The solar / propagation forecasts were for the SFI to rise a litte and perhaps break the 70 mark into “marginal” conditions again but that the bands would be quite with a K of 1 or 2 - RIGHT!
K at 6 at the moment! 0620 UTC 26/08/2018.
I wish any activators who are out today, the best of luck, if the K index stays so high, it’s going to be hard work!
73 Ed.
Up to 7 now Ed @ 0654 UTC. However my FT8 screen is chockblock full. It really is a renegade mode!
Compton
There’s a crack in the magnetosphere… we’re all doomed.
Oh! It’s just a CME.
Sounds like no (big) deal Andy!
It’s very annoying when the ionosphere won’t play especially if you have planned to be out doing something special. I knew not to go out today because the troposphere is broken… raining a lot right now!
K7 at mo.
But has been noted of late during solar mins when a storm is due 48 hrs prior a period of CF rise occurs as it did Friday with enhanced Inter G conditions of 8mhz. In other words skip shortened to less than 200km. Very good for catching the closer Sotas in G and GW, GD and even GU/J and EI. But down side is me normal GM conditions get hammered and tend to lose them being more than 400km.
24hrs prior to storm is downed again catching some G’s of about 300km away.
In other words me 40m black hole shrinks for short period of time prior to storm reaching us any time prior of 48hrs to 24hrs prior to the K scale going off the scale.
So any predicted storms check out band conditions with in 48hrs period to it arriving here on 40m you may be surprised on how conditions shorten the skip range from 400km + to a mere 100km during day light hours of course.
Yep horrible day down here wet windy and wild and even the Moto GP UK is under threat from WX. at least the FI should be OK I hope.
karl
Band conditions very bad today,hardly hearing any activators.
Good thing it is raining as i was planing an activation today otherwise. It would have been deceiving.
VA2MO.
Its all very interesting. In the wake of a very minor CME the magnetic field was south pointing and, as they say, opened a crack in the magnetosphere. Unexpected but fairly routine, but much more interesting is sunspot 2720. This is reverse polarity as if it belongs to the next sunspot cycle, but it is low latitude as if it belongs to the current cycle. I’ll be interested to see what the experts conclude.
That was the reason 20m was almost dead. Only 1 contact on 20m, 9 on 40m from DM/BW-099
I hope to have time for a full activation report
73,
Petronel
Hi all,
I was out yesterday 26/8/18 to activate FL/NO-133 and - 144. My Good Lady was with me to snif some French Culture. On the first summit there was on 40 m only noise to hear, apart from contest QRM; only one QSO on 10.118 in an hour. Meanwhile my XYL had a good time by watching a historical pageant. On the second summit conditions were a little better. First a S2S with Kurt F/HB9AFI/P followed by 3 other QSO’s in the next hour. Not picked up by RBNHole or spotted by any Chaser. My XYL had interesting visits to the churches and a chapel. Still a good day for both of us.
73 de Geert PA7ZEE
Ah, that was the reason why 20m was so tough going yesterday from F/AB-336.
Lots of QSB and very weak signals.
40m on the other hand was quite okay with 30 QSOs.
Cu from the next one,
Roman - F/DL3TU/p
Thankfully the K Index is now back down at 2 - so the noisey bands have passed (hopefully for a while).
73 Ed.