What grid square is South America operating area?

GE42 is the live DXRadar reference square for South America operating area. The exact portable or home QTH may vary within the square, but this page tracks the center of GE42 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 GE42 right now?

GE42 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 GE42 Band Conditions — South America

Localized HF conditions for Maidenhead locator GE42. Coordinating at -47.50°, -51.00°. Updated with real-time telemetry from NOAA and DX cluster reports.

GE42 conditions are POOR. Best bands: 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, 60m. SFI: 105.

Regional Radar

SFI

105

K-Index

0.33 Kp

Center Coords

-47.5, -51.0

Local Phase

Daylight

Grayline window

Sunrise 09:14 UTC

Sunset 21:21 UTC from GE42

From South America operating area, work the 09:14 UTC and 21:21 UTC grayline windows: probe 20m, 30m, and 40m in the 15 minutes either side while the terminator crosses GE42.

Best band now

10m

10m is the headline band right now, with 20m as the dependable fallback if conditions soften.

Closest operating hub

South America operating area

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

Latitude zone: upper mid-latitude
Local phase: Daylight
Aurora exposure: low at this latitude
Grayline: 09:14 UTC / 21:21 UTC
Best high band: 10m
Nearest city: South America operating area

● Local Band Quality Scorings

Use this local score for GE42, then compare the global live ranking oncurrent ham band conditionsbefore changing bands.

10m

EXCELLENT

15m

EXCELLENT

20m

GOOD

40m

POOR

80m

POOR

● Best DX Windows from GE42 — South America operating area

Great-circle distance, short-path beam heading, the bands most likely open right now from GE42 to each DX region at SFI 105 / Kp 0.33, 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	2,281 mi	348°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
Southern Africa	4,327 mi	100°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
North America	6,639 mi	325°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
Oceania	6,925 mi	198°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
Europe	7,652 mi	37°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
South Asia	9,127 mi	104°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
East Asia / Japan	11,518 mi	213°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now

● Band-by-Time Plan for GE42

A planning heuristic for the local day at GE42, built from sunrise 09:14 UTC, sunset 21:21 UTC, SFI 105, and Kp 0.33. Not a measurement — a starting point for where to listen as the day turns.

Dawn grayline

around 09:14 UTC

40m · 30m · 20m

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

Morning

after 09:14 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 21:21 UTC

20m · 40m

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

Night

after 21:21 UTC

40m · 80m

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

Recent local activity

Spots touching GE42 and the adjacent squares

These are the newest 10m, 15m, and 20m reports where one side of the path sits in GE42, GE43, GE41, GE52, GE32. This gives the page unique, local context instead of a generic solar snapshot.

No fresh PSKReporter paths are cached for the immediate GE42 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 GE42: 10m EXCELLENT, 15m EXCELLENT, 20m GOOD. Current solar conditions (SFI 105, K 0.33) favor 10m, 15m, 20m for this contest weekend.

Open contest calendar

Nearby grids