A wild time last night indeed.   I worked about a page and a half of 2m AU Q's, three 222 AU Qs, and a few on 6m.  I did heard someone calling CQ AU on 432 but too weak to copy.  No new grids here, but VT was a new state on 2m for me.  I missed that FN06 station, and chased around a DN74 station that would have been new ones, but they zigged, I zagged.  Beam headings for working the East coast were around 80 to 90 degrees, way south of typical aurora headings showing how strong it was.  In fact I think the aurora moved south for me as there were periods of time where I was shut out with essentially no signals on the band and locals showing only a pure tone with no aurora note.  6m AU had some action on both CW and with raspy SSB in the phone segment, but it was funny to watch guys try to work FT8 .... FT8 does not work on aurora as the needed tones get distorted.  Slow SSB works, CW is even better.  

If you have not check out the NOAA website at https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/  take a look.  Play "The Aurora" on the top row right side and watch the red blob eat MN.   

Repeat tonight, maybe.  

What a great hobby !

73, Jon
W0ZQ 

On Friday, October 11, 2024 at 07:02:27 AM CDT, Rich Westerberg <[email protected]> wrote:


Hi All -

A great night on the radio last night.  Thanks to Jon, W0ZQ, for the text that alerted me the aurora was starting.

Got on 2M around 5pm and started calling.  Over the next three hours, I worked about 80 stations.  Signals were (at times) S9 and I made a few raspy SSB Q's as well as all the CW.  As the aurora moved south, some of the stations were peaking at 90 degrees.  Around 0200, the aurora moved west and I was able to work out to Colorado, and Idaho.  I was hoping to catch Oregon but it wasn't meant to be (came one grid away).

Best DX:  
K1TEO FN31 - 1063 miles
W7OUU DN22 - 1040 miles
VA2WA FN36 - 1030 miles
W2MMD FM29 - 1004 miles

States Worked: CO, CT, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, NY, MD, MI, MN, MO, NE, NJ, NY, OH, PA, VA & WI (plus VE2 & VE3)

5 New grids worked - DM58, DN22, EM88, FM09 & FN06.  Haven't had a productive night like this in a while!

2 Meter totals - 232 grids worked and 45 states - All human decoding!

I hope everyone else grabbed some new ones.  Watch tonight as the AU may return!

73
Rich N0HJZ

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