What grid square is Africa operating area?

IG81 is the live DXRadar reference square for Africa operating area. The exact portable or home QTH may vary within the square, but this page tracks the center of IG81 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 IG81 right now?

IG81 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 IG81 Band Conditions — Africa

Localized HF conditions for Maidenhead locator IG81. Coordinating at -28.50°, -3.00°. Updated with real-time telemetry from NOAA and DX cluster reports.

IG81 conditions are POOR. Best bands: 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, 60m. SFI: 105.

Regional Radar

SFI

105

K-Index

0.33 Kp

Center Coords

-28.5, -3.0

Local Phase

Daylight

Grayline window

Sunrise 06:03 UTC

Sunset 18:09 UTC from IG81

From Africa operating area, work the 06:03 UTC and 18:09 UTC grayline windows: probe 20m, 30m, and 40m in the 15 minutes either side while the terminator crosses IG81.

Best band now

10m

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

Closest operating hub

Africa operating area

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

Latitude zone: mid-latitude
Local phase: Daylight
Aurora exposure: low at this latitude
Grayline: 06:03 UTC / 18:09 UTC
Best high band: 10m
Nearest city: Africa operating area

● Local Band Quality Scorings

Use this local score for IG81, 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 IG81 — Africa operating area

Great-circle distance, short-path beam heading, the bands most likely open right now from IG81 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
Southern Africa	1,785 mi	91°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
South America	3,619 mi	273°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
Europe	5,482 mi	8°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
South Asia	6,422 mi	66°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
North America	7,676 mi	304°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
Oceania	8,020 mi	154°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
East Asia / Japan	10,116 mi	67°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now

● Band-by-Time Plan for IG81

A planning heuristic for the local day at IG81, built from sunrise 06:03 UTC, sunset 18:09 UTC, SFI 105, and Kp 0.33. Not a measurement — a starting point for where to listen as the day turns.

Dawn grayline

around 06:03 UTC

40m · 30m · 20m

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

Morning

after 06:03 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 18:09 UTC

20m · 40m

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

Night

after 18:09 UTC

40m · 80m

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

Recent local activity

Spots touching IG81 and the adjacent squares

These are the newest 10m, 15m, and 20m reports where one side of the path sits in IG81, IG82, IG80, IG91, IG71. This gives the page unique, local context instead of a generic solar snapshot.

No fresh PSKReporter paths are cached for the immediate IG81 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 IG81, start with 10m EXCELLENT, 15m EXCELLENT, 20m GOOD and keep 20m available as the safest all-around fallback.

Open contest calendar

Nearby grids