6m Aurora QRP in G4 Storm and an X5+ Flare

Being contemporaneous for a new achievement and experience: 6m auroral propagation with a QSO at 5W! With the G5 storm observed before 0Z, I built myself a more durable 6m full-wave loop and set out to experience some new amateur radio. Heading out to a local hilltop with a plan!

Initial deployment of the 6m loop on my fiberglass pole for a tuning check and preparation for operating

I had pre-trimmed the antenna trying to get an initial tune indoors. Obviously I shouldn't have done that and the 20 AWG wire ended up too short in the field! Fortunately the KX3 tuner could do a quick correction around 50.1 MHz to keep things going.

Demonstrated field tuning: resonant at 51.75 MHz with 49 ohm and 6.6 nH. Too much trimming, oh well. Wire's cheap and the configuration is proven.

Operating location with the KX3 on the overlook park bench

There was lots going on! Plenty of analog signals on 6m: CW I could never decode (beyond my minimal skill at present) and raspy-warbling voices. Big signals on phone were K0SF and K0SIX in EN35 working lots of stations from the Minneapolis area; some QSOs I could hear both sides, some just the one. Also heard calling were K0KKO, K9RE, KB0X. And, to round it off, I got KG9N in EN50!

Trying calling on 50.125 as the light faded got me WB9YZU locally. At this point the X5+ flare was in full force and the auroral signals had faded. To round it out, there was lightning on the eastern horizon during the QSO indicating the imminent thunderstorm as forecast for the evening.

As things must end, the twilight view of my antenna.


Last view from the overlook in the twilight with the storm from the east to north on the horizon.

Back home, get this blog done, then back out to see how the visual aurora is doing!

Edit: summary of Kp conditions for the event:



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