I was at the QTH of my brother, W6PR in San Diego over the Christmas
vacation.  On December 24 I caught an opening, which lasted an hour or so,
from San Diego to Argentina at about 1900 UTC.  People worked some DX during
the ARRL ten-meter contest in mid-December.  It really helps to be using
full-sized antennas, and to be using CW or SSB, not FM for this kind of
marginal DX.  Check the beacons often.  I am finding that, especially on 15
meters, the band can be open and nobody transmits, so they think that it is
dead.  There are some broadcast stations above 15 meters, and the NCDXF
beacons on 21150.

Solar flux was around 66 in mid-summer.  It is now around 68 to 70.  This is
partly because the earth is closer to the sun in January than in July.

In each sunspot cycle, solar flux does increase faster than it decreases, on
average, so once it gets moving we should hear some action, starting with
paths to the south, southeast and southwest.  I didn't have good antennas in
the late 50's.  But one memorable moment was when I heard British and French
television AM audio below six meters on an NC183D from Vinton, Iowa, in
October, 1959.  The antenna was nothing special, just an 80-meter dipole.
The equipment people have today is far superior to what they had in the late
50's.  Practically all phone activity was AM and not SSB, and the average CW
station was rather chirpy on 10 meters.  We'll see what kind of solar
activity we get in Cycle 24.



Lloyd Rasmussen, W3IUU, Kensington, Maryland
Home:  http://lras.home.sprynet.com
Work:  http://www.loc.gov/nls
 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Martin McCormick
> Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 12:10 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: When will 10 Meters Open?
> 
> "Mike Duke, K5XU" writes:
> > You can probably catch a few short E skip openings over the next week or
> > so.
> >
> > They are pretty common this time of year, and aren't too dependent on
> the
> > sunspot cycle.
> 
> 	You might even get lucky and catch the E skip until near
> the first of February but it is mostly concentrated around the
> Winter Solstice which happened on December 21 of this year so
> the openings will get less and less frequent until by mid
> February, we'll be back to hearing only power line noise and
> computer RFI on ten.
> 
> 	In North Central Oklahoma, we started having faint
> Sporadic E openings around the eleventh or twelth of November.
> At least there was 1 and then a couple of weeks later, a few
> more.
> 
> 	I also heard the kz2h repeater system in New York on
> 29.62 numerous times on Christmas Eve and Christmas day plus
> several other times recently.
> 
> "Mike Duke, K5XU" continues:
> > As for long haul openings, I don't expect any consistent openings like
> > that
> > before next October at least.
> 
> 	That's being optimistic but we can all hope. Every hour
> WWV broadcasts a brief message giving the Solar Flux and
> geomagnetic indices. These are good bits of information and
> tell you what the weather is like way out there on the Sun. The
> Solar Flux is essentially a number that represents the amount of
> noise the Sun emits on  2.8GHZ. This hiss would sound like
> receiver noise if you listened to it, but it rises when there
> are more Sun spots and falls toa lower level in times like now
> when there is very little going on on the Sun.
> 
> 	The scientists who track all this activity make an
> educated guess as to how many Sun Spots there are since those
> spots correlate with that noise. There are also visual
> observations made using special telescopes that look for the
> actual spots and even mask out the image of the Sun to look for
> tongues of light that protrude out from the main disk of the
> Sun.
> 
> 	That flux number has basically been stuck around 65 to
> 75 for months and it needs to go up to 80 to 100 or more before
> ten meters wakes up.
> 
> 	The history, though, indicates that when it does wake
> up, it will be fast and spectacular.
> 
> 	A few of you on this list remember the Solar activity
> peak in 1958. While I was alive then, I don't remember that but
> it is talked about as being the best ever. That was only 4 years
> after one of the lowest Solar minima ever recorded.
> 
> 	Until this last seemingly endless Solar minimum, that
> one in 1954 was the longest period recorded of blank Suns so
> maybe the good times are just around the corner.
> 
> 	Listen  to WWV at 18 minutes past the hour in the
> mainland United States and to WWVH at 45 minutes past the hour.
> You can also look up the most recent announcement text any time
> you want by using the URL:
> 
> http://sec.noaa.gov/ftpdir/latest/wwv.txt
> 
> 	When the flux number is high and the A and K index
> numbers are low, conditions can be really good.
> 
> 	Happy New Year and 73
> 
> Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK
> Systems Engineer
> OSU Information Technology Department Telecommunications Services Group