{"id":49454,"date":"2026-07-31T14:21:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/?p=49454"},"modified":"2026-07-31T14:21:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:21:53","slug":"propagation-news-2-august-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/blog\/news\/gb2rs\/propagation-news\/2026\/07\/31\/propagation-news-2-august-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Propagation News \u2013 2 August 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on 30 July, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve had quite a reasonable period of HF propagation over the past seven days. The solar flux index remained quite high and conditions have been quite stable, apart from a geomagnetic disturbance on Thursda, 23 July that saw the Kp index rise to 5.33.<\/p>\n

The solar flux index has been in the 140s and 150s, which bodes well for HF. There have been reliable openings up to at least the 15m band.<\/p>\n

We are still around eight weeks away from the start of better Autumnal HF conditions, but it is looking promising.<\/p>\n

At the time of writing, there were nine active regions visible on the Sun, bringing a solar flux index of 143 and a sunspot number of 123.<\/p>\n

However, for software prediction purposes you are better off using August\u2019s current smoothed sunspot number of 84.<\/p>\n

The sunspots we have are mostly clustered around the Sun\u2019s equator, which is quite normal for this point in the solar cycle. We normally associate high-latitude sunspots with the beginning of a new cycle, which is still many years away.<\/p>\n

Paul, GM4ULS reported a contact suddenly vanishing on 5MHz SSB around 1530UTC on Sunday, 26 \u00a0July. This was caused by a sudden ionospheric disturbance (SID), due to a M-class solar flare.<\/p>\n

A SID usually sounds like someone has just \u2018switched off\u2019 the ionosphere, although recovery can be quite quick.<\/p>\n

DX to be worked next week includes:<\/p>\n

E51KEE on the Cook Islands;<\/p>\n

YS\/WE9G from El Salvador;<\/p>\n

C6AYM in the Bahamas;<\/p>\n

T2JK in Tuvalu;<\/p>\n

UK\/SP9DLM from Uzbekistan<\/p>\n

OX3LX working from Greenland.<\/p>\n

The Arctic Legends team is now operating as RI0BU from Uedineniya Island until Friday, 7 August.<\/p>\n

The higher bands, such as 15 and 10m, currently favour north-south paths, for example UK to South Africa and South America. The 20m band should be more usable for paths to North America.<\/p>\n

NOAA predicts that the Sun\u2019s activity may decline slightly in the coming week. A solar flux index in the range 120 to 130 is predicted.<\/p>\n

A geomagnetic disturbance is forecast for Tuesday, 4 August, with a predicted Kp index of 4. This should recover over subsequent days, back to a more usual 2 to 3.<\/p>\n

VHF and up propagation news <\/strong><\/p>\n

Compiled by G3YLA and G4BAO<\/em><\/p>\n

The current spells of very hot weather have set their own agenda for radio conditions when it comes to tropo.<\/p>\n

We have a tick for the high pressure but the extreme temperatures have meant that the tropo-producing temperature inversions seldom survive the daytime heating over the land.<\/p>\n

It is only coastal stations that remain in the lift conditions during the daytime.<\/p>\n

The weather forecast models for the coming period suggest that the weather pattern is trying to become more unsettled but, as in recent weeks, it seems to take a while to materialise in some parts of the country.<\/p>\n

However, it will bring two changes for radio activity. One is slightly cooler weather and some showery rain, so there is a chance of rain scatter. Secondly, there will perhaps be less reliable tropo as the high pressure weakens.<\/p>\n

Some potential tropo paths probably remain from the fragmented elements of high pressure but it may be rather hit and miss.<\/p>\n

Meteor scatter is worth checking out during the next few weeks with two smaller showers, the Southern Delta Aquarids and the Alpha Capricornids peaking at the end of July before the lead-up to the Perseids in mid-August.<\/p>\n

The solar conditions are still in play for the effects of coronal mass ejections from the Sun and the potential for auroras. So that\u2019s another mode to keep on the list.<\/p>\n

Lastly, a mention for Sporadic-E which continues through August and produced daily North American openings for many last week.<\/p>\n

Jet streams are often the driving force for turbulence in the lower atmosphere and can influence the location of Sporadic-E. In the coming week they will probably not help greatly due to a very weak pattern over Europe.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still worth checking out during the two usual windows of activity in the mid-morning and late afternoon.<\/p>\n

For EME operators, Moon declination is increasing again with consequent northern hemisphere increases in Moon window length and peak Moon elevation.<\/p>\n

Path losses will decrease as the week progresses towards perigee on Monday, 10 August. 144MHz sky noise is low to moderate all week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on 30 July, 2026 We\u2019ve had quite a reasonable period of HF propagation over the past seven days. The solar flux index remained quite high and conditions have been quite stable, apart from a geomagnetic disturbance on Thursda, 23 July that saw the Kp index rise to 5.33. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-propagation-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49455,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49454\/revisions\/49455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}