Propagation was better here today than the last couple of days. The 20 m station is still on 14034 but the band shuts down here very early and the Qs are drying up. 160 was on for the west coast sunrise, and now we’ve moved to 80. 40 CW is calling CQ (no response on SSB or RTTY, we will try again later).

From the back office team:

1. If you donated AFTER the team set sail from Cape Town, your call WILL be posted on the VK0EK.ORG web site after the DXpedition ends. It will also be added to the heardisland.org web site after Bob, KK6EK returns home
2. We are very much aware of the need (especially in the Southern US States) and the need for SSB. We are also very much aware of the need for South America. the team will do everything it can to concentrate on these (and other areas). Again – our #1 goal has always been to get as many in the log as possible
3. The Aurora continues to plague conditions – so its great to see some better conditions – we need a better SFI and SSN – can you help?

As you can see – Heard Island is just about COVERED by the Aurora Australis which kills propagation. DXpeditions that are thousands of miles away from the poles (like FT4JA) do not have this problem. So – if you were wondering . . . . In 1997 with VK0IR at the bottom of the cycle – at least they did not have such a bad combination of low Sunspots, Low SFI and a big fat Aurora (caused by recent solar storms).

Do your sun dance – please!

73, Rich KY6R