SB PROP @ ARL $ARLP043
ARLP043 Propagation de K7RA
ZCZC AP43
QST de W1AW
Propagation Forecast Bulletin 43 ARLP043
From Tad Cook, K7RA
Seattle, WA October 19, 2007
To all radio amateurs
SB PROP ARL ARLP043
ARLP043 Propagation de K7RA
Our Sun is still blank. The past week has shown no sunspots, and we will probably see more of nothing. Geomagnetic conditions have been very quiet, which means lower absorption of HF radio signals and lower noise. But this will become more active in the near future due to a returning solar wind. The planetary A index for October 19-26 is predicted to be 15, 12, 8, 5, 8, 18, 20 and 25. Things should settle down during the CQ World Wide DX Phone Contest next weekend.
Geophysical Institute Prague predicts unsettled conditions for October 19-21, quiet to unsettled October 22, quiet conditions October 23, and unsettled to active October 24-25.
We continue to receive reports from surprised hams that are getting 15 and 10 meter propagation that they don't expect at the bottom of the solar cycle.
Brian Edward, N2MF of Jamesville, New York worked 3B7C at 1218z on 10 meter CW on September 22. Brian wrote, "This strikes me as unusual because I'm quite north, in Syracuse NY. I haven't heard much on 10 meters in years. It was relatively early in our morning, 0818 am. Although Europe was posting them on the DX internet spots, no other stateside was in there. They were quite strong at this location, I worked them first call. I believe this was a single day occurrence, heard them shortly after on 12 meters, but unfortunately I'm lacking a good antenna on that band."
One thing that definitely helped Brian were his antennas, which you can see on http://www.qrz.com/n2mf . He has two 7-element 10 meter Yagis, one aimed on Europe and the top one at 80 feet is rotatable.
Rodney Vorndam, K9ROD of Rye, Colorado mentioned he hasn't heard any 15 meter openings in a while, but on October 13-14 he worked Spain, Honduras, Haiti and Virgin Islands on that band.
Steve Doty, KA9OKH of Evansville, Indiana said over the past week, October 11-18, he has had strong signals from East Asia on the low end of 20 meter CW. Steve hasn't heard Asia in a long time, but even with this extended period of no sunspots the signals out of Japan and Korea were as high as 20 db over S9.
Last week's Propagation Forecast Bulletin ARLP042 mentioned a problem a reader had running W6ELprop under Microsoft's Vista operating system. There is an easy fix. Our reader's problem was probably with a security feature in Vista, and the solution is to right-click the W6ELprop installation file W6ELPropInst270.exe from Windows Explorer, then select the Run as Administrator option.
We also received a helpful tip from Rex Lint, K1HI of Merrimack, New Hampshire. Vista isn't compatible with the Help file in W6ELprop, which has an .hlp extension. To fix this, there is a free patch from Microsoft, described at,
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607 .
We should mention Kangaroo Tabor Software, which produces several very useful propagation tools. These are shareware which is not totally free, but the trial versions don't cost anything, and are fully functional. Check their web site at,
http://www.taborsoft.com/ . Jim Tabor, KU5S is the author, and he has several distinctive and quite useful propagation software tools available.
If you would like to make a comment or have a tip for our readers, email the author at, k7ra@arrl.net .
For more information concerning radio propagation, see the ARRL Technical Information Service web page at, http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/propagation.html . For a detailed explanation of the numbers used in this bulletin see, http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/k9la-prop.html . An archive of past propagation bulletins is at, http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/prop/ . Monthly propagation charts between four USA regions and twelve overseas locations are at, http://www.arrl.org/qst/propcharts/ .
Sunspot numbers for October 11 through 17 were 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 and 0 with a mean of 0. 10.7 cm flux was 68.8, 68.6, 67.6, 67.1, 67.2, 67.1, and 67.4 with a mean of 67.7. Estimated planetary A indices were 1, 4, 2, 5, 2, 2 and 1 with a mean of 2.4. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 0, 3, 2, 3, 1, 1 and 0, with a mean of
1.4.
