Maybe you’re looking for next week’s or last week’s newsletter?
Recap 🔁
- 02/15 Wed LCARA Business Meeting
- 02/18 Sat Salem Ham Fair (Rickreall)
- 02/18 Sat ARRL DX Contest CW
02/08 LCARA Presentation Night 📼
A 10m Loop Antenna, presented by KJ7OX.
Upcoming Events 🗓
- 02/22 Wed 1900 LCARA Technical Committee Meeting
- 02/25 Sat 1000 Cowlitz ACS Exercise
- Check in at 10a on the 147.100 MHz repeater - see Nets section below
Solar Cycle 25
Brian KJ7OX shares more about our current solar cycle.
NASA’s solar forecast is turning out to be wrong. This team’s model is still on track. from last June 2022
Solar cycle 25 kicked off last year. Forecasters thought it would be a mild one, but it’s turning out to be quite the opposite. From its onset, this solar cycle has been steadily outpacing predictions, producing more sunspots and spewing way more solar wind, flares and eruptions than the world’s leading experts predicted.
Solar Flare ☀️
Update: During the late evening of Friday, February 17th there was a category X2.2 x-ray solar flare from our sun. This is at the edge of being very dangerous. There was also a large (CME) Coronal Mass Ejection from the sun which is near to earth facing. We will likely see the fallout from this CME around Monday the 20th. This may manifest as communications interference of all varieties, not to mention complete disruption in some areas.
For Amateur Radio operators this can be a mixed bag. Charged particles can charge the earth’s ionosphere and bring on some great HF band conditions. It can also ruin things for a few days but this is temporary. On the bright side we may see some auroral activity this far south if the weather permits.
A few days ago the solar flux from the radio sun was about 200, after Friday evening it jumped to 343! That’s a significant number. The hf bands will be hopping for a few days. See spaceweather.com for current solar conditions. The CME video may still be there. Today the sunspot number is down to 86 but a few weeks ago it was 150. This is due to a few reasons.
The Sun rotates on its axis once in about 27 days. This rotation was first detected by observing the motion of sunspots. The Sun’s rotation axis is tilted by about 7.25 degrees from the axis of the Earth’s orbit so we see more of the Sun’s north pole in September of each year and more of its south pole in March.
This means that for a time, a maximum number of sunspots will not be earth facing. Not to worry, the bands are still open every day.
Next Week
- 03/01 Wed 1900 Cowlitz County ACS Meeting at LCARA Clubhouse
- 03/04 Sat ARRL DX Contest SSB
Nets ✅
Special Cowlitz County ACS Exercise
Open to all Amateurs
- 02/25 Sat 1000:
- W7DG 147.100 MHz T114 +060
- Subsequently check in via simplex on 144.440 MHz
NEW GMRS Net
New night: Tuesday / New time: 20:00
- 02/21 Tue 2000: GMRS Net - Open to all licensed GMRS operators
- WRNM663 462.650 MHz T114.8 +500 (Rainier)
Other Nets
- 02/20 Mon 2000: Cowlitz County ACS Net - Open to all Amateurs
- 02/21 Tue 0900: CEMNET Region IV Net - Winlink, V-Tac 12, 224.660 MHz (EOC)
- Email kf7hvm@0x26.net to be added to the weekly Winlink test
- 02/26 Sun 2000: W7MSH Mercury Mt. St. Helens ERC Net - Open to all Amateurs
- 2000 Woodland Checkin W7DG 147.300 MHz T114 +060
- 2015 Roundtable W7DG 147.260 MHz T114 +060
Clubhouse Internet
In mid February 2023, LCARA switched internet providers for the clubhouse. The connection should be noticably faster and more reliable now. The wifi network name and password have not changed.
Please report any issues you experience with the internet at the clubhouse to Glen N7UIG or Masen KF7HVM
Note: remote access to the clubhouse radio(s) is currently being tested and will be available shortly.
Thanks for reading.
Kindly send any comments, corrections, events, pictures, stories, or content for this newsletter to kf7hvm@0x26.net.
Consider joining the LCARA W7DG Facebook Group.