WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Quirky HF Bands

June 8, 2014 (11:30am) - The weather today in Wash DC is fantastic, although it seems the forecast for the week will quickly change later today (see below). HF band conditions are much worse than yesterday. I've spotted St. Helena (10M, weak readable) and Uzbekistan (20M, virtually no copay), but the signals are just too weak. It seems summertime propagation trends are unfolding -- stations that would be typically reserved for 40M (North Carolina, for example) are booming on 20M and stations further afar are just not readable on 14Mhz.

There are other new spots on the cluster (20M, 17M and 15M), yet again, signals are just awful. I'll spend a few more hours listening for some of the stations participating in the "Museum Ships Weekend" event and hope to make a few successful contacts. Propagation reports suggest a slight improvement for HF conditions since this morning. I hope the trend continues!

Potomac Valley Radio Club (PVRC) is hosting an "On The Air Reunion" this weekend, unfortunately I'm still unable to use 75M and 40M (antenna repairs pending) so participating in that event isn't possible. The "Museum Ships Weekend" event requires fifteen or more contacts for special acknowledgement. I thought that would be a "breeze." Not so. 

Update (12:30pm) - Conditions are the same. The "universe" seems to be teasing me with a few "wanted entities on several bands. Right now, I'm watching the cluster and all I can think is "Good grief, Charlie Brown!" Several entities have been announced on various bands and many are on my "wanted" band / mode combo list (Angola, Armenia, Cameroon, East Malaysia, Gabon, Greenland, India, Malawi, Malta, Republic of Korea, Sardinia, UK Soviet Base Areas on Cyprus). Confirming five new entities will push me into the two hundred DXCC entities confirmed category. 

Update (5:00pm) - Yes, conditions briefly improved (and I have an SWR problem that's causing a safety turn-off on my AMP)! I successfully contacted three new entity / band combos and each station reportedly uses LoTW. I hope to soon confirm Malta, Albania and Belarus on new bands.

The weather outlook will change quickly later today and the forecast for the week ahead doesn't look too nice:

June 7, 2014 (11:30am) - It's a beautiful day outside -- sunny, cool and breezy. I've wanted to hang out after a very busy week, so I've opted for time in the shack for some rest and recreation. There are many battle ship museum stations activated this weekend and several are populating on the cluster. I'd enjoy making some contacts -- unfortunately, the conditions on HF are poor! Maybe things will "brighten up" later today.