What grid square is USA operating area?

FM36 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 FM36 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 FM36 right now?

FM36 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 FM36 Band Conditions — USA

Localized HF conditions for Maidenhead locator FM36. Coordinating at 36.50°, -73.00°. Updated with real-time telemetry from NOAA and DX cluster reports.

FM36 conditions are POOR. Best bands: 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, 60m. SFI: 105.

Regional Radar

SFI

105

K-Index

1.33 Kp

Center Coords

36.5, -73.0

Local Phase

Night

Grayline window

Sunrise 10:40 UTC

Sunset 22:52 UTC from FM36

From USA operating area, work the 10:40 UTC and 22:52 UTC grayline windows: probe 20m, 30m, and 40m in the 15 minutes either side while the terminator crosses FM36.

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: 10:40 UTC / 22:52 UTC
Best high band: 10m
Nearest city: USA operating area

● Local Band Quality Scorings

Use this local score for FM36, 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 FM36 — USA operating area

Great-circle distance, short-path beam heading, the bands most likely open right now from FM36 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
North America	1,372 mi	285°	40m, 80m, 20m	Open now
South America	3,690 mi	162°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
Europe	4,060 mi	48°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
East Asia / Japan	7,047 mi	335°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
Southern Africa	7,735 mi	107°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
South Asia	7,974 mi	30°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
Oceania	9,933 mi	268°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now

● Band-by-Time Plan for FM36

A planning heuristic for the local day at FM36, built from sunrise 10:40 UTC, sunset 22:52 UTC, SFI 105, and Kp 1.33. Not a measurement — a starting point for where to listen as the day turns.

Dawn grayline

around 10:40 UTC

40m · 30m · 20m

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

Morning

after 10:40 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 22:52 UTC

20m · 40m

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

Night

after 22:52 UTC

40m · 80m

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

Recent local activity

Spots touching FM36 and the adjacent squares

These are the newest 10m, 15m, and 20m reports where one side of the path sits in FM36, FM37, FM35, FM46, FM26. This gives the page unique, local context instead of a generic solar snapshot.

No fresh PSKReporter paths are cached for the immediate FM36 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

CQ World Wide DX Contest - SSB starts Sat, 24 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT. Current forecast from FM36: 10m POOR, 15m POOR, 20m FAIR. Current solar conditions (SFI 105, K 1.33) favor 10m, 15m, 20m for this contest weekend.

Open contest calendar

Nearby grids