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2010 ARRL Amateur Radio Calendar -- Now Shipping!
-- Deluxe 13 month calendar, featuring a selection of QSL cards from the W1AW collection. Includes important ham radio dates: contests, operating events and more!
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The ARRL DXCC Handbook -- Worldwide ham radio operating and the ARRL DXCC Award!
Radio Amateur Callbook CD-ROM (2010) -- Coming early December!
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The K7RA Solar Update
SEATTLE,
WA, Oct 28, 2005--No sunspots!
The average daily sunspot number from the previous reporting week to the
current dropped six points to 7.7. There were no visible sunspots over the
four days October 24-27. Do not expect an improvement for the CQ World Wide DX
Contest (Phone) this weekend. Thankfully geomagnetic conditions are stable, and
the longer nights as we head toward winter solstice are good for 160, 80 and 60-meter
operation.
Solar
flux should remain around 70 over the next few days, rising to 80 around
November 4. Predicted planetary A index for October 28-31 is 15, 12, 8, and 5. Geophysical
Institute Prague predicts unsettled conditions for today, October 28, unsettled
to active conditions for Saturday October 29, and unsettled conditions for
Sunday October 30.
The
weekend of the CQ World Wide DX Contest (Phone) last year had an average
sunspot number of 139. Looking back: In 2003 it was 201.4, in 2002 it was 150.9,
in 2001 it was 222.7, in 2000 it was 148.7 and in 1999 it was 160.4. The
average of 7.7 for the past week is far below any of these.
I've
received a few reports of VHF openings. Scott Avery, WA6LIE, reported an
October 20 6-meter opening from the East Coast to the West Coast around
0100-0300 UTC. It then shifted to single hop north-south between
Washington/British Columbia and California. On the same day, Jon Jones, N0JK,
reported from Kansas that 6 meters was open from about 2315 to after 0400 UTC. He
worked or heard stations or beacons from VE2, VE4, MN, SD, ID, UT, WY and CA. Jon
commented that E layer openings are uncommon in October, and these double-hop E
layer communications between the two coasts are very rare. At 0122 UTC WA6RPD
in CM97 and KB6NAN CM87 worked WZ1V in FN31.
On
October 9 Steve Carpenter, KG4LDD, near Knoxville, Tennessee, was listening to
the Gatlinburg 2-meter repeater on 146.85 and heard KB5LTB in West Monroe, Louisiana. They talked, and while the Louisiana station was scratchy, he was also quite
readable. On October 17 through the same repeater Steve worked N9VX in Connersville , Indiana, who was full-quieting into the machine.
For more information concerning propagation and an explanation of
the numbers used in this bulletin see the ARRL Technical Information Service Propagation page. An archive of past bulletins is on the ARRL Web site.
Sunspot
numbers for October 20 through 26 were 15, 15, 13, 11, 0, 0 and 0, with a mean
of 7.7. The 10.7-cm flux was 76.7, 75.3, 74.7, 74.2, 73.4, 73, and 72, with a
mean of 74.2. Estimated planetary A indices were 3, 2, 6, 2, 4, 19 and 8, with
a mean of 6.3. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 2, 1, 7, 2, 3, 17 and 8,
with a mean of 5.7.
Amateur solar observer Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, Washington, provides this weekly report on solar conditions and propagation. This report
also is available via W1AW every Friday, and an abbreviated version appears in The ARRL Letter. Readers may contact
the author via e-mail.
Page last modified: 09:54 AM, 28 Oct 2005 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2005, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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