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13 October, 2007
The average sunspot number for the past week is about half what it was
the week before, but this doesn't mean much, since only two days of the
last seven had any sunspots. In fact, on only 7 out of the last 29 days
did the sun show any spots.
Geomagnetic indices (the A and K index) have been very quiet lately.
The US Air Force predicts the planetary A index to stay around five, which
is very quiet, for October 12-16. October 26 is the next time they predict
active conditions, with a planetary A index of 25. Since October 6 the
planetary A index has been below five.
Geophysical Institute Prague predicts quiet to unsettled conditions for
today, October 12, quiet conditions on October 13-16, and unsettled conditions
October 17-18. I suspect we won't see sunspots any time soon, although
this can change. It seems we are still in the bottom of the cycle.
The two days we saw a sunspot last week were Saturday and Sunday, October
6-7, with sunspot numbers of 15 and 13. Bill Paul, KD6JUI of San Mateo,
California was operating portable with a G5RV and 100 watts for the California
QSO party, and had a several hour opening on 15 meters on Saturday. He
didn't say where to, but I assume 15 opened toward the East Coast and
Midwest. Not a peep out of 10
meters, and 15 was more productive for Bill than any other band.
Randy Leedy, WS4C of Greenville, South Carolina was QRT for 8 years,
but returned to the air about 13 months ago, and hasn't let any lack of
sunspots discourage him. He offers yet another 3B7C report: with 700 mW
on September 19 at 1154z on 30 meters into a 35 foot high inverted V,
and his "location is down in a low spot." In the past 13 months
he has worked 188 countries, with 101 on 5 watts or less and 70 at 1 watt
or less. His DXCC Challenge total in that period is 690. His biggest disappointment
is not hearing BS7H well enough to work them.
Floyd Chowning, K5LA points out that activity on http://propnet.org/
is on the rise, and to check out current 30 meter records on that site.
It shows many stations active, and anyone can download the software from
the PropNET web site to join in this interesting automated propagation
tracking system.
Larry McKay, K5MK of Jackson, Mississippi just got a new PC, and like
almost every new PC, it came with Microsoft Vista. But Larry was disappointed
to find that he couldn't use W6ELprop, the popular freeware propagation
prediction program. He says it won't run, although the author, Shel Shallon,
W6EL, says he has heard that it works with Vista. Shel is running Windows
XP, and has no plans to install Vista or update his free software for
Vista.
Has anyone had problems with W6ELprop and Vista, and then discovered
a work-around? Larry didn't give much detail, except to say that it wouldn't
run. You can download the program from http://www.qsl.net/w6elprop
and try it yourself.
Finally, this has nothing to do with propagation, but George
Copeland, W7ZVD of Walla Walla, Washington sent a link to an amusing short
film about ham radio produced nearly 70 years ago.
Look up the film credits at, http://www.imdb.com/title/
tt0031834 and note the part of the ship's radio operator was played
by Clayton Moore, who later was the Lone Ranger.
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/.
Sunspot numbers for October 4 through 10 were 0, 0, 15, 13, 0, 0 and
0 with a mean of 4. 10.7 cm flux was 67.3, 67.8, 69, 68.1, 68.1, 68.7,
and 68.1 with a mean of 68.2. Estimated planetary A indices were 10, 7,
5, 4, 3, 3 and 3 with a mean of 5. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were
8, 5, 3, 1, 0, 0 and 1, with a mean of 2.6.
Source: The
American Radio Relay League
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reports can be found at:
http://www.southgatearc.org/propagation
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