Propagation News – 9 November 2014

The sun remains peppered with sunspots, although they are all relatively small. A larger group, number 2205, appeared around the limb last Wednesday and will be Earth-facing this week. This could be the source of more solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Solar wind stream enhancements contributed to elevated geomagnetic activity at high latitudes last week, with the Kp index reaching four. Look for enhanced auroral activity if this continues.

Solar Flux Index levels this past week have been in the range 120 to 135 and the trend is expected to continue.

The FT4TA Tromelin Island DXpedition in the Indian Ocean, AF-031, continues until Monday 10 November, so you have one last chance to catch them. They have been very audible on 10m, which has offered the greatest probability of a contact at 90 percent during the day.

12m, or 24MHz, and 15m, or 21MHz, are also good bands to try during daylight hours. 20m, or 14MHz, offers the best chance in the early and mid evening.

Meteorologist Jim Bacon, G3YLA reports that the present period of unsettled weather is likely to continue, with low pressure dominating over the UK next week. This will mean that enhanced tropospheric DX propagation is unlikely for stations in the British Isles due to lack of suitable temperature inversions associated with areas of high pressure.

However, later this week, in eastern Europe a large high over Russia could provide DX between the Balkans and Scandinavia around the western flank of the high, although even here there may be too much breeze for this to last long.

The showery nature of the weather over Britain may again offer some rain scatter opportunities on the upper GHz bands, especially in coastal regions from thundery showers over the nearby warmer seas.

The Taurids meteor shower peaks next Tuesday and Wednesday, albeit with a low Zenith Hourly Rate of around five.

With the higher solar disturbances, northern stations may experience auroral VHF propagation on the lower VHF bands. The Moon’s declination reaches maximum on Monday, with 15 hours moon visibility for EME operators through the early hours. Free space losses will increase as the moon moves away from last week’s perigee.

And that’s all this week from the propagation team.

Category: GB2RS Propagation News