What grid square is Cape Town?

JF96 is the live DXRadar reference square for Cape Town. The exact portable or home QTH may vary within the square, but this page tracks the center of JF96 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 JF96 right now?

JF96 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 JF96 Band Conditions — Cape Town

Localized HF conditions for Maidenhead locator JF96. Coordinating at -33.50°, 19.00°. Updated with real-time telemetry from NOAA and DX cluster reports.

JF96 conditions are POOR. Best bands: 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, 60m. SFI: 104.

Regional Radar

SFI

104

K-Index

0 Kp

Center Coords

-33.5, 19.0

Local Phase

Night

Grayline window

Sunrise 04:35 UTC

Sunset 16:41 UTC from JF96

From Cape Town, work the 04:35 UTC and 16:41 UTC grayline windows: probe 20m, 30m, and 40m in the 15 minutes either side while the terminator crosses JF96.

Best band now

10m

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

Closest operating hub

Cape Town

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: Darkness
Aurora exposure: low at this latitude
Grayline: 04:35 UTC / 16:41 UTC
Best high band: 10m
Nearest city: Cape Town

● Local Band Quality Scorings

Use this local score for JF96, 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 JF96 — Cape Town

Great-circle distance, short-path beam heading, the bands most likely open right now from JF96 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
South America	4,912 mi	264°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
South Asia	5,456 mi	54°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
Europe	5,796 mi	354°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
Oceania	7,007 mi	138°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
North America	8,976 mi	295°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
East Asia / Japan	9,027 mi	69°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now

● Band-by-Time Plan for JF96

A planning heuristic for the local day at JF96, built from sunrise 04:35 UTC, sunset 16:41 UTC, SFI 104, and Kp 0. Not a measurement — a starting point for where to listen as the day turns.

Dawn grayline

around 04:35 UTC

40m · 30m · 20m

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

Morning

after 04:35 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 16:41 UTC

20m · 40m

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

Night

after 16:41 UTC

40m · 80m

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

Recent local activity

Spots touching JF96 and the adjacent squares

These are the newest 10m, 15m, and 20m reports where one side of the path sits in JF96, JF97, JF95, KF06, JF86. This gives the page unique, local context instead of a generic solar snapshot.

No fresh PSKReporter paths are cached for the immediate JF96 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 JF96, start with 10m POOR, 15m POOR, 20m FAIR and keep 20m available as the safest all-around fallback.

Open contest calendar

Nearby grids