Propagation News – 25 October 2026

Compiled by G0KYA, G4BAO and G3YLA on Thursday, 22 October 2026

Autumnal HF conditions continue to improve with the odd surprise on the upper HF bands.

With a solar flux around 120, there have been some good HF contacts to be made via FT8 on the 10m band, including in Australia, China and Japan, which were all spotted during the afternoon.

These openings have been fleeting but can easily add to your DXCC score.

Conditions have been variable, with a decreasing solar flux index and periods of geomagnetic disturbance, thanks to emissions from a coronal hole on the Sun.

A Kp index of five or more usually means lower MUFs and noisier bands.

But the time of year has helped with autumnal HF conditions being some of the best. Maximum Usable Frequencies have usually been above 21MHz during daylight hours, with some openings on 24 and 28MHz at times.

If you venture up to 12 or 10m, give it some time as openings may be short and fleeting.

This week, DX to be worked includes YJ0CA in Vanuatu, TZ4AM in Mali, XX9TXN in Macao, 3DAOGY in Eswatini, S9R in Sao Tome, C5R in The Gambia and 5W0ZP in Samoa.

Many other entities may remain on the air following the weekend’s CQWW SSB Contest.

Also keep an eye on the 40 and 80m bands, which should be improving as we enter late autumn. 30m, an overlooked band, may be currently open all night so it is worth a look.

Next week, NOAA predicts that the SFI will remain around the 95 to 105 mark. Geomagnetic conditions are predicted to be good all week with a Kp index of two. This may increase to five at the end of the month so do your DXing early in the week.

As always, keep an eye on solarham.com as it only takes one solar flare and associated CME to push the Kp index up.

VHF and up propagation news

Compiled by G3YLA and G4BAO.

The middle of last week saw some good daytime rainscatter on 24GHz for those of us fortunate enough to catch it.

More active weather fronts are likely to bring spells of heavy rain or showers, which might cause a repeat, so keep an eye on the rain maps if you have equipment for the 5.7, 10 and 24GHz bands.

The current spell of unsettled weather is likely to run through much of the coming week and, in typical autumn fashion, some of these storms will be major lows with strong or potentially damaging winds for unsecured aerials.

The recent slight enhancements of the Kp index suggest that we should still keep an eye out for some probably weak auroral activity if the Kp index goes above five.

On to meteor scatter now and it seems that we have recently seen a top-up of meteor input due to the peak of the Orionid meteor shower, which peaked on Wednesday night, 21 October.

That may have helped the 50MHz Sporadic Es QSOs on 17 October for some. QSOs were made on FT8 into Iberia, Scandinavia and North Africa where 7T5E was active.

Cloudy weather probably made it difficult to see evidence of the meteors but meteor scatter on the VHF bands may well reveal the extra activity and hopefully leave some residual meteors for the coming week.

EME now, and Moon declination is now positive and rising to a maximum on Thursday, 29 October. Moon windows lengthen and peak Moon elevation is rising.

Perigee is on Wednesday, 28 October when path losses are at their lowest. 144MHz sky noise is low, rising to moderate on 30 October.

Category: GB2RS Propagation News