(C) ARRL Letter
This story was originally published by ARRL Letter and is unaltered.
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The K7RA Solar Update [1]
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Date: 2023-11
"GEOMAGNETIC DISTURBANCE WARNING ISSUED AT 2333 UTC on 02 NOVEMBER 2023 BY THE AUSTRALIAN SPACE WEATHER FORECASTING CENTRE.
"A possible glancing impact from a CME first observed on 31-Oct
combined with a glancing impact from a CME first observed on 2-Nov
is expected to produce a chance of G1 geomagnetic activity on 4-Nov
and G0-G1 activity on 5-Nov."
Seven new sunspot groups emerged in this reporting week, October 26
through November 1. Two on October 26, one on October 27, another on
October 28, two more on October 31 and another on November 1. One
more appeared on November 2.
Average daily sunspot numbers rose from 41.9 to 76.7, while average
daily solar flux increased from 123.5 to 137.5.
Predicted solar flux is 158, 160, 162, 158 and 155 on November 3-7,
150 on November 8-9, 148, 136, and 134 on November 10-12, 130 on
November 13-15, then 125, 123, and 120 on November 16-18, then 125
on November 19-22, and 130 on November 23-26, then 132 on November
27, 134 on November 28-29, 136 on November 30 through December 2,
140 and 138 on December 3-4, 136 on December 5-6, then 138. 136 and
134 on December 7-9 and 130 on December 10-12.
Predicted planetary A index is 5, 8, 12, 8 and 5 on November 3-7, 12
on November 8-9, 8 on November 10, 5 on November 11-13, then 8 and
10 on November 14-15, 5 on November 16-21, then 15, 10, 15, 15, 20,
15 and 8 on November 22-28, 5 on November 29 through December 5,
then 12 and 8 on December 6-7 and 5 on December 8-10.
"Weekly Commentary on the Sun, the Magnetosphere, and the Earth's
Ionosphere - November 03, 2023 from F.K. Janda, OK1HH.
"The coronal hole we saw in the northwest of the solar disk has
already fallen beyond its limb. Now we're looking at another fairly
large coronal hole in the southeast. At the same time, both sunspot
and flare activity decreased in the west and increased in the east.
Fortunately, the solar wind from the eastern half of the disk rarely
reaches the Earth's neighborhood. Therefore, the frequency of
geomagnetic disturbances is lower.
"This is valid for most days in the first half of November. As the
solar activity could also increase, we can expect more stable and
overall, slightly better shortwave propagation. After that, however,
the solar flux will gradually return from 160 perhaps to somewhere
near 120. Therefore, MUF values will begin to slowly decline.
"As long as the coronal hole remains stable and persists in the
solar disk after passing through the central meridian, disturbances
will become more frequent. Therefore, shortwave propagation will
gradually deteriorate, but no reliable forecast can be made very far
ahead."
From Dave, N4KZ in Frankfort, Kentucky, EM78:
"At 1545 UTC on October 7, I experienced the thrill of a lifetime
when 3B9FR, Robert on Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean, answered
my CQ on 6-meter FT8. I had already worked 3B9FR 10 times over the
last 20 years on CW, SSB and FT8 on various HF bands but I never
anticipated working him on 6 meters.
"The morning began when I worked HC5VF at 1534 UTC with a very
strong signal. Hearing nothing else from the south, I turned my Yagi
toward Europe hoping perhaps someone there would decode my CQ. After
six unsuccessful CQs, Robert called me. I took a screenshot of our
QSO. I plan to have it framed for the shack wall. According to his
QRZ.com page, Robert runs 75 watts to a new 6-element quad on 6
meters. I was running 250 watts to a 3-element Yagi at 60 feet.
"On October 23, from 2059 to 2359 UTC, I worked 18 South Americans
on 6-meter FT8. Stations worked were in Argentina, Uruguay and
Brazil. Then the band changed around to the Pacific and for the
first time in some 30 years on 6 meters, I copied stations in
Australia. I decoded five stations in VK4, two in New Caledonia and
3D2AG in Fiji. Sadly, despite numerous calls, I did not work anyone
in the Pacific that day. But it was still a thrill to hear those
entities for the first time on 6 meters. And of course, the QSO into
the Indian Ocean, at a distance greater than 10,000 miles, made up
for it.
"I was very active on 2-meter SSB and CW from the mid-1970s until
about 2010 when I grew bored and took down my 2-meter Yagi. Earlier
this year, I felt the urge to return to the low end of 2 meters.
This time, FT8 seems to mostly have replaced SSB and CW for
weak-signal work. Since June 28, I have worked 30 states and 102
grid squares with my new 13-element Yagi.
"The big five-day tropo opening in August produced more than 160
QSOs from Colorado to Connecticut. In the middle of the afternoon
toward the end of that August opening, I decoded both ends of a QSO
between WQ0P in KS and W1VD in CT, I had worked both of them
earlier, but it was really something to watch them working over
about a 1,500 mile path."
From Bob, KB1DK:
"Conditions on 10 meters were fair for the CQWW SSB contest this
past weekend. While propagation was good from Connecticut to the
Middle East, south and central Europe, signals from Scandinavia, and
north/central Russia were barely readable. This was in sharp
contrast to the conditions on the weekend of October 14th when I
worked 45 stations with strong signals in the Scandinavia Contest on
Saturday morning.
"On October 15th, I operated mobile for the first time. Using an old
Kenwood TS-570 and a quarter wave vertical magnetically mounted on
the roof, I logged 28 QSOs in 2 hours including South Africa,
Greece, South Russia and Scandinavia with respectable reports from a
fixed hilltop location. It was well worth the effort to wire up the
car. I did not want to miss out on the great propagation on 10
meters, especially after the conditions this past spring and last
fall.
"If you have an old rig, consider investing for a magnetic mount and
a 10 meter whip. You won't be disappointed. My next operating
location will be from the beach on Long Island Sound.
"All the best from the east coast."
K7SS reported to the Western Washington DX Club that he worked 10
meters only in the CQ World Wide SSB DX Contest, with 643 QSOs in 28
zones and 75 countries for a claimed score of 177,984 points.
Articles about an early peak of Solar Cycle 25:
https://bit.ly/3FF26jh
https://bit.ly/40ndQQN
https://bit.ly/45REtys
Trailblazing female astronomers, one is Mrs. Annie Maunder:
https://bit.ly/478EfEo
New video from Dr. Tamitha Skov, WX6SWW:
https://youtu.be/M4VBAuSpVZc
Send your tips, reports, observations, questions and comments to
[email protected]. When reporting observations, don't forget to tell us
which mode you were operating.
An archive of past propagation bulletins is at
http://arrl.org/w1aw-bulletins-archive-propagation . More good
information and tutorials on propagation are at
http://k9la.us/ .
Also, check this article from September, 2002 QST:
https://bit.ly/3Rc8Njt
Instructions for starting or ending email distribution of ARRL
bulletins are at
http://arrl.org/bulletins .
Sunspot numbers for October 26 through November 1, 2023 were 57, 66,
70, 61, 62, 116, and 105, with a mean of 76.7. 10.7 cm flux was
126.4, 127.5, 128, 135.2, 139.7, 147.3, and 158.6, with a mean of
137.5. Estimated planetary A indices were 23, 11, 19, 28, 12, 9, and
9, with a mean of 15.9. Middle latitude A index was 18, 9, 13, 21,
10, 6, and 6, with a mean of 11.9.
[END]
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