On the Web : March 2006

If you enjoy reading 'On the Web', your ham radio club can publish this column on an exchange basis with SJRA. Contact Ted, , for the exchange details.		Our contributions to the South Jersey Radio Association club bulletin "Harmonics" includes lengthy Web addresses. As the URL's can be difficult or a nuisance to type into your Web browser, the postings here should make it easier to get to the Web sites SJRA members are interested in. Look for the posting at w2xq.com at the time "Harmonics" is scheduled for delivery in the south Jersey area. Questions, suggestions or contributions are always welcome.
		Solar X-rays  Geomagnetic Field  N 3 K L

The 2006 Field Day Rules
The SJRA Field Day Site entrance is on Lower Main Street, Marlton, opposite the Indian Springs Golf Course.
GPS (Global Positioning System) coordinates are N 39° 53.162', W 74° 53.486', or use these maps.
Mapquest is almost a 'net standard, but the Google map looks very good.

No sunspots on the sun!

For virtually the entire month of February 2006 the sun was blank. No sunspots were observed and NASA solar physicist David Hathaway says the "solar minimum has arrived." Hathaway belives we are at the beginning of the solar minimum and expects that the rest of 2006 will be quiet with only the occasional sunspot and flare disrupting radio propagation on our planet. Read the full NASA story at science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/06mar_solarminimum.htm.

In the NASA story there is a small graph of the solar cycles starting in 1600, the time of Galileo. Clearly, the solar maximum of 1957-1958 is the largest solar maximum recorded to date. I remember that period, listening to daily F2 openings to Europe, Africa and Alaska on 6 meters AM and CW. I missed hearing the first-ever opening of a JA-W1/W2/W3/W4 by 10 minutes one day; the following ARRL-IGY Propagation Research Bulletin was crammed full of interesting stories. In the summer double-hop E-skip appeared; Hawaii and Oklahoma surfaced simultaneously.

But that was then, and this is now. If you are a student of propagation, historical data can be found within the ARRL Web site. Dial up www.arrl.org/w1aw/prop/2006-index.html for the weekly ARRL propagation reports dating back to 1995. NOAA's Space Environment Center (SEC) continues operates an FTP (file transfer protocol) server that has a wealth of solar-terrestrial data. FTP is not as pretty as a Web site to navigate, but an FTP server is always faster than a Web page server. Dial to sec.noaa.gov/ftpmenu and read the explanatory files as necessary. There are alert messages, solar data of all types, sunspot numbers past and predicted, and much more.

Predicting the viability of the next solar cycle (number 24) is a difficult task, but a new model suggests we are not yet at the solar minimum and the tail end of the solar cycle 23 will be late. The mathematical model suggests that the bottom will come in late 2007 or early 2008; the 11-year solar cycle varies and the periods differ in length and intesity. The new model suggests there is a 20-year cycle where sunspot remnants are rotated poleward to a depth of 200,000 kilometres, eventually to reappear at the equator as sunspots. In my opinion It is fascinating reading on the NewScientistSpace Web site at www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8814.

Why should you care what is going on with the sun and the current state of the solar cycle? The 2006 ARRL Field Day is three months away as this is written -- there is a running countdown on our (w2xq.com) Web page version of this column -- and the SJRA band captains understanding the cycle, seasonal and daily variations should be better able to plan the hours of operation and the direction in which to point directional antennas. Using the data broadcast on WWV at H+18, either by monitoring with a receiver or by the Internet, should prove helpful. (Yes, I know there are no telephone lines for a modem connection. Think Internet on the RIM BlackBerry, for e-mail and the RIM Web browser.) The sun's rotation is also a predictor, as sunspots revolve and reappear at a nominal 27-days interval. Watch the numbers, listen and get an idea of the conditions over time before the tents go up.

Quickies

The 19th Winter SWL Festival was a lot of fun. About 175 persons attended the forums and looked at displays of DRM transmissions on a DRM-capable receiver. Next year will the 20th edition, and it appears that a number of persons will be coming from other continents. Mark the dates in your calendar for 2007 and 2008 (number 21) as posted on the swlfest.com Web site.

Are you installing a television antenna for HDTV? (More choices are received over the air than via cable.) The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA: www.ce.org) has a Web site to help you select the best TV antenna for your location. Tune in www.antennaweb.org and dial through the input data. A writer for a Scripps-Howard media Q&A newspaper column suggests the search results are a bit optimistic and the user should select the next better antenna than the antenna recommended based upon the input data.

A WCBS-880 news story about a new product that claims to turn an Internet-connected PC into your television-watching device sounded interesting. Curiosity got the better of me and I opted to log the Web site for further study. I haven't had time to investgate Slingbox (www.slingmedia.com) yet, but if you opt to try it out, let the SJRA membership how it goes for you.

The NWS set up a new weather radio station in early March. Located in Highland (near Coatesville), western Chester County, PA, it transmits on 162.425 MHz and in a test mode transmits the same message as Philadelphia/162.475 MHz. As of March 11, the Web information at has not been updated. It is difficult to hear in central Burlington County; I have heard it only once, on March 9, when temperature inversion expanded the groundwave reception over normal conditions.

Happy Spring!

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Revised 11 March 2006

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