A Great New Year's Morning!

After much media hype about a 'mega solar storm' hitting Earth about New Year's Eve, the much more moderate G1-2 storm began around midday on NYE.

With the recent heavy winds having broken an old 75Ohm stub on my 2-ele quad for 50MHz, I was anxious not to be be left out of any auroral working.  So, with new coax still not arrived in the post-Christmas mail, I recycled the old stub, accepting a very small reduction in length (which turned out to have almost no effect on SWR.)

Torshavn calling - on 6m Es at New Year.

I turned the beam to the north as a faint green glow appeared on the northern horizon around 7pm.  Later, I was surprised to hear a number of Scandinavian beacons coming through quite strongly.  Some aurora-warbled CW was also coming through, again from up north.

As we progressed through midnight and into 2016, I was amazed to hear - and make contact with - OY1OF coming through at 55-7 on SSB, along a stable Es path, absent of any auroral effects.  An LA9 station was about the same strength, but with much more fading.

So, a very nice late evening and early morning that allowed me to say HNY! to the Faroes, and highlighted the remarkable number of effects that make 6m such a fascinating band to work.