SB PROP @ ARL $ARLP026 ARLP026 Propagation de K7RA

ZCZC AP26 QST de W1AW
Propagation Forecast Bulletin 26 ARLP026

From Tad Cook, K7RA Seattle, WA June 30, 2006 To all radio amateurs

SB PROP ARL ARLP026 ARLP026 Propagation de K7RA

It was a fun Field Day weekend all over last week, judging from the Soapbox comments and photos on the ARRL web site at http://www arrl org/contests/soapbox/ There are many great stories on the site, but I enjoyed reading the N4SL report on the W7MRG operation over 500 miles down the road to Montana from home in Washington State Go to page 10 (click on 10 at the bottom of the page on the above link) to find it Even with zero sunspots, the homebrew wire antenna arrays and Montana hilltop sounded fabulous If you check the N4SL listing on www qrz com, you'll see his wire antennas at home sound quite similar to his Field Day setup

Apparently there was some 6, 10 and 15 meter fun, although your author didn't hear it here We put in a short casual mobile operation on 20 and 40 meters, both CW and SSB, and were impressed with how well the 7 foot monoband whip on the car worked on 40 meters Changing bands meant unscrewing an antenna from the trunk mount and substituting another

No sunspots last weekend, but a big new spot (897) rotated into view this week Followed by spot 898, it looks like a moderately rising solar flux and sunspot number will be with us through July 6 A solar wind stream caused elevated geomagnetic numbers on June 28 and 29, and this may happen again around July 3-5 Geophysical Institute Prague predicts quiet conditions over June 30 to July 3, quiet to unsettled on July 4, unsettled to active on July 5, and unsettled on July 6

Last week's bulletin mentioned Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA and his article ''When Will the Bands Improve?'' in the current July 2006 QST Carl would like to correct his definition of the length of a sunspot cycle The sentence in question should read ''The average length of a sunspot cycle, from solar minimum with a minimum number of sunspots (low electron density) to solar maximum with a maximum number of sunspots (high electron density) and then back down to the next solar minimum, is approximately eleven years ''

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM wrote: ''I echo the comments last week about 6m being a bundle of fun I only have 5-10W QRP to a small vertical on the side of the house but this has allowed me to work all across Europe as far as Ukraine on SSB with 59 reports being the norm Last summer I managed a few north Africans but not yet this summer''

''Not within my reach has been the amazing DX worked from Europe by the 'big guns' running high power to large beams: Central America, North America and, most amazing of all, a number of openings to JA and even one to KL7 JAs seem to have been worked on several mornings of late around our late breakfast time This is over the pole and a very long way for simply sporadic-E I wonder what mode this really is?''

Roger has a very nice web page at http://homepage ntlworld com/lapthorn/index htm Don't miss the interesting links he has under Homebrew rigs for the remarkable little QRP radios he constructed

If you would like to make a comment or have a tip for our readers, email the author at, k7ra@arrl net

For more information concerning radio propagation, see the ARRL Technical Information Service at http://www arrl org/tis/info/propagation html For a detailed explanation of the numbers used in this bulletin, see http://www arrl org/tis/info/k9la-prop html An archive of past propagation bulletins is at http://www arrl org/w1aw/prop/

Sunspot numbers for June 22 through 28 were 0, 0, 0, 13, 14, 33 and 38 with a mean of 14 10 7 cm flux was 72 1, 71 8, 73 6, 74, 76 4, 78 5, and 83 5, with a mean of 75 7 Estimated planetary A indices were 6, 2, 4, 5, 3, 6 and 18 with a mean of 6 3 Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 6, 1, 2, 3, 1, 7 and 12, with a mean of 4 6 NNNN /EX