RADIO PROPAGATION · CURRENT DATA

RADIO CONDITIONS

A quick reading of the HF and VHF bands, backed by signals actually decoded around the selected area.

01 · HF PROPAGATION

Which bands should you try now?

A global forecast derived from ionospheric conditions. It indicates a trend, not a guarantee of a contact.

BEST BANDS · DAY—

BEST BANDS · NIGHT—

ESTIMATED RADIO NOISE—

80–40 m—

Day: —
Night: —

30–20 m—

Day: —
Night: —

17–15 m—

Day: —
Night: —

12–10 m—

Day: —
Night: —

02 · ACTUALLY DECODED SIGNALS

Activity around Marieville

Digital receptions reported in grid FN35 over the last 30 minutes. An active band is not necessarily the best band for every mode.

Reading PSK Reporter…

Decodes: —
Countries heard: —
Local receivers: —
Leading modes: —

These figures describe traffic decoded by participating stations; they do not measure all analog, voice or CW traffic.

03 · RADIO-RELEVANT INDICES

Sun and geomagnetic field

NOAA values confirm the propagation indicators provided by HamQSL. Measurement times are shown in EDT/EST and UTC.

SOLAR FLUX · SFI—Loading

KP INDEX—Loading

A INDEX—Activity over recent hours

X-RAYS—Current solar class

SOLAR WIND—km/s

BZ FIELD—nT · north/south component

RR—Radio blackouts

SS—Radiation storm

GG—Geomagnetic storm

Measurement time: —

04 · VHF PROPAGATION

Exceptional openings

A quick assessment of phenomena that can open 6 metres and higher bands beyond their usual range.

Es

SPORADIC E · NORTH AMERICA—

Au

AURORA · NORTHERN HEMISPHERE—

Kp

GEOMAGNETIC FIELD—

MUF

MAXIMUM USABLE FREQUENCY—

Consult FMLIST for FM, DAB and TV transmitters ↗

05 · QUICK READING

Understanding the indicators

High SFI

Generally favours the upper HF bands, especially 20 through 10 metres, when the other indices remain quiet.

Low Kp

A quiet geomagnetic field supports stable HF propagation. A high Kp can disturb HF and promote VHF aurora.

PSK activity

Shows signals actually received near the selected area. It is practical confirmation, especially for digital modes.

Good / Fair / Poor

HamQSL’s indicative summary. Power, antenna, time, local noise and the exact path still matter.

06 · AMATEUR-SATELLITE SERVICE

Satellite status

Two complementary references: AMSAT’s recent listening reports and SatNOGS’ open database of satellites and frequencies.

COMMUNITY REPORTSAMSAT Live OSCAR Status

See active satellites, heard beacons, missing signals and conflicting reports.

Open AMSAT ↗ OPEN DATABASESatNOGS DB

Browse satellites, modes, frequencies, transmitters and orbital elements published under an open licence.

Open SatNOGS ↗

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

ISS position in real time

The position is recalculated every second from the latest official orbital elements.

LIVE

LATITUDE—

LONGITUDE—

ALTITUDE—

SPEED—

07 · PROPAGATION ESTIMATOR

Plan a contact across every band

Select your station and target local time. The tool combines HamQSL and NOAA conditions, actual decoded activity and the usual behaviour of each band.

Indicative estimate, not a point-to-point VOACAP calculation. An engineering prediction requires both coordinates, exact antenna geometry and height, noise and effective radiated power.

RESULT VISUALIZATION

Estimated propagation map

Colour represents the relative probability calculated by the estimator for the selected area, time and station.

Displayed band

STRONGWEAK

Red: strongest relative probability · yellow and green: intermediate · cyan and blue: weaker. This map illustrates the estimate and is not guaranteed radio coverage.

08 · NEAR-REAL-TIME RADIO PATHS

Signals heard around Marieville

Each line is a digital reception reported by PSK Reporter during the last 30 minutes. These are decoded signals, not necessarily confirmed QSOs.