‰  NOW 18 WPM transition file follows‰

Low solar activity continues. There were no sunspots seen from
January 20 to 29, and the sunspot number was 13 on January 30 and
31, but back to 0 on February 1. Average daily solar flux declined
marginally from 70 to 69R1.  Predicted solar flux is 70 on February
2, 71 on February 3 to 8, 70 on February 9 to 22, 69 on February 23
to March 4, 70 on March 5 to 18.  Predicted planetary A index is 5
on February 2 and 3, 10 and 8 on February 4 and 5, 5 on February 6
to 8, then 8, 12 and 8 on February 9 to 11, 5 on February 12 to 14,
then 8, 12, 8, 10, 5, 8, 10 and 8 on February 15 to 22, 5 on
February 23 to March 2, 8 on March 3 and 4, 5 on March 5 to 7, then
8, 12 and 8 on March 8 to 10, 5 on March 11 to 13, then 8, 12, 8, 10
and 5 on March 14 to 18.  Geomagnetic activity forecast for the
period February 2 to 28, 2018 from F.K. Janda, OK1HH.  The latest
from Dr. Tamitha Skov can be seen on YouTube.  Jeff Hartley, N8II of
Shepherdstown, West Virginia wrote on February 1, The solar indices
have been remarkably very similar day to day in January with K index
seldom above 2, often 0 and SFI running 69 to 71.  There are other
factors that influence signal strength on 80 meters and even more so
on 160 meters night to night.  During the CQWW 160 Meter CW contest
last weekend, I missed the best hours to EU around EU sunrise the
first night, but EU signals did seem down considerably from 2300Z to
0240Z when I operated and the second night was even worse, about as
poor as winter conditions ever get to EU.  There were quite loud
west coast signals around sunrise Saturday morning with two strong
callers from VE7, British Columbia, and a good signal from KH7M in
Hawaii.  The second night ZC4A, UK Sovereign Base Areas on Cypress,
was calling CQ on my run frequency and I could not hear them at all,
on a few USA calling ZC4A. Sunday night after the contest ended ZC4A
was 579.  But, it was not until several nights later that I was able
to complete a QSO on their last night of operation. I also worked
them on 80 meters both modes, 40 meters both modes on January 26,
not very loud when worked there, and on 30 meters CW where they were
barely readable at 0541Z.  Signals on 80 meters were quite a bit
louder than the other bands.  40 meters seems to be improving to EU
with some southern EU stations still having decent signals well into
our evening.  I have added quite a few band countries on the low
bands lately, log started Jan 2017. And on the 26th on 80 meters CW
I worked TG9ADM Guatemala, CP4BT Bolivia, quite rare, and less rare
but more distant RI50ANO on the South Shetland Islands off of
Antarctica.  I also have logged Alex, RI50ANO on 40 meters phone and
CW. By far the hardest to work DX recently was last night February 1
working UN9L Kazakhstan on 80 meters CW. He was weak but readable
and heard me right away, but it took several tries to get my call
through.  Over the last two months I have checked DX cluster 80
meters spots on him, only to hear nothing. The slightly increased
daylight near the North Pole seems to be improving conditions as of
about Jan 20.  15 meters has been pretty close to dead even to
Africa many days, but today C81G off the coast of Mozambique was
worked on 15 CW and EA6VQ Balearic Islands was S9 plus there from
1615 to 1650Z. Even 17 meters is closed or very marginal to EU many
days due to the low solar flux.  The big DXCC news is the addition
of Kosovo, prefix Z6, to the DXCC list effective January 21st. The
Z60A club station has a good signal on 20 meters every day and they
have worked the west coast there and on 40 meters. I logged them
easily on the 21st on 20 CW, not a very large pile up, and also
later on 20 SSB and 80 meters CW. They seem to have a high noise
level on the low bands.  Sunspot numbers were 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 13, and
13, with a mean of 3R7. 10R7 cm flux was 70R3, 69R8, 68R8, 68R5,
68R2, 68R9, and 69R2, with a mean of 69R1. Estimated planetary A
indices were 10, 8, 6, 4, 4, 5, and 7, with a mean of 6R3. Estimated
mid latitude A indices were 9, 7, 5, 2, 3, 3, and 5, with a mean of
4R9‚

‰  END OF 18 WPM transition file ƒ