NNNN
/EX
(Source: Dave Raycroft/ODXA)
ARLP043 Propagation de K7RA
ZCZC AP43
QST de W1AW
Propagation Forecast Bulletin 43 ARLP043
From Tad Cook, K7RA
Seattle, WA October 19, 2007
To all radio amateurs
SB PROP ARL ARLP043
ARLP043 Propagation de K7RA
Our Sun is still blank. The past week has shown no sunspots, and we will probably see more of nothing. Geomagnetic conditions have been very quiet, which means lower absorption of HF radio signals and lower noise. But this will become more active in the near future due to a returning solar wind. The planetary A index for October 19-26 is predicted to be 15, 12, 8, 5, 8, 18, 20 and 25. Things should settle down during the CQ World Wide DX Phone Contest next weekend.
Geophysical Institute Prague predicts unsettled conditions for October 19-21, quiet to unsettled October 22, quiet conditions October 23, and unsettled to active October 24-25.
We continue to receive reports from surprised hams that are getting 15 and 10 meter propagation that they don't expect at the bottom of the solar cycle.
Brian Edward, N2MF of Jamesville, New York worked 3B7C at 1218z on 10 meter CW on September 22. Brian wrote, "This strikes me as unusual because I'm quite north, in Syracuse NY. I haven't heard much on 10 meters in years. It was relatively early in our morning, 0818 am. Although Europe was posting them on the DX internet spots, no other stateside was in there. They were quite strong at this location, I worked them first call. I believe this was a single day occurrence, heard them shortly after on 12 meters, but unfortunately I'm lacking a good antenna on that band."
One thing that definitely helped Brian were his antennas, which you can see on http://www.qrz.com/n2mf . He has two 7-element 10 meter Yagis, one aimed on Europe and the top one at 80 feet is rotatable.
Rodney Vorndam, K9ROD of Rye, Colorado mentioned he hasn't heard any 15 meter openings in a while, but on October 13-14 he worked Spain, Honduras, Haiti and Virgin Islands on that band.
Steve Doty, KA9OKH of Evansville, Indiana said over the past week, October 11-18, he has had strong signals from East Asia on the low end of 20 meter CW. Steve hasn't heard Asia in a long time, but even with this extended period of no sunspots the signals out of Japan and Korea were as high as 20 db over S9.
Last week's Propagation Forecast Bulletin ARLP042 mentioned a problem a reader had running W6ELprop under Microsoft's Vista operating system. There is an easy fix. Our reader's problem was probably with a security feature in Vista, and the solution is to right-click the W6ELprop installation file W6ELPropInst270.exe from Windows Explorer, then select the Run as Administrator option.
We also received a helpful tip from Rex Lint, K1HI of Merrimack, New Hampshire. Vista isn't compatible with the Help file in W6ELprop, which has an .hlp extension. To fix this, there is a free patch from Microsoft, described at,
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607 .
We should mention Kangaroo Tabor Software, which produces several very useful propagation tools. These are shareware which is not totally free, but the trial versions don't cost anything, and are fully functional. Check their web site at,
http://www.taborsoft.com/ . Jim Tabor, KU5S is the author, and he has several distinctive and quite useful propagation software tools available.
If you would like to make a comment or have a tip for our readers, email the author at, k7ra@arrl.net .
For more information concerning radio propagation, see the ARRL Technical Information Service web page at, http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/propagation.html . For a detailed explanation of the numbers used in this bulletin see, http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/k9la-prop.html . An archive of past propagation bulletins is at, http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/prop/ . Monthly propagation charts between four USA regions and twelve overseas locations are at, http://www.arrl.org/qst/propcharts/ .
Sunspot numbers for October 11 through 17 were 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 and 0 with a mean of 0. 10.7 cm flux was 68.8, 68.6, 67.6, 67.1, 67.2, 67.1, and 67.4 with a mean of 67.7. Estimated planetary A indices were 1, 4, 2, 5, 2, 2 and 1 with a mean of 2.4. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 0, 3, 2, 3, 1, 1 and 0, with a mean of
1.4.
NNNN
/EX
(Source: Dave Raycroft/ODXA)
