Just in time for...a blackout!

A lovely afternoon, plenty of sushine, and lots of activity all the way up to at least 6m.

So, what best to do than pack the go-box and get out on the west coast with the radio?  I thought I'd try some FT8 at 10m, but packed a 12m wire as well, just in case.

Lovely day, but not for higher HF!

But, when I connected everything up - total silence!  Having checked there was nothing wrong, I kept pressing the band change button until, finally, I could hear plenty of 17m activity - for which I had no wire!

Well, it must have been that a solar influence had come to affect the planet.   And on checking online, the Kp was up at around 3-4, obliterating the higher HF bands for the first time in ages.  What bad luck!

Who ordered a geomagnetic disturbance?

Now I was all set up, I soaked in some sun whilst I tried a brief period of 10m WSPR at 1W.  Nobody much could hear me, but I could hear a small number of others quite well, with very good enhancements of around 10-11dB for reception of TF3HZ: