What grid square is Africa operating area?

JI97 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 JI97 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 JI97 right now?

JI97 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 JI97 Band Conditions — Africa

Localized HF conditions for Maidenhead locator JI97. Coordinating at -2.50°, 19.00°. Updated with real-time telemetry from NOAA and DX cluster reports.

JI97 conditions are POOR. Best bands: 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, 60m. SFI: 105.

Regional Radar

SFI

105

K-Index

2 Kp

Center Coords

-2.5, 19.0

Local Phase

Night

Grayline window

Sunrise 04:34 UTC

Sunset 16:41 UTC from JI97

From Africa operating area, work the 04:34 UTC and 16:41 UTC grayline windows: probe 20m, 30m, and 40m in the 15 minutes either side while the terminator crosses JI97.

Best band now

10m

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

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: tropical
Local phase: Darkness
Aurora exposure: low at this latitude
Grayline: 04:34 UTC / 16:41 UTC
Best high band: 10m
Nearest city: Africa operating area

● Local Band Quality Scorings

Use this local score for JI97, 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 JI97 — Africa operating area

Great-circle distance, short-path beam heading, the bands most likely open right now from JI97 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
Southern Africa	1,689 mi	165°	40m, 80m, 20m	Open now
Europe	3,667 mi	353°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
South Asia	4,323 mi	64°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
South America	5,306 mi	255°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
North America	7,761 mi	312°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
East Asia / Japan	7,923 mi	51°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now
Oceania	8,504 mi	129°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now

● Band-by-Time Plan for JI97

A planning heuristic for the local day at JI97, built from sunrise 04:34 UTC, sunset 16:41 UTC, SFI 105, and Kp 2. Not a measurement — a starting point for where to listen as the day turns.

Dawn grayline

around 04:34 UTC

40m · 30m · 20m

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

Morning

after 04:34 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 JI97 and the adjacent squares

These are the newest 10m, 15m, and 20m reports where one side of the path sits in JI97, JI98, JI96, KI07, JI87. This gives the page unique, local context instead of a generic solar snapshot.

No fresh PSKReporter paths are cached for the immediate JI97 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 JI97, start with 10m POOR, 15m POOR, 20m FAIR and keep 20m available as the safest all-around fallback.

Open contest calendar

Nearby grids