That strong geomagnetic storm over the weekend may have trashed the HF bands, but stations along North America’s Eastern Seaboard took advantage of the resulting aurora to score some DX on 6 meters. On Saturday, June 29, stations were able to work into Alaska during a period of auroral propagation. WK3N in Pennsylvania reported working his first two Alaska stations, AL7RT and KL7NO, for his #100 on 6 meters. WK3N called the episode “the most intense solar storm in the last five years.” After seeing the red solar indicator on his VE3SUN DX Monitor, he knew it was time to act, he said. He pointed his beam north, turned on his amp and started calling “CQ.” He worked into several regions of the US and Canada. K8OM reported a 6 meter opening into Eastern Iowa at 1645 UTC Sunday, June 30, when the geomagnetic storm had begun to wind down. He worked OH1ND, OH1XT and ES6RQ, all on CW.

“That may not be all that great for East Coast guys, but for us out here in the middle of the country, it was rather exciting!” he said.

Early Saturday morning Spaceweather.com reported that a strong geomagnetic storm was in progress as Earth passed through a region of south-pointing magnetism in the solar wind. The storm generated auroral displays as far south as Kansas. The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center indicated the storm was a G3 level event. NOAA says that in a G3 level storm, HF radio may be intermittent. Over the weekend, the A index rose to 22, and the K index ranged from 5 to 7. Generally an A index at or below 15 or a K index at or below 3 is best for HF propagation. — Thanks to The Daily DX, Spaceweather.com, NOAA