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From: wheatley@inuxi.UUCP (Steven Wheatley)
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Subject: ARRL PROPAGATION FORECAST BULLETIN NR 6
Message-ID: <289@inuxi.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Feb-86 20:54:27 EST
Article-I.D.: inuxi.289
Posted: Mon Feb 10 20:54:27 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Feb-86 08:18:35 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: AT&T Consumer Products, Indianapolis
Lines: 31

qst de k9eui
hr propagation forecast bulletin nr 6  from arrl headquarters
newington ct  february 10, 1986
to all radio amateurs  bt

after about 4 weeks of very low activity, the sun  developed  a
rash  of  major  flares  and new sunspots during the past week.
from 69 on january 27, the solar flux was up to 103 by february
5.   suddenly  the  amateur  bands sounded like 1983 again.  14
mhz, which had been going dead soon after local sunset,  became
almost  a  24  hour dx band again.  21 and 24 mhz did almost as
well, and 28 mhz, long almost totally quiet, was  running  wild
again.   during  saturday  night  there  was  an aurora of such
intensity that even 432 mhz dx was workable on ssb, as well  as
cw.   2  meter operators as far south as sarasota, florida used
the aurora to build up their  grid  square  totals.   k1tol  in
maine  was  heard on 50 mhz in sweden by sm6pu, and the british
50 mhz beacon gb3six was heard by k1jrw in massachusetts.   the
50 mhz band was open to south america hours at a time.

solar flux is on the way down now, but it may not drop too far.
the  area of the sun that brought januarys highest flux reading
will be facing us again  this  week.   it  should  keep  things
interesting on 14 and 21 mhz, if not 24 and 28 mhz, after about
wednesday.  our lowest solar flux this month is expected  about
february  17 through 24.  by about the 26th we should know if a
recurrence of the early february flux peak is likely.

american sunspot numbers for january 30 through february 5 were
between  9 and 58 with a mean of 35.1.  this activity follows a
14 day stretch of no visible spots  ar