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Sun spots dropping fast

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 8:57 am
by DamianM0BKV
SUDDEN QUIET: Less than two weeks ago, the sun was peppered with large active regions. Now, the face of the sun is almost completely blank. Suddenly, the sunspot number and the sun's x-ray output have dropped to their lowest levels in years.
WAB nets may have to move back to 80mts as the down side of less solar flares and solar activity is the solar flux surrounding our planet will slowly drop to a much lower level making 40 mts poor if not impossible for UK QSOs.

Re: Sun spots dropping fast

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 6:32 am
by g4iar
2010 was the year we really started to see claims on 40m trickle in, that was 4 years before the so called solar "maximum" which we've allegedly just passed, so I think it's very early days to write off 40m yet, as we are experiencing the usual summer conditions. However, it is inevitable that 40m will eventually drop out full time for inter-G and unfortunately this will probably coincide with WAB's 50th Anniversary.

80m is neglected though. There never seems to be a thought about using that band when 40m has dropped out. It's not without its problems though, especially in an urban situation. Firstly there's the space issue, secondly the QRN level, which in the main gets higher the lower in frequency you go. My background noise level is S7 on 20m, S9 on 40m and +20db on 80m. Top band is virtually a no go these days. Oh for those days you could copy Scottish portable stations on the outlying islands in the daytime on 80m in the summer!

60m anyone?

Re: Sun spots dropping fast

Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 5:17 pm
by G1PIE
so that leaves 60 metres which was better than 40 last time. but no mobile but it could be /P and stop in each square.
80 meters is a big ask with small gardens almost impossible so need to think about 60 as well.
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