23 vs 24!

Well it seems that I was a little optimistic about solar cycle 24. The recent activity belongs to cycle 23! Unbelievable but true. Read the following note taken from NASA page and you understand what is really going on.

Barely three months after forecasters announced the beginning of new Solar Cycle 24, old Solar Cycle 23 has returned. Actually, it never left. Read on.
"This week, three big sunspots appeared and they are all old cycle spots," says NASA solar physicist David Hathaway. "We know this because of their magnetic polarity."
Earlier today, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) made this magnetic map of the sun:

It shows the north and south magnetic poles of the three sunspots. All are oriented according to the patterns of Solar Cycle 23. Cycle 24 spots would be reversed.
What's going on? Hathaway explains: "We have two solar cycles in progress at the same time. Solar Cycle 24 has begun (the first new-cycle spot appeared in January 2008), but Solar Cycle 23 has not ended."Strange as it sounds, this is perfectly normal. Around the time of solar minimum--i.e., now--old-cycle spots and new-cycle spots frequently intermingle. Eventually Cycle 23 will fade to zero, giving way in full to Solar Cycle 24, but not yet.

Meanwhile, on March 25th, sunspot 989, the smallest of the three sunspots, unleashed an M2-class solar flare. Flares are measured on a "Richter scale" ranging from A-class (puny) to X-class (powerful). M-class flares are of medium intensity. This one hurled a coronal mass ejection or "CME" into space (movie), but the billion-ton cloud missed Earth.

While the CME was still plowing through the sun's atmosphere, amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft heard "a heaving sound" coming from the loudspeaker of his 21 MHz shortwave receiver in New Mexico: listen. It was a Type II solar radio burst generated by shock waves at the leading edge of the CME. A thousand miles away in Virginia, David Thomas recorded the same emissions on a chart recorder he connected to his 20 MHz ham rig: look. "What a pleasant surprise," says Thomas.

We could get more of this kind of activity in the next 7 to 10 days. It will take about that long for the sunspots to cross the face of the sun. The sun's rotation is turning the spots toward Earth, which means the next CME, if there is one, might not miss. CME strikes do no physical harm to Earth but they can cause Northern Lights, satellite glitches and, in extreme cases, power outages.

The real significance of these spots is what they say about the solar cycle, says Hathaway. "Solar Cycle 24 has begun, but we won't be through solar minimum until the number of Cycle 24 spots rises above the declining number of Cycle 23 spots." Based on this latest spate of "old" activity, he thinks the next Solar Max probably won't arrive until 2012.

Stay tuned to Science@NASA for solar cycle updates.

Welcome 24

The sun waked up at last. As a permanent space weather watcher I had to see so many sun spots for months. the solar flux is better than 80 and the new trip started for good. No doubt the 24 cycle is here and loud. Be patient to see the results in propagation terms. But of course it is a bit early for that.

Writing these words an other major expedition that kept us company for several days is QRT. The 9X0R was a well organized, well equipped and having great operators. The recent expedition in Rwanda by German guys does not affect at all their popularity. Especially their online log even with some glitches and not real time as they expected, it gave them a great push. I worked them in 19 of 20 slots they showed up, but there are many they worked the whole 20.

By the way tonight we have little party, celebrating my Honor Roll. Well, not yet achieved as 3 final cards are missing (the entities have been worked and it is a matter of QSLing), but who can wait to drink some beers for that? You are all invited!

TX5C...EPILOGUE!

"TX5C went QRT 1400z March 15th 2008, two days earlier than originally planned. Due to both weather and sea conditions, the Captain of the Shogun determined that an earlier departure was required to ensure the safety of his crew and our team. We began moving equipment offshore two days prior in challenging conditions. By the time the last team members were extracted from the atoll late in the day, all but one of the zodiac spare propellers had been broken on the reef. The Shogun pulled anchor at 0130z March 16th and as the sun set, the team watched Clipperton Atoll slowly fade from view."

The expedition wend worse than anticipated due to the weather and other causes. The target of 100,000 qso was not approached. It turned out to be quite more difficult to operate as they want in this remote place of the world under a fierce nature and extreme temperatures. As for me my qsl card is on its way to N7CQQ to be cfm. And this is the last step as you Know. The 9X0R and 5T5DC are just routine exercises.

The last one!

They are already on the island. Tomorrow we will start hear them on the bands. Hopping that the propagation will help as it does with Ducie, we will work them to many bands. So warm the machines up! As for me this is the expedition that will complete my Honor Roll and for this reason I will love it and remember it the years to come. Here are their first words from the battlefield:
"We are on Clipperton Atoll! It's 0133z as we write this. We had a successful landing and have loaded quite a bit of our camp gear to the island. Our base camp is set up and we're all tired but full of enthusiasm! In the morning we will begin the construction of our operating stations on the north side of the island exactly where we had hoped to be able to land. We are excited about this as this location will provide the best paths for us to work the world. We will update this page in the morning in more detail but we wanted you all to know we are safe and are on the island."

