Hello all: 

The following is a post I made to another list about the cycle 24
upswing in solar activity. Just my personal observations/thoughts
Mostly about LOWfer activity this side of the pond.


It may depend on which side of the fence you're on whether the increased Solar 
activity is beneficial to your type of operation. mid to upper HF perks up for 
long distance, but lower HF and down begins to shorten up to more localised 
communications. 80 and 160 meter DX will become impossible except to the big 
guns, but on the other hand, if you're more into local ragchewing, that's when 
the band conditions become optimum. When I was operating A.M. on 80 meters,I 
loved it when the sunspot cycle was at its peak because many migrated up to the 
higher bands, and congestion wasn't nearly as bad. Plus the enhanced daytime 
local conditions were great. I was running a Hallicrafters HT-40 with 10 watts 
output into a low to the ground All band dipole, and every day would work 
stations 300 to 400 miles away during the afternoon, and the atmospheric noise 
didn't seem to be as bad on the low bands during the peak of the cycle.
I know we are still 4 to 5 years away from real solar enhancement, but I'm 
curious what effects it will have on 600, 1750, and 2200 meters. 600 meters 
will show the greatest effects I'm sure. I wonder how it might affect 1750 
meter beacons ??? Right now, we can't seem to " Hear or see " beacons 200 to 
400 miles away, so if the band conditions change to closer in, is it possible 
that we might begin to actually Hear some of the closer in beacons ?? If it 
gets to the point that beacons become audible on 1750 meters, operators might 
be able to have actual CW QSO's with each other. That would be fantastic as 
operators could program their beacons for CW mode, where current conditions 
allow only for SLLOOOOWWW mode operation if you have any hope of being " Seen " 
but not heard.
 
Just my rambling thoughts today;  ***  73 everyone  ***


Andy - KU4XR - EM75xr - Friendsville, TN.
LOWfer Beacon " XR " @ 185.29866 KHz ( QRSS-60 )
Coordinates:  N:  35* 43' 54" - W:  84* 3' 16"
http://www.myspace.com/beaconxr
http://webpages.charter.net/ku4xr/