‰ Now 18 WPM transition file follows ‰

This was one of those confounding weeks when the average daily
sunspot number was down, while the average daily solar flux rose.
Compared with the previous seven days, for November 6 to 12 average
daily sunspot number declined 10.7 points to 85, while average daily
solar flux rose 11.5 points to 139.4.  The latest prediction from
the USAF/NOAA 45 day outlook has solar flux at 165 on November 14,
180 on November 15 and 16, then 185, 190, 195, 200 and 195 on
November 17 to 21, then 190, 170, 150, 135 and 125 on November 22 to
26, 105 on November 27 and 28, 100 on November 29 and 30, 90 on
December 1 to 3, and bottoming out at 80 on December 5.  It then
rises to a short term maximum of 200 on December 16 and 17 before
dropping below 100 by the end of the year.  Predicted planetary A
index is 8 on November 14 and 15, 12 on November 16 to 18, 10 on
November 19, 8 on November 20 and 21, 12 on November 22 to 24, 8 on
November 25, and 5 on November 26 to 29.  It then rises to a high of
22 on December 6 and again on December 26.  Petr Kolman, OK1MGW of
the Czech Propagation Interest Group has a geomagnetic forecast for
us.  He sees the geomagnetic field quiet to unsettled November 14
and 15, active to disturbed November 16, quiet to active November 17
to 19, mostly quiet November 20 and 21, quiet to active November 22,
quiet to unsettled November 23 and 24, quiet to active November 25,
mostly quiet November 26, quiet November 27 to 30, active to
disturbed December 1, quiet on December 2 and 3, quiet to unsettled
December 4 to 6, quiet to active December 7, quiet to unsettled
December 8, and mostly quiet December 9 and 10.  Pete Heins, N6ZE of
Thousand Oaks, California sent this report of a six meter opening.
There was an extensive F 2 opening on Monday afternoon, 10 November
2014.  I worked ZL1RS, 6470 mi, in New Zealand and CX7CO, 6259 mi,
in Uruguay.  I also had a QSO with KH6HI, 2537 mi, near Honolulu, HI
for new grid, BL01, on 6 meters from my DM04ne QTH in SoCal.  Later
he wrote, Actually I discovered that I have worked BL01 in the past.
I run 100w to a 5 element yagi about 15 feet above ground level with
lots of nearby obstructions.  Jon Jones, N0JK of Lawrence, Kansas
wrote about the same six meter opening.  On the afternoon of
November 10, the 6 meter band opened between Hawaii and the mainland
states starting around 2000z.  I worked Jim KH6/K6MIO grid BK29 at
2132z from Lawrence, KS on 50.120 MHz.  I had been out with our 3
year old grand daughter at a church playground in Lawrence that
afternoon to let her play.  It was so nice out, 74 degrees F and
sunny.  I checked my cell phone while watching her and saw the spots
for the Hawaiian stations on 6.  Packed her up and back home, we
live 5 minutes away.  I listened first on the home setup, a dipole
in attic and heard K6MIO/KH6 on 50.120.  Figured better to try for a
contact from home than go out portable and possibly lose
propagation.  I had just moved the dipole to favor propagation to
the Pacific rather than South America last week.  After I worked Jim
I went out portable.  Jim was Q5, S1 to 2 on just a whip.  But band
dropped by the time I got the yagi up.  Missed KH7Y while I was
putting the antenna and masts in the car.  KH7Y worked N0XA and
N0CWR, plus many others.  Sunspot numbers were 107, 96, 92, 78, 63,
70, and 89, with a mean of 85.  10.7 cm flux was 135.5, 145.5, 132,
131.7, 136.1, 142.3, and 152.9, with a mean of 139.4.  Estimated
planetary A indices were 9, 12, 8, 9, 23, 12, and 8, with a mean of
11.6.  Estimated mid latitude A indices were 8, 10, 8, 8, 16, 9, and
6, with a mean of 9.3.

‰  End of 18 WPM transition ‰  QST DE W1AW  ƒ