AmateurRadio.com

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2020 May 18 0322 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 11 – 17 May 2020

Solar activity was very low. The solar disk was spotless. Beginning on 15 May, a rise in x-ray flux background was observed as two plage regions emerged on the ENE and ESE limbs, possibly the return of old Regions 2762 (N23, L=338) and 2761 (S18, L=332). No Earth-directed CMEs were observed.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at normal to moderate levels with a peak flux of 203 pfu observed at 16/0220 UTC.

Geomagnetic field activity was mostly quiet with an isolated unsettled period observed late on 12 May. Solar wind parameters were at nominal levels with solar wind speed ranging from 282-354 km/s while total field was between 1-8 nT.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 18 May – 13 June 2020

Solar activity is expected to continue at very low levels.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at normal to moderate levels for the outlook period (18 May- 13 Jun).

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to reach unsettled levels on 19-20 May due to weak coronal hole high speed stream activity (CH HSS). Mostly quiet conditions are expected for the rest of the period.

Don’t forget to visit our live space weather and radio propagation web site, at: http://SunSpotWatch.com/

Live Aurora mapping is at http://aurora.sunspotwatch.com/

If you are on Twitter, please follow these two users: 1. https://Twitter.com/NW7US 2. https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

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Be sure to subscribe to our space weather and propagation email group, on Groups.io

https://groups.io/g/propagation-and-space-weather

Spread the word!

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Links of interest:

+ Amazon space weather books: http://g.nw7us.us/fbssw-aSWSC
+ https://Twitter.com/NW7US
+ https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

Space Weather and Ham Radio YouTube Channel News:

I am working on launching a YouTube channel overhaul, that includes series of videos about space weather, radio signal propagation, and more.

Additionally, I am working on improving the educational efforts via the email, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and other activities.

You can help!

Please consider becoming a Patron of these space weather and radio communications services, beginning with the YouTube channel:

https://www.patreon.com/NW7US

The YouTube channel:
https://YouTube.com/NW7US

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Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 143 is now available for download.

Ray Novak, N9JA joins us for the latest information on the Icom IC-705. Tommy demonstrates his favorite new hotspot, the N5BOC Duplex Multiple Mode Digital Voice Modem. George shows how to ‘Tap That Squelch’. Get a Squelch Open signal from a rig to interface with a computer rather than relying on Vox. Great for Echolink, digital mode software and more. Mike explores the Huskylens AI Machine Vision Sensor.
1:30:24

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George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].

Having a little more free time (thanks to the lock-down), I found myself flipping through the pages of a 1959 edition of the Yasme News a few days ago when the article, “DX on 6” by Grid Gridley, W4GJO sorta jumped out at me. After all this is one of those times of the year when 50 MHz tries to live up to its billing as the “Magic Band” and I guess I’ve been on the prowl for stories about it.

The article opened right up with Bob, KG1FN on Fletchers Ice Island who was regularly working the boys as far down as Moline, Illinois on 6 meters. That was enough mystery to keep me reading. After all, the call sign didn’t seem right and I had never heard of Fletcher’s Ice Island. Was this a new DX entity that’s been hiding in plain sight?

But neither mystery was solved in this short treatise. It was written as though any decent DX enthusiast in 1959 would know the odd call sign and where to point to it on a map and it became obvious that a little more sleuthing was in order.

Searching online for KG1FN made quick work of solving both mysteries. “Hams on Ice” was the title of a January 1960 QST magazine article where the sub-title spilled the beans, “Six-Meter DX Operation at Fletcher’s Ice Island, T3”.

KG1FN was a MARS issued call sign reflecting a Greenland origin and also seemed appropriate for the “Frozen North” location though the author notes that was later modified to mean “Frozen Nose”.

And it turns out that Fletcher’s Ice Island, or T3, was discovered by U.S. Air Force Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher. It was produced by the northern coast of Ellesmere Island and was a 150-foot thick slab of ice roughly five by ten miles in size floating in the Arctic Ocean. According to the article, it had served as a scientific station and home for as many as two-dozen scientists and military personnel over the years.

It was also a prime spot for adventurous amateur radio operators who used the extreme northern location as a laboratory for radio propagation from the heart of the auroral environment. The fact that the island was in motion made working the experimental station a challenge as it was literally a moving target.

The QST article details the unusual propagation conditions observed as well as descriptions of the camp, the equipment used, radio activity, lessons learned, and a list of the numerous operators who disturbed the aether from T3.

Polar bears were also along for the ride prompting personnel to always carry a rifle, “just in case”. It’s enjoyable reading!

I wondered whatever became of Fletcher’s Ice Island and quickly discovered that it was used as a manned scientific drift station from 1952 until 1978.

Eventually, several large cracks in the ice were observed and the station was forced to relocate itself away from its original location. A few years later when the ice floe cracked again and shortened the runway sufficiently to terminate aircraft resupply operations, the station had to be evacuated.

Still, the outpost remained sporadically active until 1974, and was last visited in 1979. After being monitored by satellite for over 30 years, the iceberg eventually drifted through the Fram Straight in 1983.

