Propagation de K7RA

We are seeing new sunspots over the past few days after eleven days with none at all. Lack of solar activity made Field Day this year (June 23-24) a real cycle minimum experience.

Most areas saw very little 10 and 15 meter activity, so 80, 40 and 20 meters were the place to be. Saturday night I was at my new place of employment, having joined the employee ham club days earlier, and operating N7OS on 40 meters atop a tall parking structure on the corporate campus in Redmond. I was amazed at how weak many of the signals on 40 meters sounded, on both SSB and CW.

Sunspot numbers for June 25 to 28 were 11, 11, 15 and 27. The numbers may edge a little higher over the next few days, with more zero sunspot days possible around mid-July. Geomagnetic activity is expected to remain quiet.

Six meters opened in some areas this week. Brian Alsop, K3KO of Henderson NC (FM06) along with K4CIA (FM05) worked KH6FI on SSB and NH6P on CW around 1800z on June 21. Both are on the east end of the island of Hawaii. That is quite a haul for six meters, as K3KO and KH6FI are over 4,700 miles apart.

The day before, June 20, around 1220z Jeff Hartley, N8II of
Sherpherdstown, West Virginia worked Spain and Portugal, EA7TN (IM56) and CT1HZE (IM57) on 6 meters, both SSB and CW. He says it was intense sporadic-E clouds which gave him the multi-hop propagation and good signals. And on Thursday evening, June 28, Ken Tata, K1KT of Warwick, Rhode Island reported ''Six meters is going nuts right now.'' He sent a live map from http://www.vhfdx.net/ showing lines between six meter stations around the United States
and the Caribbean working each other, with intense activity from W2, W8 and W4 land.

There were also 10 and 15 meter reports this week. Barry Eure, KS4RT near Chattanooga and his 10 year old son Matthew, KI4QCX worked Maine on 10 meters and then Chile and Brazil on 15 meters, all on June 25 around 2100 to 2300z. Also that day Vic Woodling, WB4SLM of Centerville, Georgia was copying European stations on 4 meters, or 70 MHz, a band not open to amateur operators in the United States. He said VE9AA was working them crossband from six
meters.

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/.

Sunspot numbers for June 21 through 27 were 0, 0, 0, 0, 11, 11 and 15 with a mean of 5.3. 10.7 cm flux was 65.5, 65.3, 65.9, 66.9, 67.6, 70.5, and 73.2, with a mean of 67.8. Estimated planetary A indices were 14, 16, 11, 6, 5, 5 and 5 with a mean of 8.9. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 8, 12, 8, 4, 3, 4 and 5, with a mean of 6.3.

Source: The American Radio Relay League

• All propagation reports can be found at:
http://www.southgatearc.org/propagation