Friday 13th and Saturday 14th saw afternoon openings on 50MHz to TZ1CE in Mali to generate DX interest but, as expected it was stations much further South who benefitted from the best propagation, with just a few stations in Southern UK making QSOS on FT8.

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The present spell of unsettled weather remains the main theme for the coming period up to the end of next week. The pattern is controlled by a strong Atlantic jet stream so ‘changeable’ is the watchword with periods of heavy rain alternating with brighter showery interludes and, of course, quite strong winds at times.

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In terms of propagation, rain scatter is a clear favourite, although in one cloudy period in mild air around Tuesday of next week, some possible Tropo may show up for southern UK. The meteor scatter options are again subject to random activity since we are still some way off the next important shower, the Lyrids, in late April.

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The auroral prospects have, at best, been gently simmering at low values of Kp index, mostly less than Kp=5. Stay tuned though because we may see an uptick around Tuesday of next week, so watch for signs of fluttery signals on the LF bands and then check for auroral tones on 10m and up through 6m to 2m. These events are always a bit of a long shot, but should be worth checking this time.

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The sporadic-E season is still some way off, although a strong jet stream pattern is always a positive.

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For EME, Moon declination is positive and rising, meaning longer Moon windows and higher peak elevation. Path loss continues to fall as we approach peridee on Tuesday night. 144 MHz Sky noise starts the week low rising to moderate towards the end.