as yet;-(
18th Spots for PJ4MM on 40.680MHz prompted me to put up a low wire dipole at home - voila! and easy FT8 QSO and also good copy of Martin on SSB (not licenceable here).

24th Jan 2023 18,646km opening on 50 MHz between Germany and New Zealand

Feb
 5th-15th A last minute holiday in Quarteire, Algarve IM57db with just a little bit of radio from the hotel room balcony using my IC-705 and a wire dipole on 50MHz. 35 QSOs and DXCCs CT, D4, EA8, PY, V5 and ZP6 worked with LU and CE heard.
18th 15:20z Great to work 3B9FR Rodrigues Island on 50MHz again - CQing on a dead band pays off! He went on to work a few very happy guys in North America! TEP and F2 or Chordal Hop?
21st Well, that was an interesting afternoon pretty much everything to my West was backscatter/skew path coming from QTF 190-220 here. VE W KP4 8P V25 9Y FG HC HI J3 J7 PJ4 YV PY (plus all of EU and 4X!) and all at the same time as 3C, TT8 and 3B9 loud on direct path - amazing! Click for the big picture;-) 19DXCCs in a day excluding UK countries.
27th Another nice afternoon TEP opening towards S Africa. Lound ZSs inc a nice surprise with ZS5Y in KF field - a new one for me #139. Also worked Nader ST2NH and heard good sigs from ZS, Z21 etc plus C5, V5 and FR4 / 3B9 on FT8
Shame 3B7M have decided not to bother with 6m :-(
28th Well 3B7M bagged on QO-100 at least - FT8, FT4 and SSB all in the log all in the log and on every HF except 160m:-)

Mar
1st-3rd The 6m afternoon TEP to S Africa continues to reach us with some amazing strength signals on SSB at times but evening TEP to S America is not quite making it to here at the moment - just the occasional weak FT8 QSO.
4th Andaman Island VU4M bagged on QO-100 just after midnight - SSB and CW in the log for Sat DXCC # 152:-) TNX Gopan M0XUU / VU3HPF
6th Crazy Condx on 6m again ATEP / F2 from before 11am and still roaring at 17:00 when I had to QRT. Highlight for me was Z21ML Zimbabwe taking my 6m country count so far this year to 58:-) Still waiting / looking for 5Z4;-). Of course 8m is roaring from VW, W, Carib and G / EI. Highlight for me was a very loud call from 4X1TI in Israel taking my country count to 11 on 8m.
7th A fairly quiet TEP day - bit nice to have 3B9FR come back to my CQ mid afternoon:-) Also A71 very loud on 8m but didn't hear me.
8th TEP to southern Africa, 3B8, 3B9, FR etc from late morning until >19:00 including a few big signals on SSB. 5Z4VJ was on and busy but nothing here:-( Then for more than an hour >18:00 LU, and CE (whilst I was not in the shack.). CX in briefly around 20:00
10th Eddy XV1X in Vietnam in on F2 late morning! A whole day of TEP to southern Africa with ultra loud SSB from TZ etc. Evening TEP to S America did not reach us. My annual 50MHz DXCC count reached 60 with ZA on backscatter at 180 deg;-)
11th Another day of spectacular TEP with EL2BG giving a new one to many. Early evening TEP made it to the UK with VP8NO attracting a lot of attention.
12th Much the same as the 11th. I was out for most of the day but caught the end with stron late afternoon signals from EL, C5 etc and several CX / LU stations coming into IO70.
13th Another day of S Africa TEP and big sigs from sub Saharan W Africa. On 40MHz G and EI heard Long Path in ZL early evening!
19th Not been very active for past few days. Popped up the hill for an hour this afternoon 17:00 - 18:00 - band dead. However, TZ4AM CQ 5NN and then following a good few QRO CQs to S America called by PY5EW GG46 who peaked -3. Spotted him which brought other UK stations on and he also worked GD. Band still seemingly dead apart from PY5EW steadily calling CQ.
20th Lots of afternoon TEP to S Africa then early evening PY5XB loud and alone. Later CE2SV CQing alone around 19:00 but then a really dead band.
21st ZD9VZV Tristan Da Cunha on QO-100 for SAT DXCC # 153 :-) Lots of early afternoon TEP to S Africa - 3B9FR came backto my CQ again - we seem to have a magic path. Lots on 8m including ZD1ADI and two ZS6s loud on SSB
22nd Late afternoon Q65 DXpedition mode test with Lance EME - good exchange at -30 ! 1642 -30 2.6 1516 : CQ W7GJ DN27 q3 NA
Then FT8 CQ to S America resulted in a dead band QSO with PY1EME GG76 and flags across PY and N LU. QRT 18:10
24th After HF blackout 6m open to 3B9, S Africa and PY / LU mid afternoon but died again. Not QRV
31st 70mph gusts saw off my GX1000DXC rotator on tower # 3 :-(

