SB PROP @ ARL $ARLP048
ARLP048 Propagation de K7RA
ZCZC AP48
QST de W1AW
Propagation Forecast Bulletin 48 ARLP048
From Tad Cook, K7RA
Seattle, WA November 21, 2007
To all radio amateurs
SB PROP ARL ARLP048
ARLP048 Propagation de K7RA
This is an off-schedule bulletin before Thanksgiving. Because ARRL
headquarters is closed on Friday, the day this bulletin is normally
released, and this bulletin was written before the end of our
reporting week (which is Thursday through Wednesday), the sunspot,
solar flux and geophysical numbers normally at the end of this
bulletin will appear in a new propagation bulletin on Monday,
November 26. Friday, November 30 will find us back on the regular
schedule.
Another sunspot appeared in the past week, but just for two days,
November 16-17. The sunspot number was 13 on both days.
Neil Klagge, W0YSE of Layton, Utah wondered why the last Propagation
Forecast Bulletin ARLP047 said there was only one sunspot on
November 6 when the sunspot number for that day was 11. That is
because of the arcane method used to derive sunspot numbers. A
sunspot number of 11 means just one sunspot. The number is derived
by counting 10 points for each sunspot group, and adding one point
for each spot. So 11 is also the minimum non-zero sunspot number.
It is either 0, or 11, or something higher, with nothing from 1-10.
So in reality, this week when we said there was one sunspot for
November 16-17, because the sunspot number was 13, that can only
mean that there was one group of sunspots, but three spots were
observed, although they were tiny.
We had some geomagnetic activity this week from a coronal wind
stream. On November 20 the planetary K index rose to 6 for one
period, and the planetary A index for the day was 28. Alaska's
College A index was 48. The predicted planetary A index for
November 21-27 is 20, 15, 10, 8, 15, 10 and 5. Note that this
weekend, November 24-25, is the CQ Worldwide DX CW Contest. Sunspot
and solar flux numbers should remain about the same, with an
occasional spot appearing, and solar flux hanging around 70 or
slightly lower.
Jon Jones, N0JK noted some trans-equatorial 6-meter e-skip
propagation from Florida to Brazil on the evening of November 18.
From 2358z November 18 through 0002z November 19, KE4WBO worked
PY2XB. K4CVL, also in Florida, worked P43A in Aruba on 6 meters at
the same time, 0001z. All reported good signals.
If you would like to make a comment or have a tip for our readers,
email the author at, k7ra@arrl.net.
For more information concerning radio propagation, see the ARRL
Technical Information Service at,
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/propagation.html. For a detailed
explanation of the numbers used in this bulletin see,
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/k9la-prop.html. An archive of past
propagation bulletins is at http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/prop/. Monthly
propagation charts between four USA regions and twelve overseas
locations are at, http://www.arrl.org/qst/propcharts/.
NNNN
/EX
