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Sunspots returned with the New Year, with sunspot numbers of 13, 16
and 16 on January 1 to 3. The new region was AR2732, and the area of
the spot tripled each day, beginning at 10 millionths of the visible
solar disc, then tripling to 30 on Tuesday, and 90 on Wednesday.
This made the average daily sunspot number for the reporting week,
December 27 to January 2, 4.1, compared to 0 for the previous seven
days.  Average daily solar flux rose slightly from 70 to 70.4.
Average daily planetary A index rose from 4.9 to 9.3, and average
mid latitude A index from 4 to 7.6.  Predicted solar flux for the
next 45 days is 72 on January 4 and 5, 70 on January 6 to 11, 71 on
January 12 to 19, 69 on January 20 through February 2, 71 on
February 3 to 15, and 69 on February 16 and 17.  Predicted planetary
A index is 15, 24, 15 and 8 on January 4 to 7, 5 on January 8 and 9,
10 on January 10, 5 on January 11 to 15, and 12 on January 16.  Then
its 5 on January 17 to 23, then 20, 12, 12 and 10 on January 24 to
27, 5 on January 28 to 30, 12 on January 31, then 15, 15 and 8 on
February 1 to 3, 5 on February 4 to 11, 12 on February 12, and 5 on
February 13 to 17.  Mike Schaffer, KA3JAW of Easton, Pennsylvania
regularly monitors the FM broadcast band for interesting openings,
On Friday, December 28, 2018 at 549 pm EST, 2249 UTC, I was
monitoring the FM broadcast band on 88.3 MHz and started to hear
Spanish music, then when the music ended, a male announcer. The
signal which was fairly weak for roughly thirty seconds vaporized,
being taken over with a mix from WRAU, Ocean City, MD, with 50 kW,
WPPB, Southampton, NY, with 25 kW. The unidentified stations
announcer sounded Cuban, which would be near 1274 miles to the
south.  While watching the DXMAPS website, spots were starting to
come in on 6 meter SSB via Es from MA to AL, 1154 mile path at 2349
UTC.  By 0158 UTC, finally a report of a weak analog television
channel 2, CHBX in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in EN76 was detected in
Akron, OH in EN91 via short hop sporadic E at 406 miles. The video
rendered an advertisement for Boxing Week with a boxer dog.
Regarding Al, W1VTPs inquiry in your 28 December bulletin, the
Australian Space Weather Services has a web page at //bit.ly/2sbceum
that might better address his needs. It provides Hourly Area
Prediction, or HAP, charts containing easy to understand graphical
MUF, or foF5, data for various locations. Al can select the Boston
map from the pull down list.  For more information concerning radio
propagation, see the ARRL Technical Information Service web page.  A
detailed explanation of numbers used in this bulletin is also
available on this site.  An archive of past propagation bulletins is
also available.  Monthly propagation charts between four USA regions
and twelve overseas locations can be found on the ARRL/Propagation
web page.  Find better information and tutorials on propagation on
the K9LA web site.  Sunspot numbers were 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 13, and 16,
with a mean of 4.1. 10.7 cm flux was 68.5, 69.3, 69, 69.4, 69.3,
71.9, and 75.2, with a mean of 70.4. Estimated planetary A indices
were 5, 24, 11, 10, 7, 6, and 2, with a mean of 9.3. Estimated mid
latitude A indices were 5, 19, 9, 7, 7, 5, and 1, with a mean of
7.6.

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