The past few nights have been very interesting on LF and MF. For starters, January 29 was the first time I heard Europe on 2200 meters. I have decoded at least one transmission from Europe on the band each of five nights since then. This may be in whole or in part due to a change I made to my receiving setup on January 29. However, a number of other curious things emerge when looking at the data.

For one thing, I did not decode any 630m transatlantic signals on the night of January 28/29, but I did decode DC0DX four times on 2200m.

The second thing of note is the decodes on the night of February 1/2. On 630 meters I only decoded EA5DOM, which is quite low latitude for a transatlantic path. The northern stations were completely missing, not only from Europe but also no transcontinental decodes from the VE7 or northern W7 areas. This would be a typical pattern given an upturn in geomagnetic activity from mostly quiet to active/minor storm. Yet this was the second best night for transatlantic on 2200m with three DC0DX decodes, including the best S/N yet observed.

The other thing of interest is that on 630m, excepting an early start by PA0A on the night of January 31/February 1, most of the decodes are about in the middle of common darkness; not near my sunset or near sunrise at the eastern end of the path. There is one late decode of EA5DOM on the night of January 30/31. On 2200 meters we find most of the decodes were late, not too long before sunrise at the eastern end. The only exception is three earlier decodes of DC0DX on the night of January 28/29.

Although not shown here, WH2XND on 2200m was notably weaker on the final night, February 1/2 than on the previous nights in this period.

There is insufficient data to draw any conclusions, but in the early days of hearing transatlantic signals on 2200m it does not seem to correlate well with what is happening on 630m. I wonder if any clear trends will emerge as more data is accumulated.

Transatlantic decodes, 630m, January 26 – February 2:

2017-01-30 02:36 EA5DOM  0.475610 -26 IM98xn N1BUG FN55mf 5578 301 
2017-01-30 02:48 EA5DOM  0.475610 -27 IM98xn N1BUG FN55mf 5578 301 

2017-01-31 00:12 EA5DOM  0.475610 -26 IM98xn N1BUG FN55mf 5578 301 
2017-01-31 01:12 G3KEV   0.475705 -23 IO94sh N1BUG FN55mf 4820 287 
2017-01-31 01:20 G3KEV   0.475705 -25 IO94sh N1BUG FN55mf 4820 287 
2017-01-31 03:16 ON5TA   0.475671 -27 JO20es N1BUG FN55mf 5264 293 
2017-01-31 06:24 EA5DOM  0.475609 -28 IM98xn N1BUG FN55mf 5578 301 

2017-01-31 21:48 PA0A    0.475730 -25 JO33de N1BUG FN55mf 5280 292 
2017-01-31 21:50 PA0A    0.475730 -27 JO33de N1BUG FN55mf 5280 292 
2017-01-31 23:50 PA0A    0.475730 -29 JO33de N1BUG FN55mf 5280 292 
2017-01-31 23:54 PA0A    0.475730 -27 JO33de N1BUG FN55mf 5280 292 
2017-02-01 00:24 G8HUH   0.475782 -26 IO81mg N1BUG FN55mf 4766 289 
2017-02-01 00:24 EA5DOM  0.475610 -27 IM98xn N1BUG FN55mf 5578 301 
2017-02-01 00:44 G8HUH   0.475782 -26 IO81mg N1BUG FN55mf 4766 289 
2017-02-01 00:48 EA5DOM  0.475610 -29 IM98xn N1BUG FN55mf 5578 301 
2017-02-01 00:54 G8HUH   0.475782 -22 IO81mg N1BUG FN55mf 4766 289 
2017-02-01 02:48 EA5DOM  0.475609 -27 IM98xn N1BUG FN55mf 5578 301 
2017-02-01 03:36 EA5DOM  0.475609 -28 IM98xn N1BUG FN55mf 5578 301 
2017-02-01 03:44 F1AFJ   0.475727 -28 JN06ht N1BUG FN55mf 5193 295 
2017-02-01 04:00 EA5DOM  0.475609 -30 IM98xn N1BUG FN55mf 5578 301 

2017-02-02 02:36 EA5DOM  0.475610 -28 IM98xn N1BUG FN55mf 5578 301 
2017-02-02 03:24 EA5DOM  0.475609 -25 IM98xn N1BUG FN55mf 5578 301

Transatlantic decodes, 2200m, January 26 – February 2:

2017-01-29 01:20 DC0DX 0.137469 -27 JO31lk N1BUG FN55mf 5399 294 
2017-01-29 02:18 DC0DX 0.137469 -24 JO31lk N1BUG FN55mf 5399 294 
2017-01-29 04:14 DC0DX 0.137469 -27 JO31lk N1BUG FN55mf 5399 294 
2017-01-29 07:08 DC0DX 0.137468 -27 JO31lk N1BUG FN55mf 5399 294 

2017-01-30 06:12 DC0DX 0.137468 -25 JO31lk N1BUG FN55mf 5399 294 

2017-01-31 07:20 G8HUH 0.137425 -28 IO81mg N1BUG FN55mf 4766 289 

2017-02-01 07:10 DC0DX 0.137469 -27 JO31lk N1BUG FN55mf 5399 294 

2017-02-02 05:36 DC0DX 0.137469 -23 JO31lk N1BUG FN55mf 5399 294 
2017-02-02 05:58 DC0DX 0.137469 -24 JO31lk N1BUG FN55mf 5399 294 
2017-02-02 06:20 DC0DX 0.137469 -25 JO31lk N1BUG FN55mf 5399 294