[South Florida DX Association] ARLP049 Propagation de K7RA

[Bill Marx]

 ZCZC AP49
> QST de W1AW  
> Propagation Forecast Bulletin 49  ARLP049
> From Tad Cook, K7RA
> Seattle, WA  November 23, 2005
> To all radio amateurs 
> 
> SB PROP ARL ARLP049
> ARLP049 Propagation de K7RA
> 
> This bulletin is early because of the Thanksgiving holiday in the
> United States.  The usual data appearing at the bottom of this
> weekly bulletin will come out in an additional bulletin on Monday,
> November 28, 2005.
> 
> Geomagnetic indicators, the A and K index, have remained low.  This
> is good for HF propagation and with low sunspot numbers lowering the
> MUF (Maximum Usable Frequency), perfect for long range communication
> on 160 and 80 meters.
> 
> Average sunspot numbers in the six days since the last bulletin were
> 50.3, nearly 30 points above the average reported in the previous
> bulletin.  The daily solar flux went just above 100 on November
> 17-19, the days when large sunspot 822 was passing across the center
> of the visible solar disk, and exerting maximum influence.
> 
> Solar flux is expected to decline over the next week.  Predicted
> solar flux over the next few days is 95, 90 and 85 for November
> 23-25, and 80 through the end of the month.  Geomagnetic numbers
> (and disturbances) are expected to remain low.  Expect mid latitude
> K index of 3 or less and A index at 10 or below until the end of the
> month, when we may see higher geomagnetic activity around November
> 30 to December 1.
> 
> More mail was received this week about 10 meter propagation and
> beacon stations.
> 
> Kevin Seeger, WD0AVV lives in Southern California and thinks more of
> us should pay attention to ten meters, even though we are headed
> toward the bottom of the solar cycle.  He says the first thing he
> does when checking ten is to listen for beacon stations, which are
> mostly between 28.2 and 28.3 MHz.  Since they transmit constantly
> from many locations, this is a good indicator of openings that might
> only occur between your location and some particular area or region.
> 
> Kevin says that on November 5 at 8:00 AM local time (1600z) he
> copied these beacon stations, and at the end of the day he was still
> receiving most of them:
> 
> K4UKB  28.276 
> W4TIY  28.272 
> K4AIS  28.270 
> W3HH   28.269 
> W4JPL  28.253 
> KG4YUV 28.253 
> WK4DS  28.222
> 
> If you look up the call sign of a beacon station on www.qrz.com,
> you'll see that often there are links to personal web pages and
> information about the beacon operation.  For instance, WK4DS, David
> Saylors, has links showing his 2 watt beacon which is a popular low
> power 10 meter mobile transceiver hooked to a keyer.  There are also
> links showing some impressive telegraph keys that David builds in
> his machine shop in Trenton, Georgia.
> 
> Using Google you can find many resources on ten meter beacons.  The
> Northern California DX Foundation runs their impressive worldwide
> beacon network on 28.2 MHz, and here you can quickly judge worldwide
> ten meter propagation.  The Ten-Ten International Net, which has
> been energetically promoting ten meters for over 40 years, has an
> extensive list of ten meter beacon stations at
> http://www.ten-ten.org/beacons.html.  By the way, the author of your
> bulletin was introduced to Ten-Ten by the original K7RA (at that
> time W7EXM, Homer Spence) in 1971, and obtained the member number
> 5569.
> 
> Last week's bulletin mentioned long nighttime propagation on ten
> meters observed from New York to Oklahoma.  Several people wrote in
> about this, including Jon Jones, N0JK, who says E-layer propagation
> was the most likely mode.  On that same morning, November 14, strong
> E-layer propagation was reported on both 10 and 6 meters.  He notes
> that at 15:55z N4LI in EM55 (in Tennessee) reported hearing loud ten
> meter propagation all up and down the eastern seaboard.  At 16:09z
> W5TDN in EM22 (in Texas) reported hearing WB3ANT (FN21) and W3MEL
> (FN10), both in Pennsylvania.
> 
> If you would like to make a comment or have a tip for our readers,
> email the author at, k7ra at arrl.net.
> 
> For more information concerning radio propagation and an explanation
> of the numbers used in this bulletin see the ARRL Technical
> Information Service propagation page at,
> http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/propagation.html. An archive of past
> bulletins is found at, http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/prop/.
> NNNN
> /EX
>