The K7RA Solar Update

SEATTLE, WA, Jun 30, 2006--Judging from theContest Soapbox comments and photos on the ARRL Web site, it was a fun Field Day weekend all around last weekend. There are many great stories on the site, but I enjoyed reading N4SL's report on the W7MRG operation in Montana, more than 500 miles down the road from home in Washington. Enter W7MRG in the call sign search window to get there. Even with zero sunspots, the homebrew wire antenna arrays and Montana hilltop sounded fabulous. N4SL's listing on QRZ.com describes his wire antennas at home, which sound quite similar to those at the W7MRG Field Day setup.

Apparently there was some 6, 10 and 15 meter activity, although your author didn't hear it here. We put in a short casual mobile operation on 20 and 40 meters, both CW and SSB, and were impressed with how well the 7-foot monoband whip on the car worked on 40 meters. Changing bands meant unscrewing an antenna from the trunk mount and substituting another.

No sunspots last weekend, but a big new spot (897) rotated into view this week. Followed by spot 898, it looks like a moderately rising solar flux and sunspot number will be with us through July 6. A solar wind stream caused elevated geomagnetic numbers on June 28 and 29, and this may happen again around July 3-5. Geophysical Institute Prague predicts quiet conditions over June 30 to July 3, quiet to unsettled on July 4, unsettled to active on July 5, and unsettled on July 6.

Last week's "Solar Update" mentioned the article "When Will the Bands Improve?" by Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA, which appears in July 2006 QST. Carl would like to correct his definition of the length of a sunspot cycle. The sentence in question should read: "The average length of a sunspot cycle, from solar minimum with a minimum number of sunspots (low electron density) to solar maximum with a maximum number of sunspots (high electron density) and then back down to the next solar minimum, is approximately eleven years."

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, writes:

"I echo the comments last week about 6 meters being a bundle of fun. I only have 5-10 W QRP to a small vertical on the side of the house, but this has allowed me to work all across Europe as far as Ukraine on SSB with 59 reports being the norm. Last summer I managed a few north Africans, but not yet this summer.

"Not within my reach has been the amazing DX worked from Europe by the 'big guns' running high power to large beams: Central America, North America and, most amazing of all, a number of openings to JA and even one to KL7. JAs seem to have been worked on several mornings of late around our late breakfast time. This is over the pole and a very long way for simply sporadic-E. I wonder what mode this really is?"

Roger has a very nice Web page. Don't miss the interesting links he has under Homebrew rigs for the remarkable little QRP radios he constructed.

For more information concerning propagation and an explanation of the numbers used in this bulletin see the ARRL Technical Information Service Propagation page and the article "The Sun, the Earth, the Ionosphere: What the Numbers Mean, and Propagation Predictions," by Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA. An archive of past bulletins is on the ARRL Web site.

Sunspot numbers for June 22 through 28 were 0, 0, 0, 13, 14, 33 and 38, with a mean of 14. The 10.7 cm flux was 72.1, 71.8, 73.6, 74, 76.4, 78.5, and 83.5, with a mean of 75.7. Estimated planetary A indices were 6, 2, 4, 5, 3, 6 and 18, with a mean of 6.3. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 6, 1, 2, 3, 1, 7 and 12, with a mean of 4.6.

Amateur solar observer Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, Washington, provides this weekly report on solar conditions and propagation. This report also is available via W1AW every Friday, and an abbreviated version appears in The ARRL Letter. Readers may contact the author via e-mail.

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