Apr
8th DXCC # 154 Uganda on QO-100 satellite thanks to Eddie 5XA1J/p in his motor home touring Africa and raising funds for QSA
25th Well, the big solar flare and Aurora yesterday certainly kick started 6m again. Late afternoon the band was full of TEP with everything from 3B8 / 3B9 in the Indian Ocean to LU, CE and PY from S America. Slightly later brought 7Q7, D2 and Z21 from S Africa. Some amazing trans-pacific stuff in the late evening.
26th TEP not so strong today but OM/S559A worked on EME with my single 6M8GJ for DXCC #73 this year:-)
27th Another good TEP afternoon and early evening but TEP died around 18:00z and LU, CE etc just vanished and took the whole band with them;-)
28th A great evening with many loud PYs + LU CE and ZP - band gave up around 21:00z and so did my big PA:-( BOOM!

May - as the Es season kicks in I will not be reporting fully here - just highlights
The TEP continues.
2nd 3rd 4th - EME spent a lot of time calling Spratly DX0NE but nothing heard. So far only 1 QSO I believe.
Ongoing: TEP seems to be a daily occurrence here in IO70 Indian Ocean afternoons and S America Evenings - it's just the intensity that varies. Es is finally beginning to share these events with more northerly stations.
14th FIRST JAs of the season
Been on holiday in Turkey (no radio)
30th now back but very busy - looks like band has been, and continues to be, fantastic. Lots of DX on my vertical;-)

June - I will not be reporting fully for June - too much info! - just highlights
Really not very active at the moment as we have just put our properties on the market and are very busy. NOT selling the antenna farm!! https://www.stags.co.uk/properties/17314502/sales
13th managed to find a few hours to play radio: Started the fun with 5 VK8s in the log - 4 of whom came back to my CQs! A huge amount of SSB around but my QSOs were 1 CW OH0Z and the rest FT8. Added 13 DXCCs to my count for the year to date - PJ2, A61, OH0, HZ1, SU1, CO8, ZF1, ZB2, EY8, VK8 and 4L8, taking my total to 108:-)

July Not very active
11th Managed to scrape an FT8 QSO with 9Q1ZZ during a 2 minute opening at 21:30z
12th A good selection of morning JAs
18th Seems the evening was quite good to S America. I worked LU, PY and PJ4 with 50w on my vertical at home. HC2FG was a good signal for over 2 hours!
23rd I had a couple of hours on 6m this morning - and what a couple of hours!: 5 HLs, 60JAs and VK4FNQ all on FT8 plus a handful of JAs on FT4:-)

August - even less active!
A poor Es season.
29th Nice to get a 50MHz EME QSO with Lance as 3B9GJ on Rodrigues Island

September
 

October
 

November
Well, here we are in our new home in Looe SE Cornwall - but the shack is still where it was;-)
I've been trying to work 4W8X East Timor on 50MHz EME with my single 6M8GJ but without much success. Today I put my 4 x 8el Op-Des back in the air and voila! 4W8X in the 50MHz log for DXCC # 278 and a 4W - G first on 50MHz (I think).

December
So, a quiet year for me on 6m - sold the farm, moved home (but kept the antenna farm!)

129 DXCC including just 1 new one - but a good one - 4W8X EAST TIMOR

End of Year 50Mhz summary :(@ 31/12/2023)

Latest DX recordings always here: Latest ON4KST DX Map slide show always here: