Dx in South Texas

[Marconi]

Thought this morning was going to weak? No so!
Worked 2 stations in 153 and an Australia station this morning along with Ireland ? Strange Conditions i hear reunion island, s Africa, Thailand, Australia and the normal NE USA.
Signals are all about 5/3-5/4 :w00t:

Hey ghutch, this is Ole' Grampa, Corpus Christi, on my radio. I was talking to a guy in California the other day on my Starduster, and I think I might have heard you talking at the time, but not sure. It was real quiet here, about 0-S1, and I thought I was hearing backscatter at about S1, hearing 153 in Corpus Christi at little to no copy levels.

Not to be confusing in case you didn't know regarding my location, I was at my home in Houston.

What call do you use when DX'ing?

 

[ghutch]

I use 2 division 333 as a dx call....I do not have "proper" call?
Yeah the conditions this mornings are really good? When i turned on the noise level was at 0-1. did not hear anything, thought cme or conditions were bad. as i listened a few minutes the dx was at the noise level or just above and coming in from all directions. About 900 am the stations all were at about a s3/5' Nothing is booming at 20db over but the dx is not the norm for me. at 8-1000 am working s africa is about the norm, but then working Thailand (2 stations for 20 minutes or so), 133 division and Australia is not the norm? I normally hear these stations in the late afternoon/evening.
Reunion island was in at 5/4 with 44 division, as well as a few European stations, my normal morning dx? in fact Europe was very weak this morning....my first contact was 168 div. and the only europe station i worked. Just got off the radio as condition now have slowed and I have some work to do but thought I would post the odd conditions....dx is good!
We will see what this afternoon brings

 

[Philpoh]

It's been very quiet on 11m - W Europe Friday couple 13 and 161.
Conditions coming in about hour later in mourning, Sat conditions
gone by 10:30am.

Sun could hear Europe low signals then swung to S America
Had 44RAD001 Peter come in with a 5/7 that's about all.

Put up a 20m Dipole about 15' off ground couple weeks ago and heard
many different stations calling CQ- India, Lebanon, S Russia, Romania, and Sun at 8am United Arab Emirates. Going to raise it above 40' should improve it.

Again 11m cond look to start go back up till Dec 15 peak.

 

[ghutch]

Got an email with my best Thailand Qso to date .... The guys were on a radio outing in a national park....had a 10 minute Qso with a couple guys that morning and heard them on later....it was about 8-9 am here? I don't know how to embed it in this post I would?!
YouTube listing is 2UNIT333 VS 153RT DX Chiangmai

Google earth shows 14,600 kilometers appro. I worked them with 20-70 watts off the mobile antenna....setting 25 feet off the Gulf of Mexico. Looks like several stations are working dx in the video...hope y'all enjoy
Dx has been very quite here....a little Europe in the mornings....nothing in the afternoon but Canada and USA. Anyone hearing any good ones? Or is the low spn hurting condition?

 

[Philpoh]

Hey ghutch - I watched the vid and really looked like they were having a blast talking to you!
Sat heard couple European stations around 10am - maybe 3 or 4 of them.
Later turned West and listened for a minute @2:48pm and got 224RC001 Edward 4/3 on .555, ghutch saw couple days back you talked to Edward - new one for me!
Still very quiet here in Ohio, 38lsb is picking up - getting West coast - 3pm.

 

[camaro1]

pretty bad conditions in wisconsin,, i replaced my coax yesterday morning then heard nothing, came back in the afternoon, still nothing on the radio. then im starting to think i messed something up with the new run of coax but it all checks out ok,, then about 8pm i here a few and make some contacts. very strange

 

[ghutch]

Conditions are strange today .... Very fast fading from 5/9+ to 3/3 within a couple minutes.
Hearing stations now from Europe weak...1700-1800 hrs utc
1,14,49,30,32 with these is the north east USA Maine mostly
Pacific was in about 1500 hrs utc 201 div
Now hearing s America and Canada west 1720 utc
32, 3,
Worked 43 for short Qso about 1500 hrs utc? Grant is beaming long path
Every station now is at the noise level 1725 utc on 555

Good luck 73.... Before I forget Merry Christmas to All !!! From southTexas

 

[Philpoh]

Sure has been slow in Ohio 11m, conditions were supposed to peak this upcoming weekend - guess that's why they're called predictions!
Heard 22AT coming in strong today at 8:20am.
20m and 17m seems interesting - hearing CQ from last night:
VP8LP Bob on 17m from Falklands @6pm
IK4UPI Manual 17m from Iceland
R0FA Gennady 17m from Asia-Russia @6:20pm
many Japan stations
and this mourning:
RZ6BR Paul 20m Eur Russia 7:40am
RN4HN Larry 20m Russia 7:45am
my dipole antenna is only 10-12' off the ground - making a rotatable one 17/20m
Hope predictions pick up like to add to my dx list for 11m.
Also have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Ohio all!!!

 

[camaro1]

strange for sure, 7-9pm make a few contacts but they are 500-600 miles, not the norm 1500+ miles, hopefully the predictions about the weekend are correct.

 

[Philpoh]

Looks like a little jump today - SFI: 112 A-index: 2 K-Index: 0 Sun Spots: 82
Since Dec 2 avg SFI been around 99.4 and Sun Spots avg 47.4!:thumbdown:
So hope it continues it's climb for the weekend, and predicted peak Dec 17/18/19.

 

[AD4DQ]

Looks like a little jump today - SFI: 112 A-index: 2 K-Index: 0 Sun Spots: 82
Since Dec 2 avg SFI been around 99.4 and Sun Spots avg 47.4!:thumbdown:
So hope it continues it's climb for the weekend, and predicted peak Dec 17/18/19.

It seems like around the 20th of every moth the SF peaks, then drops.... so in another week DX will be rolling in..... this solar cycle has been weak so far....

 

[ghutch]

We need sunspots....we need sunspots....we need sunspots!! I say again we need sunspots....we need sunspots!! Hopefully the sunspot gods will work us up some sunspots?
Dx has slowed here, on the way to work today heard a couple Europe working into the Bahama area. Did not turn on until later and the afternoon was all brazil and points south in my radio. Good dx but zero pacific, Asia, 43 and 41.
I did turn on a few nite back and talked corpus to Austin for a few minutes around 200 miles with 5/5 signals? My signal must have been bouncing straight up??not dx but good local contact on lsb?
Off tomorrow so ill give it a shot and report? Hope is it'll be great! 73 333

 

[Philpoh]

Predicted solar flux is 115 on December 14, 120 on December 15-16, 115 on December 17-19, 110 on December 20-21, 115 on December 22-23, 110 on December 24-27, 100 on December 28-29, 95 on December 30 through January 3, 100 on January 4-5, and 105 on January 6-8. Solar flux then jumps abruptly to 125 and 130 on January 13-14

Looks like the upcoming weekend prediction and Dec peak have been lowered.
:thumbdown:
Looks like next year in Jan peaks again.

Heard a few West European stations this mourning 20 or more - little up.
Talked some dx:
173SD101 David .490 @11am
44RAD002 JJ .555 @11:30am
17SD369 Stan .555 @4pm

 

[camaro1]

not to bad today, makin a few contacts in mexico and CA, washington state, and another local 30miles away heard me calling and replied,

 

[ghutch]

I listened this morning and never keyed the mic?
Europe early around 8-9am...did not hear s Africa as normal around 10-11
Band noise was low....many stations were audio only or slight meter movement but easily workable. Tons of Xmas contest stations in the NE USA and C-S America. France was the dominate European area and NE USA
73 and good Dx