‰ Now 18 WPM transition file follows ‰

w1aw 2006/2007 winter operating schedule. w1aw transmits morning
fast and slow code practice Tuesday through Friday at 1400z, or 9 am
est. visitor operations are Monday through Friday, at 1500 to
1700z, or 10 AM to 12 PM EST, and then from 1800 to 2045z, or 1 PM
to 345 PM est. the revolving schedule of code practices and
bulletins, both digital and phone, begin Monday through Friday at
2100z, or 4 PM EST, until 0500z, or 12 am est. The complete w1aw
operating schedule may be found on page 102 in the November 2006
issue of QST or on the web at, www.arrl.org/w1aw.html. Early on
Friday morning before the CQ World Wide SSB DX Contest, conditions
are stable and quiet, and after the sunspot number rose to 50 this
week following eight days of no sunspots, the average daily sunspot
number increased from nothing to 23R3. Unfortunately, the stable
quiet conditions are not expected to last through the contest. The
predicted planetary A index for Friday through Monday, October 27 to
30, is 10, 20, 10 and 5. Geophysical Institute Prague calls for
unsettled conditions today, October 27, unsettled to active on
October 28, quiet to unsettled on October 29 and 30, and back to
quiet conditions for October 31 through November 2. Also, on
Thursday October 26, the sunspot number was back to 0. Dont be
surprised if we see no sunspots through the weekend and beyond.
With no sunspots visible, we might think of the sun as blank, but
check this photograph taken by an amateur astronomer on Thursday.
Youll see quite a bit of detail on the sungazer.net web site. An
interesting observation came in from Randy Crews, W7TJ of Spokane,
Washington. Hes been going through his old paper logs, and entering
the data into his logging program. Randy writes, What is interesting
is how productive 80 and especially 160 Meters are the year before,
the year of, and especially the year following the bottom of the
sunspot cycle. DXers should really take full advantage of the unique
quiet portion of cycle 23s end, and the beginning of cycle 24
spending extra time on the low bands for needed countries, etc. 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 site. An archive of past propagation bulletins is also
available. Sunspot numbers were 14, 15, 16, 18, 50, 35 and 15 with
a mean of 23R3. 10R7 cm flux was 69R6, 71R1, 74R7, 75R8, 76R4, 74R8,
and 74R7, with a mean of 73R9. Estimated planetary A indices were 2,
10, 15, 13, 3, 4 and 4 with a mean of 7R3. Estimated mid latitude A
indices were 1, 9, 10, 12, 2, 3 and 4, with a mean of 5R9‚

‰ End of 18 WPM transition file ‰