Chitika: solar cycle

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SolderSmoke Podcast #174 is available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke174.mp3

March 28, 2015

Happy Arduino Day!
Pete's Belthorn III Transceiver (with cool color display)
Bill's BITX 20 (that used to be a BITX20/40)
AD9850 DDS added to Barebones Superhet
Jean Shepherd on Parasitic Oscillations, Obsession, and Madness
Simple Test Gear for the Homebrewer
Digital Oscilloscopes and their amazing capabilities
Dongles and other great stuff in SPRAT 162
The BIG St. Patrick's Day Solar Flare
VK6MV's Amazing Rhombic (+)
VK7XX (Dos Equis!)
A Bit of BITX History
Pete going KX3 QRO

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

There I was. 0900 UTC (0 Dark Thirty local), the morning after the big March 17 St. Patrick's Day Coronal Mass Ejection Impact. Solar Flux Index: 116. A Index: 117! I'd never seen the A Index that high. When I got home from work on March 17, I had turned on the BITX 20 and heard nothing but white noise. No signals. Nada. Zilch. So the following morning my expectations for 20 were quite low. I tuned across the whole band, again hearing nothing. But wait... there was one signal. And he was calling CQ. With an Australian accent. VK6MV! The only signal on the band. I called him with my recently fixed BITX20 (with .12 kW amp) and a dipole. No problem. We had a nice contact.
A look at Roy's QRZ page shows that he is a fellow homebrewer. Clearly, the radio gods were making a statement here.

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

CONUS HF BAND CONDX

1/22/15 --- 10:45:00 GMT --- REPORT # 1289

160

I think this is a really interesting and useful way to gather and present information on propagation conditions. Check it out. The "instructions" page gives some background info on the technique used.

http://www.bandconditions.com/

The author, Biz, K5BIZ seems like a very FB ham: http://www.qrz.com/db/K5BIZ

Too bad we are not in late March. This event has such great April Fool's potential:
Some ideas:
-- You'll have to rewind all your toroids!
-- You should switch the braid and the center conductor on all your coax!

I like the "cup half full" sentiments in this video: The second half of Solar Max is about to begin!

Thanks to Kim VK5FJ for sending me this.

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Chitika

SolderSmoke Podcast #174:Belthorn III, BITX20(-40), Parasites, Test Gear, Hamfest, SPRAT, Flares, BITX History

Working VK6 Homebrew During the Big Solar Flare

Interesting Propagation Web Site

Solar Field Flip! (video)

AHMED HASSAN MOHAMMED

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