PA3CLQ's Leuke Linken Nr. 372

 

Prologue

This PLL is a little late because i was during 2 up to 29 january 2015 for the 7th time "K3Y DX Operations from the Netherlands" with the callsign PH6SKCC  SKCC #5031C  526 CW Q's with my H/M sideswiper key.

30 and 31 january with the callsign PI4OTC SKCC #5315 34 Q's

A few Q's with PI4RAG SKCC #5624, Yes i have/can use four callsigns, Oh boy what a luxury?

Probably you've missed me and my special winning QSL card design, see attachment pse

See eventual:

http://www.skccgroup.com/

http://www.skccgroup.com/k3y/index.php

http://www.skccgroup.com/k3y/K3Y-statistics.php?show=k3ystations

Jan Pieter Oelp PA3CLQ SKCC #2765

 

In the words of one of my favorite 50's Sci Fi movies (Earth vs the Flying Saucers) "look to your sun for a warning" …

I check out almost daily.

http://www.spaceweather.com

Down on the left side there is a lot of solar data.

While the sunspot count is interesting for its impact on terrestrial weather (low sunspot numbers equals a cooler earth), for radio work the important data is about mid page.

The Radio Sun field has the 10.7 cm flux number.

The higher this number (it is in solar flux units) the better the ionosphere reflects radio wave.

Just below the picture of the Auroral Oval is the Planetary K-index.

The lower the K index the better, quieter the bands, the higher the number the more the radio waves are absorbed and the noisier the band.

As I write, the current Kp is 2 – quiet with just a bit of QRN and absorption.

In the past day, it hit Kp of 5 which is as bad as it gets.

So, even without flares or strong coronal mass ejections, we had miserable propagation yesterday.

It has been that way for some time.

Yes, I know there are other, much more complex interactions but this is a really good rule of thumb for predicting band performance. I hope this helps.

73, Leslie B. Hock WB5JWI
REM :

Yes, Les - in general you are right.
But - as you say, there are other interactions.
I am up almost every night to work dx on 60 m.

And I am watching especially the K-index.

The winters ago, I have worked W6, W7, KL7, Hawaii etc on this band.
This winter so far, the biggest distance was to TX, even though we had K-indexes around 1 (but often very high A-indexes).
One important thing at my latitude is, that the band needs some days to recover after a high K-index, often with aurora.

And then, before the band recovers, we get a new K-index 5 or so.
What seems to be completely impossible this year, are qso's with the west coast via Long Path.

I have done that in 2012 with my low power.
What also may be of importance, is high background noise (like white noise) which sometimes goes up to s7 here this winter, especially right after sunrise or before sunset.
So one thing is sure: I dont understand or cannot interprete what is going on.
When I started my activity in 1962 with 5 watts on 80 m, I worked quite a number of USA on 80 in CW.

My rx was a homemade 0-v-1.Today I cannot do that with 90 watts, and I can hardly hear the HP-stations from USA (559 is good).
73, Michael Theiss LB6BG

REM :

ALERT: Geomagnetic K-index of 7 (G3)

----- Original Message -----

From: SWPC Product Subscription Service

https://pss.swpc.noaa.gov/LoginWebForm.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fproductsubscriptionservice%2f

To: skristof@etczone.com

Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 7:30 AM

Subject: ALERT: Geomagnetic K-index of 7 (G3)

Space Weather Message Code: ALTK07
Serial Number: 89
Issue Time: 2015 Jan 07 1126 UTC
ALERT: Geomagnetic K-index of 7
Threshold Reached: 2015 Jan 07 1125 UTC
Synoptic Period: 0900-1200 UTC
Active Warning: Yes
NOAA Scale: G3 - Strong
NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at
www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 50 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude.
Induced Currents - Power system voltage irregularities possible, false alarms may be triggered on some protection devices.
Spacecraft - Systems may experience surface charging; increased drag on low Earth-orbit satellites and orientation problems may occur.
Navigation - Intermittent satellite navigation (GPS) problems, including loss-of-lock and increased range error may occur.
Radio - HF (high frequency) radio may be intermittent.
Aurora - Aurora may be seen as low as Pennsylvania to Iowa to Oregon.

Posted by: Steve Kristoff skristof@etczone.com

REM :

Steve,

Agreed, sir. I accidentally passed out some bad information in my earlier post.

I wrote the max Kp was 5 when the Kp range is 0 to 9.

This year is the first time I've seen Kp greater than 5 in years.

A 7 (it was a 6 a few hours ago) is really bad for radio.

The IMF (interplanetary magnetic field) tilted south and allowed the solar wind to pass through the earth's magnetic field more easily triggering a geomagnetic storm.

