[CTSARA] Field Day 2015: Got CME ?

[Douglas - WA1SFH]

Thursday, June 25, 2015

 

Hi Everybody,

FYI - Got these two emails today from a Club in MA, just outside of Lowell.
(BOLD sections by me)

Hello all,

I've been watching this Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). 

We have already had the significant blackout, and have mostly recovered.

The flare was 0816 UTC. 

Flare related blackouts rarely last 36 hours.  


The resulting CME, if headed our way, may create disturbed conditions with
the possibility that 15m and 10m may open.

The real significant event was the solstice CMEs as that produced a G3
storm, this current one is G1.

The side effect is 6m has been open Big Time, and I've been working 5s, 8s,
0s from the mobile!

.

I'm not that worried, but Field Day may be Exciting.

 

Allison

- Responding to this email.

George et all,

Well, this Field Day promises to be a very interesting event. 

 

The primary reason is the following:

Today, June 25 at 0816 Z the sun produced a huge flare to a magnitude of M
7.9.  

This fits exactly into the weekend's time-frame for radio blackouts!!

 

What should be expected is that the HF bands will be almost useless except
for very local contacts, not a good condition.

 

We should emphasize the lowest bands for our efforts,  ie.  160 meters may
be the only band to work at all depending upon the actual CME that hits us.

 

I think we should rapidly think about how we can deploy 160 meter antennas
quickly.  Simple inverted L antennas will work fine.  A 102 foot leg G5RV
antenna will work well on 160.  Anyone have one of those that could be used
(span is 204 feet).  Drooping ends work fine too.  On 160 it is a dipole and
thus the orientation should be from south to north and it is center fed.  It
uses 83 feet of 600 ohm ladder line for the feed which can be directly
connected to 52 ohm coax.  The coax should have a choke to keep the rf off
the shield or a 1:1 balun can be used.  Either way works well.  I am not an
expert on it but there is lots of literature on the web about it and we have
some real antenna experts out there that can be a big help tomorrow to make
decisions about this.

 

The power grid can be expected to take a hit and thus our generator power
will be key to our operation.  

 

    -Alan (Al), W1CCE

    Pneumatic antenna launcher specialist

 

73,

Douglas Sharafanowich - WA1SFH

District Emergency Coordinator, Region 2

Connecticut Amateur Radio Emergency Service (CT ARES) 

(Home) 203-876-1189      [Cell] 203-494-3885

Email:  <mailto:wa1sfh at optonline.net> wa1sfh at optonline.net

Website:  <http://www.ctaresregion2.org> www.ctaresregion2.org