Then on July 3, 1983, came a report that U.S. scientists had rediscovered the iceberg after it had been missing for six months. The ice floe was spotted about 150 miles from the North Pole and easily identified as its surface was distinctly decorated by remaining structures and an aircraft wrecked there years before. At the time of this discovery, the iceberg was only one-third of its original thickness.

Sometime after July 1983, the iceberg worked its way to the outside of the Arctic ice pack where it caught a southern current, drifting off into the Atlantic Ocean where it melted away.

References:

1. Yasme News Volume 1 Number 2 October-November 1959
2. QST Magazine January 1960
3. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher%27s_Ice_Island

Jeff Davis, KE9V, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Indiana, USA.

It's time once again for The Weekender. This is our bi-weekly departure into the world of amateur radio contests, open source conventions, special events, listener challenges, hedonism and just plain fun. Thanks for listening and, if you happen to get a chance, feel free to call us or e-mail and send us some feedback. Tell us how we're doing. We'd love to hear from you.

73 de The LHS Crew

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

RFI issue spread across the band

Over the last let's say a month or so I have been seeing some RFI on the waterfall of my Icom 7610 that is new. For about 7 months I have been RFI free at my new QTH and was very happy regarding this fact. At my old QTH in downtown Toronto RFI was the norm. 20m seems to be the worst for the issue and it's not all the time and as for what are the times I am not exactly sure. I have been very lazy with trying to narrow down a time frame for the RFI events. Way back about 10 years I did have a plasma TV that gave me a huge headache but I was able to solve that issue with the MFJ 1026 noise cancelling unit. In my wisdom, I ended up selling the MFJ unit for whatever reason. To try to narrow down the issue I have done the following:
- Switched to my active antenna and I still had the issue.
- I change to battery power only and I still had the issue.
- I turned off the main AC circuit breaker to the house and I still had the issue while using battery power obviously. Oh and an added note.....my dear wife was not happy about that.

Sometimes the RFI stops but then soon starts

-Switched to my dummy load and the issue was gone but so were all signals.
So from the above, it seems it is being picked up by the antenna and not something within my home. At this point, I have not tried to pinpoint times as to when or if the RFI is present. I will be within the next few weeks paying very close attention to times when I am on and if the RFI is present or not. Until then I wanted to see if I was able to solve the issue with the Icom 7610's filtering. The choices I have are the noise reduction option or the noise blanker option. As a side note, my previous rig was the Elecraft K3 and it had amazing filtering for RFI issues. It was time to put the Icom 7610 to the test and see how it performed. I tried both the NR and NB and found it was the NB (noise blanker) that did the trick. I was able to totally remove the RFI and still hear the CW signal that was getting buried in the noise. Within the noise blanker settings, you can adjust the level, depth and width. I did find certain settings worked better than others at removing the offending RFI. I did change over to my Elecraft KX3 just to see how it dealt with the RFI and I was shocked how it really was not able to remove the RFI and the Icom 7610 won hands down!

Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Hello and welcome to Episode 344 of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode, the hosts discuss the Contest University, learning Morse Code, virtual online club meetings, 6-meter season, open-source N95 masks, WSJT-X, BSD, Solaris...what the??? Anyway, hope you enjoy the episode, stay home, stay safe and play amateur radio and open source.

73 de The LHS Crew

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

Way back in 2013, Joyce/K0JJW and I did the first SOTA activation of W0C/SP-099, an unnamed summit in the San Isabel National Forest. As is often the case, we just reviewed the forest service map and drove down a road that got us sort of close to the summit and headed on up. On this initial activation, we came from the south, which is a viable route, but not all that great. Later, Walt/W0CP found a much better starting point to the east of the unnamed summit, so we were interested in trying that out.

The driving directions are to take County Road 187 south to CR 185, then turn off onto 185E. Consult the San Isabel National Forest map for context. The graphic below shows the immediate area near the summit.

The only mildly tricky part of FS 185E is that it passes through a section of private property that is surrounded by national forest. There are a number of private drives along the road (most of them gated and labeled “No Trespassing.”)  However, 185E keeps on going and pops out the other side, where a wire gate marks the reentry into the national forest. Walt indicates a good place to park is at Lat/Lon 38.78067, -105.98301. The road was in good condition and should be passable with a high-clearance 2WD vehicle.

At this point, headed west towards the summit, hiking off trail. There is very little downed timber so the walk is quite enjoyable. The specific route is not critical but stay north of the private property.

My GPS app shows the hike at 0.85 miles one way with 460 feet of elevation gain. This is easy peasy, so we have started to call this unnamed summit “EZ 99”.

We worked a number of stations on 2m FM and then headed on down. (We also activated Bald Mountain W0C/SP-115, about two miles west,  on the same day.)

This summit is now on our highly recommended list, an easy-to-access, pleasant hike in a beautiful area of Colorado.

73 Bob K0NR

The post Activating SOTA W0C/SP-099 appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].