[CC-ARES-RACES] Ruff bands ahead

[JD Delancy]

Rough time on HF the next day or three..

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Ruff bands ahead
Date: Wed, 22 May 2002 19:31:59 GMT
From: na5n@zianet.com
Reply-To: na5n@zianet.com

Gang,
The sun has been acting up again lately, with several M-class flares, and
an X2 monday.  A long duration series of 3 "back-to-back" flares today
(wednesday) was a proton event, meaning protons traveling nearly the speed
of light are hitting the earth now, raising proton levels in the higher
latitudes.  This will trigger a Polar Cap Absorption event (PCA) for our
friends in Canada/Alaska for very high absorption to signals in the HF
bands.  It is not known yet how long this will persist, but 2-3 days is
typical.  So expect rough conditions in VE/KL7 land, and on the other side
of the rock, VK/ZL.

While the X2 was near the limb of the sun, NOAA is still expecting earth
to receive a glancing blow from the CME shockwave, perhaps this evening,
and a more direct shockwave hit to earth on May 24th from yesterdays
M-class flare.  This could trigger a minor to major geomagnetic storm on
friday.

There is a more interesting sunspot region now at the sun's center that
is about 5 times larger than the earth!  This could produce a major flare
as well over the next few days.  If a major flare occurs today or tomorrow,
we could take a direct hit from the shockwave a couple of days later for
some major disruptions to HF and auroral activity.

For these various flares and some coronal streams, conditions on the HF
bands have been kinda rough past couple of evenings, and may persist over
the next few days.  If more flare activity continues over the next couple
of days, it could make for very poor conditions this weekend for CQWW
WPX contest.  Last few evenings on 40M, about all I could raise for a QSO
were stations in AZ, CO and OK ... surrounding states for me, and fairly
weak with heavy QSB as well.  Inspite of the poor bands, QSO's are still
possible, although very difficult in the higher latitudes.

So it's not your coax -- just the sun.

Just get on the bands, pick any frequency (say, 7.040) and send QRL?
and see if anyone else is there :-)

72, Paul NA5N