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Seattle, WA  June 28, 2013
To all radio amateurs 

SB PROP ARL ARLP026
ARLP026 Propagation de K7RA

Conditions were good for Field Day weekend last week.  Only
unsettled geomagnetic conditions (even quiet at times) affected us,
no big flares or geomagnetic storms, and sunspot numbers also
cooperated by peaking at 135 and 137 on Friday and Saturday.
Geomagnetic instability was caused by a brisk solar wind, which was
over by June 24.
 
At K7RA I used the ARRL Field Day Locator map at
http://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator to contact a few club groups
earlier in the week to see if they could use another CW operator.
I've found in years past that with so many newer licensees who were
not required to learn Morse code, that CW ops can be in demand at
some sites. Not only are CW operators wanted at many Field Day
locations, but the newer licensees are fascinated to see Morse code
in action. I really don't think that some of us old-timers who worry
about some imagined demise of CW have much to worry about.

At the last minute I changed my mind and decided to drag some gear
accumulated over the past decade but never put on the air, and
operate Class 1C, mobile single operator. Everything was last
minute, including the antenna installation and power connections,
with the radio sitting between the dashboard and the windshield.
 
The antenna was a very heavy kilowatt-rated screwdriver type
antenna, about 20 pounds excluding any mounting hardware or a whip,
although I swore it weighed twice as much. The plan was to mount it
on a very heavy duty magnetic mount on the roof, perhaps with guying
(this is not recommended by the manufacturer), but during assembly I
discovered this would not work, as the mounting was not compatible
with the antenna. So instead, during a fit of hacker improvisation,
I leaned the heavy screwdriver assembly out the right-rear passenger
window, (resting on the seat), and rolled up the window as far as I
could to hold it in place. I cut the coax with PL-259 off the
magmount, stripped back the other end, and attached the center wire
to the base of the antenna.
 
The next surprise was that although I had a 7 foot whip, I lacked
the adaptor that would screw into the top of the antenna assembly.
So what to do? Just stick it in the hole, let it roll around, and
pray. I now had an antenna (of sorts) leaning out the right rear of
my old car, about 35 degrees above horizontal, at best.
 
To hook the DC cable from the radio to the car battery, I needed to
go through the firewall below the dashboard. Despite finding
diagrams and advice specific to my 13-year-old car model online, I
could not get the cable through.  So I grabbed one of those portable
starter batteries (fully charged), put it on the front passenger
seat, and duct-taped the massive car battery connection clips (which
are like jumper cables) to the DC cable from the radio, and another
12 VDC pair to the antenna tuning motor. In addition, to keep the
battery charged, I tied in a very flimsy looking 12 VDC lighter plug
in parallel with the whole mess, and plugged it into the dashboard
lighter socket. This connector with wire was still in the bubble
pack in my junk box after 20 years or more.
 
To finish it all off, I ran a couple of long counterpoise wires from
the base of the antenna, out the rear doors and along the ground,
attaching them to the coax shield broken out at the base of the
antenna. I ran a heavy wire from the ground lug on the radio to a
metal screw beneath the dashboard that seemed good for ground, at
least at DC.
 
The whole thing worked, at least on 80 and 20 meters. 15 meters was
marginal, and 40 meters I could not tune at all. Starting late
Saturday evening, operating both SSB and CW, I lasted until about
1730 UTC Sunday morning.  Most of the operation was from a local
Seattle cemetery, on a nearby hilltop overlooking Lake Washington,
east of the University of Washington. Very quiet, with power lines
far away at the perimeter.
 
Back to solar activity, from the previous week, average daily
sunspot numbers were up nearly 13 points to 109.7, and average daily
solar flux rose nearly 7 points to 122. Geomagnetic activity was
greater than the previous week, with average daily planetary A index
rising from 4.3 to 12, and average mid-latitude A index rising from
4.9 to 11.9.
 
Ideally we would like to see the solar flux and sunspot numbers as
high as possible, and the A index low, at least for 40 through 10
meters.  On 160 meters we would like to see sunspot numbers low as
well. I hear lots of complaints about this weird, weak solar cycle,
but the 160 meter operators have absolutely no problem with the low
activity.
 
Yesterday on Thursday, June 27 the solar flux dipped below 100 to
99.5, which is below the average for the previous seven days (122).
Nothing significant about 100, it is just one of those nice round
numbers, like when your odometer reaches 100,000 miles, or the
atmospheric carbon dioxide reaches 400 ppm at Mauna Loa.
 
The 99.5 flux number is directly from the observatory in Penticton,
British Columbia, but the NOAA site shows it at a nice round value
of 100 (see http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/latest/DSD.txt). This is
because NOAA has always reported this value in whole numbers,
similar to the way the press reported recently that atmospheric
carbon dioxide reached 400 ppm.  The actual average value for the
month of May was 399.77 ppm, but for all practical purposes you
could say that it is 400 ppm, just as solar flux was 100.  Any
differences are very small.
 
The most recent prediction (Thursday, June 27, 2013 by forecasters
Carr and Lash) from NOAA/USAF has 10.7 cm solar flux at 100 and 105
on June 28-29, 110 on June 30 through July 2, 105 and 100 on July
3-4, 100 on July 5-7, 115 and 120 on July 8-9, 125 on July 10-13,
and 120 on July 14-16. Flux values then reach another peak of 130 on
July 21.