Well, sort of. 4 m was open almost all day long and 2 m saw a nice opening in the afternoon, too … just not here. I was at the very edge and only every now and then signals on 4 m came up enough to do a few QSOs. It was kind of frustrating with all activity concentrating on FT8 only. Still don’t get it – if signals are beyond -04 dB the opening is good enough for CW & SSB contacts!
This is what it sounds like if there are two S9+ FT8 signals:
Luckily the band opened a little stronger later on with a few stations getting active in the “analogue” modes, too, which was way more fun. And the bandscope helped again to spot openings as well as stations across the band. 😎
SV2JAO/B pounding in on 70.087 MHz
EA1FDI popping up on 70.180 MHz SSB
It even opened via double hop ES to the Canaries as well as to West Sahara for a few minutes several times! Fun fact: I ran across EA1TX on 70.200 trying to work him when suddenly EA8TX answered my call! Would you believe this coincidence? 😀 😎
EA8TX answered instead of EA1TX:
A pity that EA8YT was only heard but his signal was weak and the .200 a little crowded at that time. But hey, rather crowded than empty. 😉
I did work squares IN93, IN60 and IL38 for new ones today, now at #185. 😎
------------------------------------------------------------------ TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB ------------------------------------------------------------------ 13:15 EA1CRK IN73DM +07 -24 4 m. FT8 ES 1812 13:46 SV1QT KM17UW +13 +02 4 m. FT8 ES 1846 14:44 EA1CRK IN73DM +10 -04 4 m. FT8 ES 1812 14:51 EA2EI IN93JA -03 +00 4 m. FT8 ES 1602 14:54 EA2XR IN83KI -01 -13 4 m. FT8 ES 1677 14:59 SØ1WS IL46RD -16 -03 4 m. FT8 ES 3638 16:01 EA1FDI IN53TF 55 58 4 m. SSB ES 1993 16:47 EA3AWT JN11CQ -12 -08 4 m. FT8 ES 1560 17:13 EA1UR IN53TF +10 -05 4 m. FT8 ES 1993 17:39 EA3BMU JNØ1OC +10 -03 4 m. FT8 ES 1659 17:46 EA1UU IN83GJ +13 -16 4 m. FT8 ES 1692 17:51 EA5EF IM99SM 579 559 4 m. CW ES 1883 17:56 CT7ASX IN6ØFD 55 55 4 m. SSB ES 2187 17:57 EA8TX IL18QI 55 55 4 m. SSB ES 3734 18:04 CT1QP IM59KJ 57 55 4 m. SSB ES 2339 18:17 EA3EW JNØ1OG -13 +03 4 m. FT8 ES 1643 18:23 EA8YT IL18SL 51 HRD 4 m. SSB ES 3714 18:30 EA4LU IM68TV 57 59 4 m. SSB ES 2231 18:36 EA8JF IL38FX -08 -16 4 m. FT8 ES 3512 ------------------------------------------------------------------