‰ Now 18 WPM transition file follows ‰

On January 30, at the instruction of the Board of Directors at its
January 2009 meeting, the ARRL Executive Committee adopted a policy
statement on mobile Amateur Radio operations. The statement
addresses the growing number of proposed state and local laws and
ordinances regulating the use of cellular telephone and text
messaging, inadvertently affecting Amateur Radio mobile
communications.  In its statement, the Executive Committee urges
state and municipal legislators to limit the scope of their
proposals, limiting them to devices such as full duplex wireless
telephones and related hand held or portable equipment.
Alternately, it suggests that licensed Amateur Radio operation be
listed specifically as an exclusion to the proposed regulations.
The ARRL Policy Statement also recognizes the responsibility of the
amateur community to conduct its activities in a manner that does
not create unsafe operation of their motor vehicle‚ In last weeks
Propagation Forecast Bulletin ARLP004, we did not have the solar
flux values resolved down to a tenth of a point like we always do.
Resolving the solar flux down to that resolution is probably not
very useful, but for those who use the WA4TTK solar plotting program
to suck up the data and who are compulsive enough, here are the
values for January 15 to 21, so you can correct your data.  71R1,
70R8, 71R9, 71R1, 70R8, 70R4, 69R4, with the mean value at 70R8.  On
Tuesday, January 27 we saw another one of those almost a sunspot
emerge in the Suns low latitude, so it was probably an old Cycle 23
spot.  The next day it was gone.  Geomagnetic conditions continue to
be very quiet, although a bit unsettled on January 26.  The forecast
is for more of the same.  Planetary A index should stay around five,
and solar flux around 70.  Geophysical Institute Prague predicts
unsettled conditions for January 30, quiet to unsettled January 31,
and quiet February 1 to 5.  If you would like to make a comment or
have a tip for our readers, email the author at, k7ra at arrl.net.
For more information concerning radio propagation, see the ARRL
Technical Information Service web page.  For a detailed explanation
of the numbers used in this bulletin, see the k9la prop link off the
TIS web page.  An archive of past propagation bulletins is also
available.  Monthly propagation charts between four USA regions and
twelve overseas locations are at the qst/propcharts link off the
ARRL web page.  Instructions for starting or ending email
distribution of this bulletin can be found on the W1AW web site.
The multiple websites mentioned in this bulletin can be found in
teleprinter and packet versions of Propagation Forecast Bulletin.
Sunspot numbers were 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, and 0 with a mean of 0.  10R7
cm flux was 69, 70, 68R8, 69R8, 69R9, 69R7, and 69R5 with a mean of
69R5.  Estimated planetary A indices were 1, 1, 1, 1, 10, 4 and 2
with a mean of 2R9.  Estimated mid latitude A indices were 0, 1, 1,
1, 9, 2 and 1 with a mean of 2R1‚

‰ End of 18 WPM transition file ‰