‰ Now 18 WPM transition file follows ‰

On August 11, the FCC announced that the cost of an Amateur Radio
vanity call sign will increase 1 dollar and 10 cents, from 12
dollars and 30 cents to 13 dollars and 40 cents.  Now that notice of
the increase has been published in the Federal Register, the
increase will take effect in 30 days, on September 10, 2009.  The
FCC is authorized by the Communications Act of 1934, As Amended, to
collect vanity call sign fees to recover the costs associated with
that program. The vanity call sign regulatory fee is payable not
only when applying for a new vanity call sign, but also upon
renewing a vanity call sign for a new 10 year term.  The notice in
the August 11, 2009 Federal Register, entitled Assessment and
Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2009, includes
regulatory fees.  These fees are expected to recover a total of
341,875,000 dollars during FY2009, encompassing all the Services the
FCC regulates.  For more information, see the recent ARRLWeb
article, FCC Looks to Raise Vanity Call Sign Fees for Second
Consecutive Year.  The web site for this article can be found in
teleprinter and packet versions of ARRL Bulletin ARLB028.  We had
some nice sunspot activity from July 3 to 10, and were hoping for a
return 27 to 28 days later, but it never happened.  Varying by
latitude, the sun rotates relative to earth about every 27R5 days.
If that same region was still active or activity renewed, then we
might have seen something between July 30 and August 7, which is
today.  Instead, the quiet continues.  Some rather odd numbers
appeared on August 5.  Check out the eight planetary K index
readings on that date at //www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/indices/DGD.txt
and note that they never varied.  Dean Lewis, W9WGV of Palatine,
Illinois wrote this week asking about the most likely path that his
signal took on July 12.  Because of local restrictions, he uses
inside wire for an antenna, so he cant tell for sure which direction
a signal is coming from.  At 0620z in the IARU HF World Championship
he worked VK2AYD on 20 meter CW.  He wondered if the path was most
likely over the Pacific, or the Atlantic Ocean and Africa?  I ran
some numbers on W6ELprop, download from //www.qsl.net/w6elprop/, and
used a location of 42R148 deg N and 88R014 deg W for Dean, and
according to the entry on QRZ.com, VK2AYD is in grid square QF68in,
which W6ELprop translates to 31R44 deg S, 152R71 deg E.  W6ELprop
indicates that the short path is 9,069 miles with a beam heading
from Illinois of 262 degrees.  Long path is at 82 degrees from Dean,
at 15,806 miles.  With a smoothed sunspot number of 3, it shows that
they worked each other at the optimum time for that band.  From 0400
to 0600z the program predicts signals at 19, 21, 23, 24 and 25 db
above R5 microvolt, on half hour intervals.  After that, signals
drop out, which is exactly what Dean experienced.  Sunspot numbers
were 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, and 0 with a mean of 0.  10R7 cm flux was 68,
68R7, 68R1, 68R1, 67R4, 65R8, and 66R2 with a mean of 67R5.
Estimated planetary A indices were 3, 5, 4, 3, 10, 4 and 6 with a
mean of 5.  Estimated mid latitude A indices were 2, 4, 3, 2, 7, 4
and 5 with a mean of 3R9‚

‰ End of 18 WPM transition file ‰