What grid square is South America operating area?

HE17 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 HE17 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 HE17 right now?

HE17 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 HE17 Band Conditions — South America

Localized HF conditions for Maidenhead locator HE17. Coordinating at -42.50°, -37.00°. Updated with real-time telemetry from NOAA and DX cluster reports.

HE17 conditions are POOR. Best bands: 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, 60m. SFI: 105.

Regional Radar

SFI

105

K-Index

2 Kp

Center Coords

-42.5, -37.0

Local Phase

Night

Grayline window

Sunrise 08:18 UTC

Sunset 20:25 UTC from HE17

From South America operating area, work the 08:18 UTC and 20:25 UTC grayline windows: probe 20m, 30m, and 40m in the 15 minutes either side while the terminator crosses HE17.

Best band now

10m

Night operation should keep 20m on watch and move to 40m as the path darkens.

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: mid-latitude
Local phase: Darkness
Aurora exposure: low at this latitude
Grayline: 08:18 UTC / 20:25 UTC
Best high band: 10m
Nearest city: South America operating area

● Local Band Quality Scorings

Use this local score for HE17, 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 HE17 — South America operating area

Great-circle distance, short-path beam heading, the bands most likely open right now from HE17 to each DX region at SFI 105 / Kp 2, 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	2,273 mi	320°	40m, 80m, 20m	Open now
Southern Africa	3,686 mi	93°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
North America	6,804 mi	317°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
Europe	6,993 mi	29°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
Oceania	7,408 mi	186°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
South Asia	8,486 mi	89°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
East Asia / Japan	11,914 mi	148°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now

● Band-by-Time Plan for HE17

A planning heuristic for the local day at HE17, built from sunrise 08:18 UTC, sunset 20:25 UTC, SFI 105, and Kp 2. Not a measurement — a starting point for where to listen as the day turns.

Dawn grayline

around 08:18 UTC

40m · 30m · 20m

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

Morning

after 08:18 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 20:25 UTC

20m · 40m

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

Night

after 20:25 UTC

40m · 80m

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

Recent local activity

Spots touching HE17 and the adjacent squares

These are the newest 10m, 15m, and 20m reports where one side of the path sits in HE17, HE18, HE16, HE27, HE07. This gives the page unique, local context instead of a generic solar snapshot.

No fresh PSKReporter paths are cached for the immediate HE17 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 HE17: 10m POOR, 15m POOR, 20m FAIR. Current solar conditions (SFI 105, K 2) favor 10m, 15m, 20m for this contest weekend.

Open contest calendar

Nearby grids