Bye Bye Solar Cycle 24

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Sad but true, as of today, July 16, 2014, the sun is spotless.  The last time that happened was on August 11, 2011.  SolarHam.com even compared the spotless sun to an orange today!

ssn_predict_l

You can clearly see the double peak of Cycle 24 on the graph above.  Unless there is another outburst, it looks like the peak smoothed sunspot number of 75.4 was reached during November 2013, which was a first for solar observations (having the second peak larger than the first — the first being 66.9 in Februrary of 2012).

Cycle 24 remains the weakest solar cycle since Cycle 14 in 1906.  By the way, the expectation for the peak of Cycle 25, a decade in the future, is even lower than Cycle 24.

Time for 80 Meter DXing!

The Original 13 Colonies Special Event

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The colony stations will operate from Tuesday, July 1st, 9:00 AM Eastern (1300 UTC) until Sunday Night, July 6th, 00:00 (Midnight) Eastern (0400 UTC July 7th).

ALL Colony states have a SINGLE QSL manager for you to QSL to, listed on our website and on my QRZ.com page under my call (KU2US).Please do not send cards to each individual operator, this is what the state QSL manager is for. It will be faster and easier. An SASE would be appreciated!

All our operators are excited to get this event rolling! We are fully staffed and praying for good propagation.

Home page:  http://www.13colonies.info/

Certificate Requests:  http://www.13colonies.info/CertRequests.htm
**CERTIFICATE REQUEST TO KU2US ONLY! **

  • COLONY STATE OF NY-K2A (QSL TO KU2US)
  • COLONY STATE OF VA-K2B (QSL TO KK4ODQ)
  • COLONY STATE OF RI-K2C (QSL TO W1KMA)
  • COLONY STATE OF CT- K2D (QSL TO N1DN)
  • COLONY STATE OF DE-K2E (QSL TO NY3C)
  • COLONY STATE OF MD-K2F (QSL TO KB3IFH)
  • COLONY STATE OF GA-K2G (QSL TO NF4GA)
  • COLONY STATE OF MA-K2H (QSL TO WB1GOF)
  • COLONY STATE OF NJ-K2I (QSL TO N2RO)
  • COLONY STATE OF NC-K2J (QSL TO W4MPS)
  • COLONY STATE OF NH-K2K (QSL TO AB1OC)
  • COLONY STATE OF SC-K2L (QSL TO KG4RUL)
  • COLONY STATE OF PA-K2M (QSL TO K3MJW)

Newspaper Article and Dave Brown Photographs

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Field Day 2014 is behind us (although Willy is probably still dealing with all the towers/tents/cables/etc.) but two nice things can help us remember what it was all about.

The first is a wonderful collection of photographs by our own Dave Brown, KC1AAA.  You can see those by clicking here.

The second is a very nice story that describes what Field Day is all about, written by the Editor of the Portsmouth Times, Jim McGaw.  Jim came by at the perfect time, when Rob White was helping a couple of scouts at the GOTA tent.  You can see Jim’s article here.

Field Day Update

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It was a busy day today as the Six Meter station with Moxon antenna, GOTA station with 80 meter OCFD, and the four 45′ towers that are supports for two Moxons for 40 Meters, two tri-band beams, and a pair of 80 meter antennas.  The 6 Meter station was tried out on air, but there didn’t seem to be any openings.  The GOTA station seems to be working quite well into the SW, where the bulk of the Field Day activity will be.  GOTA operators were able to work any station they heard with just 10 watts of output power.

Click here to see  a brief (1 min) video showing the basic layout

Folks visiting tomorrow are reminded to bring their own chairs for the picnic or just relaxing outside.