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 25, 2009
To all radio amateurs 

SB PROP ARL ARLP048
ARLP048 Propagation de K7RA

This is a brief Propagation Bulletin preceding the Thanksgiving
holiday.  ARRL headquarters is closed on Thanksgiving Day and the
day after, Friday, November 27.  Part of the reason for the brevity
is because of limited internet access at the moment.  I hope to have
another bulletin out Monday morning to catch up with the sunspot,
solar flux and geomagnetic data normally at the bottom of this
bulletin.

Last Friday's Propagation Forecast Bulletin ARLP047 reported sunspot
numbers for November 12-18 as 11, 0, 0, 11, 12, 0, and 29, and since
then, November 19-24 they were 30, 31, 14, 13, 0 and 0.  Nice
conditions for the ARRL SSB Sweepstakes last weekend.

This weekend, November 28-29 is the CQ Worldwide CW DX Contest.
Although recent activity seems a good trend, we have no indications
when sunspots will return.

With increasing sunspot activity have come reports of openings on 15
meters.

Jack Emerson, W4TJE of Fancy Gap, Virginia says a friend in North
Carolina copied the VR2B beacon (Hong Kong) at 21.15 MHz some
mornings via long path.

Jack said he began listening, and most of the time the signal is
barely copyable.  But on November 23 at 1210z via long path Jack
said he was able to hear the signal, although with S1 signal
strength, 519.  He was about to leave for work but decided to tune
up the band, and on 21.255 MHz at 1212z found special event station
VR2009EAG coming in very well at 5x5.  Jack worked him with 100
watts, and swung another antenna around to the short path direction
to make sure he was actually receiving the signal via long path
propagation.

The evening before (November 22, local time) Jack heard more JA
stations on 15 meters than he has ever heard during the new solar
cycle.  Jack worked UA0CM just after local sunset, with a 599 signal
report.

Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA reports recent openings on 12 meters.

Jon Jones, N0JK operated casually on a Sunday afternoon outing in
the ARRL SSB Sweepstakes, and took along a 5 watt transceiver and a
CB mag-mount whip.  He was on a trap clay shoot outing at a friend's
farm.  Jack added some wire to the whip to get it to load on 15
meters, and reports "Figured it might be good enough to make a Q or
two. To my surprise, it really got out! Over the next hour and a
half I made 43 QSOs on 15 Meters, including some real DX like WP3R,
AL1G and KH7XS. A number of stations commented 'great QRP signal!'
Even some short E-skip to NM, TX and CO. But the comments that
impressed me the most were: "thank you for getting on and helping
out."

In Sweepstakes, weary contesters on Sunday afternoon digging for new
calls really appreciate the casual operators getting on to give out
some needed contacts.  Jon's 43 contacts were with 20 sections.

Aki Akai, JQ2UOZ of Nagoya, Japan has also had good luck on 15
meters recently, running 500 milliwatts into a dipole on his
apartment balcony.  You can watch a video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvCsl327k5w showing his station and
some contacts he made on November 22. He wrote to us last year (see
2008 Propagation Forecast Bulletin ARLP035 at
http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/prop/2008-arlp035.html) about a personal
challenge to earn DXCC during the solar cycle minimum using only
one-half watt.  On November 15 he made 19 contacts with Czech and
Slovak stations on 15 meters during the OK/OM DX Contest, and you
can see his log of these contacts at,
http://www.k4.dion.ne.jp/~jq2uoz/GoodEarsList.html.

Look for the data normally at the bottom of this bulletin in a
dispatch early next week.

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 web page 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/.

Instructions for starting or ending email distribution of this
bulletin are at http://www.arrl.org/w1aw.html#email.
NNNN
/EX