HFU HF Underground

General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: ChrisSmolinski on November 08, 2012, 1651 UTC

Title: Solar cycle 24 continues weakly, perhaps weakest of the space-age
Post by: ChrisSmolinski on November 08, 2012, 1651 UTC: Forecasters have long expected the Solar Max of 2013 to be the weakest of the Space Age. It might be even weaker than they thought. As shown in this 20-year plot of sunspot counts vs. time, the sun is underperforming:

(http://spaceweather.com/images2012/06nov12/sunspotcycle_strip.jpg)

Here's the full article:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/11/06/solar-cycle-24-continues-weakly-perhaps-weakest-of-the-space-age/ (http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/11/06/solar-cycle-24-continues-weakly-perhaps-weakest-of-the-space-age/)
Title: Re: Solar cycle 24 continues weakly, perhaps weakest of the space-age
Post by: BoomboxDX on November 11, 2012, 1401 UTC: I wonder if that means MW DX will continue to be really good this season. The summer season seemed to be better than a lot of DXers expected....
Title: Re: Solar cycle 24 continues weakly, perhaps weakest of the space-age
Post by: BDM on November 11, 2012, 1811 UTC: Yep, exactly what I was thinking.
Title: Re: Solar cycle 24 continues weakly, perhaps weakest of the space-age
Post by: cmradio on November 12, 2012, 1408 UTC: Noise levels are certainly low!

I travelled to a hick town up north last month and DX'd LW NDB's with the E5's built in loop like my big loop back home! ;D

Peace!
Title: Re: Solar cycle 24 continues weakly, perhaps weakest of the space-age
Post by: ChrisSmolinski on November 12, 2012, 1419 UTC: It's after 9 AM local, and I still have KCJJ Iowa City on 1630 coming in S9. That's 827 miles.
Title: Re: Solar cycle 24 continues weakly, perhaps weakest of the space-age
Post by: BoomboxDX on November 14, 2012, 1803 UTC: Yeah, a couple days ago I had a strong copy of KXOL, 1660 khz, Brigham City UT between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. local, and it's over 600 miles from my QTH.
Title: Re: Solar cycle 24 continues weakly, perhaps weakest of the space-age
Post by: zackers on November 14, 2012, 1937 UTC: I just repaired my 40m loop antenna, which came down over the summer, and also put up an 80m dipole. Now to work on the LowFER loop and E-probe antennas. I'm hoping we do have another good lowband winter!
Title: Re: Solar cycle 24 continues weakly, perhaps weakest of the space-age
Post by: vinoul on November 16, 2012, 0256 UTC: I can't help but notice that since they've put that news bit out, the higher HF bands have come alive again and the solar flux has shot up again (currently 146). I'm beginning to think that noone really knows what's going on with the current solar cycle... :D
Title: Re: Solar cycle 24 continues weakly, perhaps weakest of the space-age
Post by: ChrisSmolinski on November 16, 2012, 1158 UTC: Yes, activity has picked up a bit this week: "One spot, dubbed Active Region (AR) 1613, which can be seen in the lower left center of the sun, is of particular interest, because any flares originating from it would be earth directed. Forecasters from NOAA estimate there is a 40% chance of M-class solar flares and a 5% chance of X-class flares from the earth facing side of the sun at the moment. Any such flare originating from AR 1613 has the potential to spark a geomagnetic storm, which could result in aurora borealis or northern lights. "