What grid square is Manchester?

JO04 is the live DXRadar reference square for Manchester. The exact portable or home QTH may vary within the square, but this page tracks the center of JO04 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 JO04 right now?

JO04 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 JO04 Band Conditions — Manchester

Localized HF conditions for Maidenhead locator JO04. Coordinating at 54.50°, 1.00°. Updated with real-time telemetry from NOAA and DX cluster reports.

JO04 conditions are POOR. Best bands: 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, 60m. SFI: 105.

Regional Radar

SFI

105

K-Index

1.33 Kp

Center Coords

54.5, 1.0

Local Phase

Night

Grayline window

Sunrise 05:42 UTC

Sunset 17:58 UTC from JO04

From Manchester, work the 05:42 UTC and 17:58 UTC grayline windows: probe 20m, 30m, and 40m in the 15 minutes either side while the terminator crosses JO04.

Best band now

10m

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

Closest operating hub

Manchester

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: 05:42 UTC / 17:58 UTC
Best high band: 10m
Nearest city: Manchester

● Local Band Quality Scorings

Use this local score for JO04, 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 JO04 — Manchester

Great-circle distance, short-path beam heading, the bands most likely open right now from JO04 to each DX region at SFI 105 / Kp 1.33, 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
North America	4,407 mi	301°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
South Asia	4,476 mi	87°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
East Asia / Japan	5,683 mi	34°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
Southern Africa	5,758 mi	158°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
South America	5,909 mi	236°	40m, 20m, 80m	Open now
Oceania	10,153 mi	55°	10m, 15m, 20m	Open now

● Band-by-Time Plan for JO04

A planning heuristic for the local day at JO04, built from sunrise 05:42 UTC, sunset 17:58 UTC, SFI 105, and Kp 1.33. Not a measurement — a starting point for where to listen as the day turns.

Dawn grayline

around 05:42 UTC

40m · 30m · 20m

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

Morning

after 05:42 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 17:58 UTC

20m · 40m

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

Night

after 17:58 UTC

40m · 80m

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

Recent local activity

Spots touching JO04 and the adjacent squares

These are the newest 10m, 15m, and 20m reports where one side of the path sits in JO04, JO05, JO03, JO14, IO94. This gives the page unique, local context instead of a generic solar snapshot.

No fresh PSKReporter paths are cached for the immediate JO04 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 JO04, start with 10m POOR, 15m POOR, 20m FAIR and keep 20m available as the safest all-around fallback.

Open contest calendar

Nearby grids