Fireworks at Ducie Island!

Copying from Ducie page......

"On 2008 February 25 Monday at 0437z, after 13 days 7 hours and 37 minutes of continuous operation, RA0ALM contacted the Ducie Island expedition on the 10 MHz band for the expedition's 168,723rd contact.

According to documents maintained by Jari Jussila OH2BU, this contact breaks the record for the largest number of contacts made by any radio expedition. The record was previously held by the Five Star DX Association's expedition to the Comoros Island (D68C) during 2001 Feb 8-28.

A few moments later, the pre-moonrise starry skies above Ducie Island sparkled with a barrage of flares launched from the deck of the M/V Braveheart in celebration. The thirteen operators and six Braveheart crew congratulated each other with handshakes, hugs, and some strong coffee. But deep pileups of European and North American stations were still calling. Soon the seven on-duty operators were back in front of the radios, while the others crept off to their cots to catch up on sleep in the cool of the evening.

The Ducie Island expedition has broken other expedition records in recent days, including:

• 
  
• largest number of RTTY contacts, previously held by the Swains Island N8S expedition of 2007 April.
• largest number of SSB (voice) contacts, previously held by the Comoros Island D68C expedition.
• largest number of contacts on the 40m band, previously held by the Libya 5A7A expedition of 2006 November.
• largest number of contacts on the 30m band, previously held by the St Brandon Island 3B7C expedition of 2007 September.
• largest number of contacts on the 17m band, previously held by the Swains Island N8S expedition.
• largest number of contacts with North America, previously held by the Comoros Island D68C expedition.
• largest number of contacts with South America, previously held by the Peter the First Island 3Y0X expedition of 2006 February.
• largest number of contacts with Africa, previously held by the Rodrigues Island 3B9C expedition of 2004 March-April.

As this message was transmitted by Iridium satellite from Ducie Island, the expedition contact total crossed 170,000 contacts... and continues to increase at about 415 contacts per hour. Most contacts now entering the logs are with European stations during their morning twilight period. In an hour or so the focus will shift to North and South America, east Asia and the Pacific, where it will remain until dawn at Ducie Island."

Congratulations dear folks. You gave us very nice moments indeed. And now next station Clipperton...the terminal one!

Ducie online log promised today

Actually it was booming on 80m this morning. The online log first upload is promised for today at noon. I am publishing some late news as they request it.

News #14- 2008 Feb 13

I just had a telephone call with Carsten (DL6LAU) on Ducie Island. The reason we did not get any update or online log from the island is that they had no time until now because of a big workload to setup the stations and antennas. They plan to go "online" in the next 6-12 hours so we expect the first online logs around noon on Thursday. Please be aware that the data connection via Iridium is very sensible so it can last a long time to upload the online logs.

After 1,5 days of operation they have now about 28,000 QSOs in the log (about 17,000 after the first 24 hours!). They already started RTTY operation on 20m with over 700 QSOs at the moment. In some days we expect also RTTY operation on 30m.

Antenna construction is still in progress. Some antennas for 12m and 10m are missing. Today they are at the installation of the Beverage antennas for the low bands.

All team members are in a good shape (except some sunburns) and they have a lot of fun. A problem is the extreme heat during the daywhich makes it nearly impossible for the night operators to sleep.

Tomorrow we will get some more news from the island. Please stay tuned.

We would be delighted if DX editors would publish this information as widely as possible and DXers bring it to the attention of their clubs and fellow DXers.

WPXRTTY TEST

I spent last weekend running the CQWPXRTTY contest. As a single operator I was 30 hours active chasing mostly dx stations. It was a really cold weekend, so I enjoyed it very much sitting all that time in my cozy shack. Even with a spotless sun propagation was not bad. MixW worked faultlessly again. I worked 605 qso and over 600,000points. No bad at all. The main target was not the championship of course. In comparison I had done 532 qso in CQWWRTTY last September. Several USA, VE, JA and VK stations were heard. P40X was in the log also. A welcome surprise it was also the qso with my friend Patrick, F6IRF. Patrick is a devoted CW operator so I did not expect him to join the test.

By the way two new expeditions start this week: VR6DX (Ducie) and TI9KK (Cocos). Both have nice signals in 80m and 40m in the morning, but no chance the rest of the day. With so low sun activity it is amazing we can work them. So no complains….and the next month I am anxious to work the TX5C (Clipperton). This is a very important for me as it is the real last one to get the Honor Roll with 329 entities. So folks it will be a really exciting spring.