Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP

Propagation Report from Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP

14 February, 2010

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP,
reports that the Solar Dynamics Observatory was launched during the week, kicking off a five-year mission to study the variability of the sun.

It will enhance the way we look at the sun and beam high quality images of our star to earth.

The solar activity is still at low levels. Currently, sunspot 1 045 is decaying but sunspot 1 046 is showing some growth. The effective sunspot number is expected to be between 30 and 35 for the coming week. Good news indeed!

20 and 15 m will provide the best opportunities for DX. Conditions to India will be good from the afternoons onwards. During the late afternoons and early evenings it will be moderate towards Europe. In the afternoons there are good possibilities of contacts with the USA on 15 m. Contacts with Australia will be possible on 20 m for a short while during the mornings. During the afternoons and evenings, 20 and 15 m contacts may also be possible with Brazil.

Local conditions are going to be good on 40 m during the daytime. 80 m may perform well during the early mornings and late afternoons over the shorter distances. 30 m will perform well over the longer distances during the middle of the day. With summer here, 20 m is also once again very useful for contacts over the longer distances, especially up to two o'clock in the afternoons.

80 m is the frequency of choice in the evenings.

Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.

South African Radio League

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