Radio will be a mess for a while. Just in passing, I don't think I have ever seen the Kp index at 0.

I really enjoy the solar physics stuff (I studied stellar interiors in grad school) but the solar flux/Kp numbers do a pretty good job of indicating band conditions.

It is the subtle influences that are not so easily tracked that make the bands sometimes outperform, or underperform, what the rule of thumb indicates.

Thanks for the update.

73, Les WB5JWI

REM :

Here is something from

http://spaceweather.com/

that will stir things up even more;
"UNEXPECTED GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A strong G3-class geomagnetic storm erupted during the early hours of Jan. 7th, sparking bright auroras around Earth's poles.

What happened?

The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near our planet tipped south, opening a crack in Earth's magnetosphere.

Solar wind poured in to fuel the strongest magnetic storm since Sept. 2014.

NOAA analysts believe the fluctuation in IMF is related to the arrival of a CME originally expected to miss Earth.

Browse the aurora gallery for pictures of the event at:

http://spaceweathergallery.com/aurora_gallery.html

Aurora alerts: text at:

http://spaceweathertext.com/

voicet at:

http://spaceweatherphone.com/

73, Tom K2BEW

REM :

When I watch the WWV numbers, I look for the SFI, A and K indices.
The reason some of experience poor conditions were that the A indice was 20 and that is very high.

The K is more of a predictor.

Ideally, A will be 1 or 2 and the K low, also.

The SFI was 142 and that is good.

Usually, above 110, ten metres will open.

So, pray to the Sun Gods for SFI 256, A 1 AND K 2 WWV report.
Joseph L Pontek Sr.

v31jp1957@gmail.com

REM :

Here is some late information from Jim, W1JR:
"Don't know if you noticed but we apparently had a big solar storm with K=7, the worst since early last September" says W1JR, Joe Reisert.

There "could be lots of disturbances today, depressed HF conditions with aurora tonight if the storm stays at this level".
Also watch 6 meters as there is currently an F2 trans-Atlantic openings happening.

QSP: Joseph L Pontek Sr

REM :

Good Morning:

If I recall correctly, bad solar activity (solar flares, etc.) peak about one or two years after the good solar activity (solar flux) reaches its peak.

That could account for the recent closely-spaced solar flares and accompanying bad band conditions.

When I operate in the evening and before sunrise, I usually do so on 40m.

Propagation on 40m seems to be somewhat worse than a year ago and clearly worse than in early 2007 near solar minimum.

73, Brian, KD6NRP

REM :

We had a G3-level geomagnetic storm, today.

The planetary K index (Kp) rose to 7.

This degrades radio propagation on the high frequencies.

Perhaps conditions will improve, by this evening.
Tomas David Hood (Amateur Radio, NW7US SKCC 4758T)
http://NW7US.us/

Contributing editor, Propagation columns in CQ Magazine and CQ Plus, and in "The Spectrum Monitor"

http://www.thespectrummonitor.com/

Space Weather:

http://sunspotwatch.com/

 

My -pa3clq- collected URLs

http://www.solarham.net/

http://www.spaceweather.com/

HAARP Induction Magnetometer (The HAARP facility is mothballed) at:

https://solarwatch.wordpress.com/haarp/

http://propagation.hfradio.org/

http://www.hamqsl.com/solar.html

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/drap/

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/drap/Global.png Is moved

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/ moved to

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/wsa-enlil-solar-wind-prediction

http://www.solarham.net/

http://solarham.com/xray.htm under construction

http://g4ujs.shacknet.nu/

http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~pharden/hobby/FDIM81.pdf

http://www.muenster.org/dtc/eindex.html

http://www.gqrp.com/SOLAR_HO.pdf

http://www.qrparci.org/resource/FDIM81.pdf

http://www.tesis.lebedev.ru/en/magnetic_storms.html

http://www.n3kl.org/sun/status.html

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propagatie_(radio)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_propagation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_propagation

http://www.arrl.org/propagation

http://www.tesis.lebedev.ru/en/sun_flares.html

http://www.polar.umd.edu/haarp/riometer_paper/node3.html

http://www.dxmaps.com/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&ML=M&Map=NA&DXC=N&HF=N&GL=N

About the HAARP-project it comes on my simple website in the future

 

pa3clq@casema.nl

My simple website about Gigantic DF-Antennas

Part 1 "DF-Antenna Wullenweber Array"

Part 2 "DF-Antenna USSR Variants"

Part 3 "DF-Antenna USA Variants"

Next Part 4 "USSR OTHRA DUGA 1,2 & 3" at:

www.pa3clq.nl/