W2MMD's 40m band continues to dominate North American propagation during this reporting period, with peak reception in the evening and nighttime windows (21-24 EDT and 00-03 EDT averaging 230 unique stations), reflecting the expected enhancement of the F2 layer during darkness and the band's superior ground wave coverage across the continent. The 20m band shows a compelling daytime pattern with steadily climbing reception from mid-morning through evening (09-12 EDT through 21-24 EDT), peaking at 181 stations during the 21-24 EDT block, suggesting robust F2 layer propagation sustained well into the evening skip window and indicating favorable conditions for long-distance circuits throughout the reporting week. Notably, 30m exhibits an unexpected secondary peak during the 18-21 EDT block (89 stations) despite its compromised 8:1 SWR limiting effective power to approximately 30mW, suggesting this band's NVIS-favorable characteristics provided reliable short-to-medium range coverage during the evening transition period. The 15m band displays classic daytime ionospheric behavior with minimal activity before 09-12 EDT (averaging 20 stations), then rising sharply through the afternoon and early evening (peak 105 stations at 18-21 EDT) as F2 layer critical frequency increased, while 10m showed predictably poor results given both reduced transmitter output from Si5351A rolloff and marginal ionospheric conditions for the reporting period. Overall, W2MMD's propagation signature confirms that lower HF bands remain the most reliable for consistent continental coverage, with 40m and 20m providing the dual-band advantage essential for around-the-clock North American WSPR monitoring.

W2MMD's propagation to Europe during this period reveals a classic pattern of F2 layer skip dynamics dominated by 40m and 20m, with secondary activity on 15m and 30m. The 40m band showed strong bimodal activity peaking during the 21-24 EDT and 00-03 EDT blocks with 85 and 47 unique receivers respectively, indicating robust nighttime trans-Atlantic propagation via the F2 layer when the path benefits from darkness on both sides of the Atlantic, while the 20m band demonstrated complementary daytime skip with significant activity from 15-18 EDT through 21-24 EDT (46 to 75 unique stations), suggesting reliable F2 layer refraction during afternoon and early evening hours when European stations experience favorable ionospheric conditions. The 15m band exhibited a tightly constrained daytime window peaking during 12-15 EDT and 15-18 EDT blocks (28 and 44 unique receivers), consistent with the expected F2 skip behavior on higher frequencies that requires strong ionospheric ionization and is largely absent during dawn and dusk transitions. The 30m band, despite its compromised effective power due to the 8:1 SWR, still registered sporadic European reception primarily in the 21-24 EDT block (16 stations), suggesting that the band's intermediate characteristics allowed occasional long-path or enhanced propagation windows; conversely, 10m showed no European reception during this reporting period, likely reflecting both the reduced transmitter output at 28 MHz and unfavorable ionospheric conditions for that frequency to Europe. Overall, the data indicates that W2MMD's European openings were tightly scheduled to specific windows on each band, with 40m and 20m proving most reliable and suggesting that operators should focus monitoring efforts on evening

During the week of May 9-16, 2026, W2MMD's African propagation demonstrated a pronounced diurnal pattern dominated by 20m and 15m activity, with 387 total spots concentrated across just four unique receivers. The low-band modes (40m and 30m) showed strong reception exclusively during the 00-03 EDT and 03-06 EDT windows, indicating excellent nighttime skip propagation via the F2 layer when trans-Atlantic paths were most favorable, though 30m's reduced effective power of approximately 30mW due to antenna SWR issues likely limited its overall reach compared to 40m's full 100mW output. Daytime hours (06-15 EDT) produced minimal detections on 40m and 30m, consistent with D-layer absorption suppressing these frequencies during daylight, but 20m maintained steady presence across all time blocks with peak activity during the 00-03 EDT and 18-21 EDT periods when F2-layer propagation supported long-distance paths toward the African continent. The 15m band demonstrated the most resilient propagation, recording detections in every 3-hour block including the challenging midday hours (09-12 EDT and 12-15 EDT), suggesting that during this reporting period the F2 layer provided sufficient ionization to sustain African contacts across a wide temporal window. The 10m band, constrained by Si5351A rolloff effects and contributing only a single spot during the 15-18 EDT block, remains marginal for African reach despite favorable geomagnetic conditions, indicating that this beacon's primary pathways to Africa operate across the 20m-40m spectrum during optimal skip windows.

During the 2026-05-09 to 2026-05-16 reporting period, W2MMD's propagation to South America demonstrated a clear daytime enhancement on the higher frequency bands, with 116 total spots received by 10 unique stations across the region. The 10-meter band proved most productive during midday hours, particularly in the 12-15 EDT and 09-12 EDT blocks where the F2 layer ionization supported four and three unique receiver stations respectively, reflecting classic high-frequency skip behavior when the sun elevation angle was optimal over the trans-equatorial path; however, performance degraded significantly during evening hours despite the band's theoretical accessibility, likely due to the combination of reduced transmit power from the Si5351A rolloff at 28 MHz and the propagation geometry shifting away from favorable South American skip zones. The 20-meter and 15-meter bands showed more consistent but modest activity across multiple time windows, with peaks appearing during the 18-21 EDT and 21-24 EDT evening blocks when lower-angle radiation over shorter skip distances became advantageous, while daytime propagation on these bands remained relatively weak—a pattern consistent with the F2 layer geometry at this season and latitude pair. The 40-meter band, though showing only four total detections, concentrated entirely in the morning (00-03 EDT) and evening (18-21 EDT and 21-24 EDT) blocks, suggesting NVIS or low-angle skip propagation rather than long-distance F2 reflection, while 30-meter produced no detections to South America, a result attributable to the severely degraded effective radiated power (approximately 30 mW) caused by the 8:1 SWR on that antenna. Overall, the data reflects typical spring equinox propagation characteristics with higher bands

During the week of May 9-16, 2026, W2MMD's 100 milliwatt signal reached Oceania on 231 occasions across 11 unique receiver stations, with propagation heavily dominated by the 40-meter and 20-meter bands. The 40-meter band showed a pronounced peak during the 06-09 EDT morning window with six unique stations, consistent with enhanced F2 layer propagation during the post-sunrise ionospheric recovery period, while sporadic evening reception during the 00-03 EDT and 18-21 EDT blocks suggests occasional trans-equatorial skip paths typical of this season and latitude pair. Twenty meters demonstrated more distributed activity with seven stations during the same 06-09 EDT peak and sustained secondary reception throughout the day, indicating a more favorable skip distance to Oceania across multiple ionospheric modes; the relative consistency of 20-meter propagation compared to 40 meters likely reflects better long-path F2 layer stability and reduced ground-wave interference at this frequency. The 30-meter band produced no detectable spots to Oceania, a result attributable to its significantly degraded effective radiated power of only 30 milliwatts due to the 8:1 SWR, while 15-meter and 10-meter bands similarly showed minimal activity, suggesting that Oceania lay beyond the optimal skip distance for these higher frequencies during this particular reporting week. Overall, the Oceania window appears to open most reliably during the 06-09 EDT morning window when the F2 layer transitions to daylight conditions, with 40 meters offering occasional evening opportunities through skip paths that exploit the northern hemisphere to southern hemisphere geometry.