Hawaii Band Advice

Times to be on the air.

When the bands are open on the US mainland, they are often closed for Hawaii.  From my experience on 20 meters operating from Hawaii, here are the best/worst times to make contacts.

All times mentioned below are Hawaii Standard Time (HST).  Wast Coast (PDT) add 3 hours; East Coast (EDT) add 6 hours.

4-6 AM – band is closed here.  (For contests, this is the time we sleep as there is very little hope of making any contacts anywhere.)  FT8 waterfalls are often nearly blank.

6-9 AM – band is usually open to US mainland and sometimes to Europe for a short time – good, but not great possibilities for contacts.

9 AM -12 noon – very difficult to make contacts.  20 meters is virtually closed again.

Noon – 4 PM  – A little better but still very little propagation and therefore few contacts from/to Hawaii. By about 2 PM there are usually a number of stations. U.S. east coast comes in first, then propagation moves west across the U.S.

4-5 PM  – band is opening up.  A little easier to make contacts, especially to US mainland.

5-8 PM  – The BEST time for 20 meters.  The band is usually wide open, first to US mainland.  Then about 6 PM it may open to Europe.  Then later in the evening, the best contacts are to the west (i.e., Indonesia and China).

Around 8 or 9 PM, depending on the day, the band gradually closes down and people migrate to 40 meters.

So, that means the best time for contacts  is 5-8 PM HST which is 9 PM PDT or 11 PM EDT.

A second choice of operating times would be 6-9 AM ( 9 AM PDT; 12 Noon EDT).

Definitely use <Callsign>/KH6.  It will really help.  It seems people want Hawaii (KH6).

Bev AH6NF, June 2020