Here comes the CME - 6m opening expected Sep. 6. 1800 UTC

Just moved from CN88 (WWA) to DN28 (Kalispell, MT), just got the tower & antenna finished yesterday. Monitoring 50.125. Come on, baby, whoooo!!!

 

well I call CQ, nothing. K5NHR

 

knocked out hf from EU to USA this morning.


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I thought CMEs were bad for radio?

 

There are two things that happen with CMEs. First you get a X-Ray burst which attenuates the lower bands. At the same time the additional radiation energy can build up the higher layers and you get sporadic E. So if the attenuating D-Layer only affects bands below 28MHz and the sporadic E reflective layer is strong enough to reflect radio waves the 10m band opens up.

As a second issue is a few days later when the actual mass and particles from the sun reaches earth. Depending on where and how strong the impact of these particles is we get a geomagnetic storm, which again can be good for propagation and bad.

The process on the over the horizon propagation is very complicated and it involves lot of difficult to measure variables. There is no magic bullet that can precisely predict the outcome. Very similar to the weather forecast.

All the best;

Alex - VE7DXW

 

Very interesting.... it will also be interesting to see what happens to the low bands tonight once we rotate into darkness. I'm sure all that extra energy deposited during the day will cause something to be different from last night.

 

Just cut and tuned my first 15 meter dipole. Lot of DX traffic out there as I write this. Great fun.

 

You are a very positive person. I like that! But none of us Oregonians are going to do anything because we're all succumbing to smoke inhalation. (cough) (cough)

Even my dog sounds like she's smoked a carton of Pall Malls at this point!

 

Listening on 50.125 , I'm not hearing any activity here in CM99 but, 14.020 sounds better than yesterday.

 

Well it looks like the X-Ray flare has attenuated the opening that we predicted.
Stay tuned for the CME that is going to hit earth in a few days, which was caused by this last explosion.

 

Just note that it is NOT due to lack of funds for the US Forest Service -- this is the POLICY they have chosen. They CHOOSE to not put out these fires.
73's Matt

 

6 Meter auroral contact:

 

Zip for 6m or 2m aurora in Minnesota tonight... but the X9 flare should hit for the weekend.

 

There is a new CME - this time form the X9 flare that happened today. This one looks almost scary!

Alex

 

Hi Everyone;

This took a long time but the CME has arrived at earth.

The NOAA just released the warning that the Geomagnetic K index is going to reach 7. K index refers to the way the magnetic field deforms and shatters during the onslaught of the protons from the sun.

K = 7 is usually bad for propagation!

ALERT: Geomagnetic K-index of 7
Threshold Reached: 2017 Sep 07 2325 UTC
Synoptic Period: 2100-2400 UTC
Active Warning: Yes


All the best;

Alex - VE7DXW