What grid square is Birmingham?

IO81 is the live DXRadar reference square for Birmingham. The exact portable or home QTH may vary within the square, but this page tracks the center of IO81 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 IO81 right now?

IO81 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 IO81 Band Conditions — Birmingham

Localized HF conditions for Maidenhead locator IO81. Coordinating at 51.50°, -3.00°. Updated with real-time telemetry from NOAA and DX cluster reports.

IO81 conditions are POOR. Best bands: 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, 60m. SFI: 104.

Regional Radar

SFI

104

K-Index

0 Kp

Center Coords

51.5, -3.0

Local Phase

Night

Grayline window

Sunrise 05:57 UTC

Sunset 18:15 UTC from IO81

From Birmingham, work the 05:57 UTC and 18:15 UTC grayline windows: probe 20m, 30m, and 40m in the 15 minutes either side while the terminator crosses IO81.

Best band now

10m

European evening operation usually shifts toward 20m and 40m once the high bands soften.

Closest operating hub

Birmingham

This square sits in Western/Central Europe 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: Darkness
Aurora exposure: low at this latitude
Grayline: 05:57 UTC / 18:15 UTC
Best high band: 10m
Nearest city: Birmingham

● Local Band Quality Scorings

Use this local score for IO81, 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 IO81 — Birmingham

Great-circle distance, short-path beam heading, the bands most likely open right now from IO81 to each DX region at SFI 104 / Kp 0, 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	4,369 mi	300°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
South Asia	4,661 mi	83°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
Southern Africa	5,637 mi	154°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
South America	5,653 mi	233°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
East Asia / Japan	5,947 mi	31°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
Oceania	10,409 mi	53°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now

● Band-by-Time Plan for IO81

A planning heuristic for the local day at IO81, built from sunrise 05:57 UTC, sunset 18:15 UTC, SFI 104, and Kp 0. Not a measurement — a starting point for where to listen as the day turns.

Dawn grayline

around 05:57 UTC

40m · 30m · 20m

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

Morning

after 05:57 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 18:15 UTC

20m · 40m

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

Night

after 18:15 UTC

40m · 80m

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

Recent local activity

Spots touching IO81 and the adjacent squares

These are the newest 10m, 15m, and 20m reports where one side of the path sits in IO81, IO82, IO80, IO91, IO71. This gives the page unique, local context instead of a generic solar snapshot.

No fresh PSKReporter paths are cached for the immediate IO81 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 IO81: 10m POOR, 15m POOR, 20m FAIR. Current solar conditions (SFI 104, K 0) favor 10m, 15m, 20m for this contest weekend.

Open contest calendar

Nearby grids