April 1988 Forecast -- Flux Range 100 - 147

by Roy, AD5Q - Houston, Texas

Springtime propagation patterns established themselves during March and will be with us for another 2 months. Conditions have been very good and will get better (!) as long as we don't get a lot of flares.

HIGH BANDS: 10 has been opening to western Europe and could improve during April, but will deteriorate as summer approaches. 15 has been excellent to Europe, Russia and the Middle East in the morning and Africa in the afternoon. There have been polar openings to central Asia about an hour after sunset and in the early morning. 15 has also been open to India and Sri Lanka around 11:am local time with nice sigs over the pole. 20 is wide open in the morning and through the evening, but trans-daytime paths are no longer working due to higher MUF's. Our morning path to Europe was a winter path. For the next several months our 20 meter peak to EU will be in the late afternoon - across the darkness of evening. We can catch the other end of this same path in late evening to east Asia, and in between: Russians!

LOW BANDS: 80 meter propagation is fading fast, and most northern hemisphere activity has shifted to higher bands. Concentrate on working those countries in the southern hemisphere who can't hear us during our winter (QRN). 40 is actually pretty good, but higher nighttime MUF's will favor 20 on some paths (or the 30 meter WARC band). Here too, activity is shifting to higher frequencies in the evening (20).

20 LONG PATH: The morning path to Africa has started to open and will be with us into the fall, peaking during summer. Catch this opening 1 to 3 hours after sunrise on a regular basis and you will work many good countries in Africa and the Indian Ocean and make some regular friends. Now the BAD NEWS: we are losing the Antarctic paths until fall - they are no longer reliable and will drop out entirely during summer. Afternoon VK should hang in there another month or so, but close in the summer unless fluxes get higher. Work Asia via short path.


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