‰ NOW 18 WPM transition file follows‰ We saw 0 sunspots from April 21 through May 2, but on May 3 sunspots returned. Average daily sunspot number rose from 0 last week to 16.1 this week, and average daily solar flux increased as well, from 67.5 to 73.5. Both the average middle latitude and planetary A index this week were 6.6, and last week those numbers were 4.7 and 5.9 respectively. Predicted solar flux is 75 on May 10 and 11, 73 on May 12 to 15, 74 and 76 on May 16 and 17, 72 on May 18 to 20, 68 on May 21 and 22, 67 on May 23 to 26, then 69, 68, 69, 70 and 72 on May 27 to 31, 75 on June 1, 76 on June 2 to 13, 72 on June 14 to 16, 68 on June 17 and 18, 67 on June 19 to 22 and 69 on June 23. Predicted planetary A index is 5 on May 10, 14 and 12 on May 11 and 12, 5 on May 13 to 19, 8 on May 20, 5 on May 21 to 27, then 10, 12, 8 and 10 on May 28 to 31, then 5, 12 and 14 on June 1 to 3, 8 on June 4 to 6, 5 on June 7 to 15, 8 on June 16, and 5 on June 17 to 23. Geomagnetic activity forecast for the period May 10 to June 5, 2019 from F.K. Janda OK1HH. Solar wind will intensify on May 10, 11 and 12, 14, 20, 21 to 23, 29 to 31, June 1. Jeff, N8II in West Virginia wrote on May 4, We are in a bit of a funk waiting for sporadic E to improve. Starting around 1900Z last Saturday and Sunday April 27 and 28, 20 meters began closing to north Florida in the FL QSO Party and was completely closed by 2200Z. Then some sporadic E appeared and 20 was open to most of FL from around 2345Z to 0145Z. On 40, there was no skip zone, so the callers from everywhere drowned out the FL mobiles they were calling. Due to the higher MUF, the mobiles were also weaker than normal on 40 Saturday evening, but fixed stations were still pretty loud. Today, May 4, is the 7th call area QSO Party. 20 did not open well until about 1415Z and signals were good until around 1700Z after which they were much weaker and absolutely nothing was heard on 15, worst ever 7th call area QSO Party conditions that I can remember. Most evenings around 2100 to 2300Z, 20 meters is wide open to southern EU, many S9 plus signals, despite the low SFI, but all DX signals are pretty weak by 1300Z almost every morning. The latest videos from Dr. Tamitha Skov, the Space Weather Woman, WX6SWW, can be found here, //bit.ly/2LxWPkc , and here, //bit.ly/304HRp7 . Steve Justus, W4SAJ lives in Central Florida and was on 10 meters last Saturday, May 4, running FT8 mode at 100 watts and beaming toward Australia with a 4 element mono band beam. He was called by a station in Beijing, and is curious about the possible propagation mode, since Steve was not beaming in that direction. But FT8 is so efficient with decoding weak signals that this contact does not surprise me, although the signal strength may have surprised Steve. This evening, while monitoring CB channel 29, 27.285 MHz, AM mode between 0020 to 0203 UTC, May 10, while the MUF reached 74 MHz over Maidenhead grid square EM53, in Starkville, MS, with the solar flux being 76, the following state stations were heard, AL, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MN, NC, OH, TN, WV. 0020 UTC is 14 minutes after local sunset, 806 pm EDT. //www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/ . Sunspot numbers were 0, 11, 12, 14, 25, 27, and 24, with a mean of 16.1. 10.7 cm flux was 69.2, 69.8, 72.3, 73.5, 76, 78.7, and 75.3, with a mean of 73.5. Estimated planetary A indices were 12, 7, 10, 4, 5, 5, and 3, with a mean of 6.6. Middle latitude A index was 13, 8, 9, 4, 5, 5, and 2, with a mean of 6.6. ‰ END OF 18 WPM transition file ƒ