18 countries heard on 28 MHz - 15th Dec 2021

Wednesday 15th December 2021: For a change, I decided to let the radio listen for FT8 signals instead of the WSPR signals on the 28 MHz band to get an idea of what band conditions were really like.

Back at the end of October 2021, I heard 78 countries on 28 MHz in one day. On the 15th of December, condition were much more subdued with just 41 stations in 18 countries heard.

It's wasn't all doom and gloom as there were some DX stations on the 10m band including three from Australia.

Txmtr Band Mode Distance Time (UTC)
VK2DG 10m FT8 16956 km 09:42:29
VK5MRD 10m FT8 16794 km 10:22:14
VK6AS 10m FT8 15053 km 11:54:59

Note however though there was nothing from South and North America.

The solar flux was up at 103 which is reasonable but I suspect conditions on 28 MHz will remain subdued until we head towards the equinox in March. Hopefully, there will be some big mid-Winter Sporadic-E openings in the next 3-4 weeks to liven things up.