‰ Now 18 WPM transition file follows ‰

There is a slight change to the October and December 2007 West Coast
Qualifying Run schedules.  The October and December West Coast
Qualifying Runs will be handled by Maritime Radio Historical Society
station KPH/K6KPH. This station is the same one that sends out the
W1AW Field Day Bulletin for the benefit of West Coast amateurs.
Look for station K6KPH to transmit the October West Coast Run on
Saturday, October 13 at 2100z, or local time 2 PM PDT, and the
December West Coast Run on Saturday, December 15 at 2200z, or 2 PM
local time.  The code speeds will remain at 10 to 35 WPM for both
Runs.  The frequencies for both Runs are, 3581R5, 7047R5, 14047R5
and 21067R5 kHz.  Qualifying Run submissions should still be sent to
the ARRL for processing.  Sunspots reappeared, but only briefly.  In
fact, it was one sunspot, number 971, emerging September 28 for just
a few days.  This after 21 days of no sunspots.  Now we are back
into a zero sunspot period of indeterminate length, just four days
so far.  Solar wind provided geomagnetic disturbances.  September 29
was the most disturbed day.  There was another rise in activity
centered on October 3.  Currently the Air Force predicts a moderate
rise in geomagnetic activity peaking October 20 with a planetary A
index of 15, and a much larger rise to planetary A index of 25 on
October 26.  But spaceweather.com reports another solar wind stream
to arrive on or around October 11.  Geophysical Institute Prague
predicts quiet conditions October 5 to 7, unsettled October 8, quiet
to unsettled October 9, quiet October 10, and quiet to unsettled
October 11.  With September over, it is time to look at some
averages.  Monthly averages of daily sunspot numbers for April 2006
through September 2007 were 55R2, 39R6, 24R4, 22R6, 22R8, 25R2,
14R7, 31R5, 22R2, 28R2, 17R3, 9R8, 6R9, 19R8, 20R7, 15R6, 9R9 and
4R8.  Monthly averages of daily solar flux for the same period were
88R9, 80R9, 76R5, 75R8, 79, 77R8, 74R3, 86R3, 84R4, 83R5, 77R7,
72R2, 72R4, 74R4, 73R7, 71R6, 69R2 and 67.  The average solar flux
and sunspot numbers for September were the lowest on this side of
cycle 23.  This suggests we are still in the cycle bottom, or
perhaps havent reached it yet.  But how low is 4R8 for a monthly
average of sunspot numbers, compared to the last cycle minimum?
Average monthly sunspot numbers for October 1995 through August 1997
were 31R6, 15R3, 16R7, 18, 9R1, 12R1, 8R5, 11R9, 18R8, 13R2, 20R7,
2R9, 2R3, 20R6, 15R1, 8R7, 11R4, 13R7, 24R5, 29R6, 22R1, 17, and
36R1.  You can see that we are the closest to September and October
of 1996, 2R9 and 2R3, which had some very long strings of no sunspot
days, the longest being September 13 to October 20, 1996.  Sunspot
numbers were 0, 15, 16, 17, 12, 0 and 0 with a mean of 8R6.  10R7 cm
flux was 67R1, 67R2, 67R6, 65, 67R7, 66R4, and 67R3 with a mean of
66R9.  Estimated planetary A indices were 19, 21, 26, 12, 8, 9 and
18 with a mean of 16R1.  Estimated mid latitude A indices were 10,
15, 24, 11, 7, 5 and 9, with a mean of 11R6‚

‰ End of 18 WPM transition file ‰