What grid square is USA operating area?

EL17 is the live DXRadar reference square for USA operating area. The exact portable or home QTH may vary within the square, but this page tracks the center of EL17 for planning propagation.

How do I find my grid square?

Use a Maidenhead grid lookup from your GPS coordinates or street address, then compare that grid with the nearby squares linked on this page. A 4-character grid is enough for most HF planning.

What bands are open in EL17 right now?

EL17 is currently rated POOR. The best bands right now are 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, 60m, with 10m as the main band to watch first.

Grid EL17 Band Conditions — USA

Localized HF conditions for Maidenhead locator EL17. Coordinating at 27.50°, -97.00°. Updated with real-time telemetry from NOAA and DX cluster reports.

EL17 conditions are POOR. Best bands: 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, 60m. SFI: 105.

Regional Radar

SFI

105

K-Index

1.33 Kp

Center Coords

27.5, -97.0

Local Phase

Night

Grayline window

Sunrise 12:17 UTC

Sunset 00:27 UTC from EL17

From USA operating area, work the 12:17 UTC and 00:27 UTC grayline windows: probe 20m, 30m, and 40m in the 15 minutes either side while the terminator crosses EL17.

Best band now

10m

After sunset, 20m transitions and 40m becomes the reliable DX fallback from this part of North America.

Closest operating hub

USA operating area

This square sits in USA footprint and is best used as a planning center for portable, field-day, and home-station band decisions.

Latitude zone: mid-latitude
Local phase: Darkness
Aurora exposure: low at this latitude
Grayline: 12:17 UTC / 00:27 UTC
Best high band: 10m
Nearest city: USA operating area

● Local Band Quality Scorings

Use this local score for EL17, then compare the global live ranking oncurrent ham band conditionsbefore changing bands.

10m

POOR

15m

POOR

20m

FAIR

40m

EXCELLENT

80m

EXCELLENT

● Best DX Windows from EL17 — USA operating area

Great-circle distance, short-path beam heading, the bands most likely open right now from EL17 to each DX region at SFI 105 / Kp 1.33, and a current verdict. "Open now" means a suitable band is scoring well on that path; "Try ~HH:MM" points at the next far-end grayline. Band picks and status are a planning heuristic, not a measurement.

Target	Distance	Beam	Bands to try	Status
South America	3,930 mi	133°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
Europe	5,474 mi	39°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
East Asia / Japan	6,775 mi	318°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
Oceania	8,435 mi	250°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
Southern Africa	8,950 mi	102°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
South Asia	9,001 mi	6°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now

● Band-by-Time Plan for EL17

A planning heuristic for the local day at EL17, built from sunrise 12:17 UTC, sunset 00:27 UTC, SFI 105, and Kp 1.33. Not a measurement — a starting point for where to listen as the day turns.

Dawn grayline

around 12:17 UTC

40m · 30m · 20m

Grayline enhancement — low bands reach long distances as the terminator passes.

Morning

after 12:17 UTC

20m · 15m

Modest SFI — 20m is the daytime workhorse here.

Midday

local noon

15m · 20m

20m and 15m carry the daytime load at this SFI.

Dusk grayline

around 00:27 UTC

20m · 40m

Second grayline peak — 20m holds, then hands off to 40m.

Night

after 00:27 UTC

40m · 80m

Low bands own the darkness — 40m for DX, 80m regional.

Recent local activity

Spots touching EL17 and the adjacent squares

These are the newest 10m, 15m, and 20m reports where one side of the path sits in EL17, EL18, EL16, EL27, EL07. This gives the page unique, local context instead of a generic solar snapshot.

No fresh PSKReporter paths are cached for the immediate EL17 footprint right now. That usually means you should widen the search to the nearest regional hubs below or fall back to 20m/40m for the next operating window.

Top DX targets

Where this grid is reaching right now

No outbound targets were strong enough to rank from the current cache. Check back after the next PSKReporter refresh or switch to the regional grids below.

Contest preview

Next major contest outlook

No contest event is currently loaded. For planning from EL17, start with 10m POOR, 15m POOR, 20m FAIR and keep 20m available as the safest all-around fallback.

Open contest calendar

Nearby grids