Autumn

And so is the vernal equinox. Tomorrow (23rd) is apparently the date when things start to get a bit more useful on the HF bands. During this last solar cycle I've developed an interest in propagation over and above what I would have as a normal ham. Still it seems that this cycle brings with it promises of propagation riches that don't seem to come to light. I'm not holding out for a massive change but on reflection something like the spring would be greatly appreciated. Can you here me sun ;-)

End of the summer lull?

Some activity finally rolling in.

Theres hope for a few QSO's to South America but only if I stay up very late. Not much chance of that at the moment though. A few more weeks should do the trick nicely!

Where’s all the activity gone?

All I seem to get at the moment is noise!

having had a pretty poor Es season compared to last year I have switched back to HF. This hasn't really worked either.....There must be some radio gremlins floating about as I've hardly even heard a European station for weeks let alone someone from further afield. All I'm getting is a load of old noise.

Good for the XYL as its made me fit the new Freesat cabling ( I don't do Sky) for our PVR. Tidy up the garden and other uninteresting home type tasks. I even managed to get out and do a 10 mile time trial on my bike last Tuesday. Another first.

Its amazing what else you end up doing when the bands are dead... 8-)

Am I dreaming?

Or is the sun getting its hat on?

 

Smoothed Sun Spot Numbers

W1AW reports through the regular bulletins that the sun spot numbers have changed a bit over the last few months to give an extended low. Something that is all too familiar if you try and listen out for DX at the moment.

Below is a graph of the smoothed numbers that are taken from the recent published numbers. I’ve added a polynomial trend line to show what the smoothed smoothed sun spot numbers look like.

SSN's still very low

The suns having a lazy autumn. or spring depending on you hemisphere. The numbers through on the ARRL propagation bulletin make for a fairly low reading with what is reported to be a a bit of a pattern where a sunspot appears for a few days then is quick to disappear. The chart below shows the decline and makes for interesting reading / viewing. As expected there are a number of theories but as yet I'm not sure what it tells us.

Propagation?

I can confirm that there is little or no propagation going on at my QTH. Just look at the current graphs. There maybe some sporadic E floating about but I can say for certain that when I turn on my HF rig, there's nothing at all to be heard.

Lucky I'm traveling further south for a few days soon so I can at least hopefully have a few QSO's whilst qrp in the centre of England. Theres always a chance that somewhere in the UK there'll be a lift.

?

Sometimes these lows can be low if you get what I mean :-(

Google earth and the ionosphere

You may have noticed that there are more and more applications coming to light that make use of google earth. the first that I came across was logging and I was pretty impressed with what I saw, next was dx clusters and that too sent me sky high with what this integration can do for us mere mortals.the list was growing and growing and nicely done it was too.

Now the ARRL has reported that there is a virtual ionosphere that can be superimposed onto your very own google earth.

I upgraded my installation through the faithful synaptic and I am really impressed with what you get. the work is done by CAPS (Communication Alert and Prediction System) and the details are here. A screenshot of it displaying the foF2 fro today on my machine is below.

?