Category Archives: Propagation

Christmas Tree Antenna

Posted on December 21, 2015 by robert

WA1ABI, John, in Portsmouth invented a new mode a couple of years back — Christmas Tree to Christmas Tree QRP.  Today I had my outside tree wired up to a remote antenna tuner and gave the XMT2XMT mode a try. … Continue reading →

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December Triple Play

Posted on December 4, 2015 by robert

I try to make at least one needed DX or stateside contact every month.  Some months are easier than others, mostly depending on how busy I am with other things.  Recognizing that I hadn’t made any December QSOs yet, and … Continue reading →

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Cycle 24 Musings and Goal Review for 2015

Posted on July 1, 2015 by robert

The planet took a beating about ten days ago from Sunspot 2371, which produced one of the larger geomagnetic disturbances of the Cycle 24 when the CME hit the earth around noon local time on June 22.  This event and several others … Continue reading →

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Cycle 24 Keeps on Trucking

Posted on January 31, 2015 by robert

Solar Cycle 24, weak and unimpressive by most counts, is at least hanging in there, with a SFI of 157 and a MUF of 30 MHz on this, the last day of January 2015.  In fact, I was shocked last night … Continue reading →

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How many X-Class Solar Flares Can Come From One Region?

Posted on October 27, 2014 by robert

Six and counting (along with 17 M-Class Flares): X1.1 10/19 X1.6 10/22 X3.1 10/24 X1.0 10/25 X2.0 10/26 X2.0 10/27 This morning marked the sixth X-Class Solar Flare erupting from Solar Region 2192.  Amazingly enough, none of these flares have produced … Continue reading →

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Amazingly High Attenuation

Posted on September 12, 2014 by robert

A series of solar flares in X/M have really messed up the ionosphere.  On top of that one Earth-directed CME struck about 12 hours ago and another larger one is due any moment. I don’t recall seeing Attenuation levels this … Continue reading →

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Bye Bye Solar Cycle 24 ?!?

Posted on July 16, 2014 by robert

Sad but true, as of today, July 16, 2014, the sun is spotless.  The last time that happened was on August 11, 2011.  SolarHam.com even compared the spotless sun to an orange today! You can clearly see the double peak … Continue reading →

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Les, KL7J, Comes Through in a Big Way on 80 Meters

Posted on January 26, 2014 by robert

My journey to 5BWAS ended at 1050 UTC (5:50 AM Local Time) Jan 26, 2014, when Les Buchholz sent CQ on 3.577.269 MHz.  Six minutes later, signal levels of -14 and -16 were exchanged and confirmed, and 73 send round … Continue reading →

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Midpoint of Solar Cycle 24 reached at end of December

Posted on January 7, 2014 by robert

The official definition of the midpoint of a solar cycle is when both halves of the sun have reversed magnetic poles.  Up until recently, just the upper half had reversed.  But in late December, the lower half finally caught up. … Continue reading →

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