Good propagation on 11 MHz around sunrise

Action at the Tyabb Airshow on April 18 2010!

Sunspot count on April 19 was down to 13, and solar activity was minimal.

So, no long-haul propagation into Melbourne above about 13 MHz across
darkness or semi-darkness paths.

Despite this, excellent signals in our sunrise period on 11 MHz, 1900 to
2100. Many new channels for A10! Shortpath from Europe, Africa, Asia, Middle
East - longpath from the Americas.

Some selected entries of April 19, 2010:

11510 EGYPT 1900-2020*
11535 N. KOREA VOK 1900-2000
11600 LIBYA V. of Africa 1900-2000
11710 ARGENTINA RAE 1930-2030 (non-daily)
 "    CHINA CNR1 *2000
11725 ENGLAND IBRA Radio Woofferton *1945-2015*
11755 GERMANY AWR Wertachtal *2000
11775 FRANCE R. Algeria Issoudin 1900-2000
11840 GERMANY WYFR Wertachtal 1900-2000*
11875 ENGLAND IBRA Radio Rampisham 1900-2000
11955 AUSTRIA AWR Moosbrunn 2000-2100
11970 FRANCE RN-Issoudin 1900-2000
11995 LIBYA V. of Africa 1900-2000

Be very very afraid of the fallout from the Iceland Volcano...!

Propagation and Monitoring on 11 MHz

This is from the latest ARRL Propagation Bulletin, of March 19, 2010:

"On March 6-9 we got a taste of the bad old days from 2008-2009, when there were frequent stretches of zero sunspots. After March 9, activity picked up, and we hope there is no end in sight to the much-welcome sunspots.

This week, March 11-17, average daily sunspot numbers increased from the previous period from 12.4 to 29.4. Thursday March 18 had a repeat of Wednesday's sunspot number, 28. We've looked at various moving averages over the past few years to try to smooth out the bumps and spot trends, and another way to look at it would be the trailing 50-day average of daily sunspot numbers, which on March 18 was 27.34. The fifty day period is purely arbitrary. For the eighteenth of each month, going back to April 18, 2009 the trailing 50 day average was 0.48, 2.44, 5.42, 7.4, 3.14, 0.48, 4.42, 7.42, 8.98, 17.44, 26.12 and 27.34. We can see a positive trend there.

On March 11 new sunspot group 1055 emerged, which followed the arrival of group 1054 the day prior. 1055 lasted a very brief period, and group 1056 appeared March 17. Today group 1054 is fading over the western limb, and it is hard to tell from the STEREO mission if some of the active magnetic areas just over the horizon are new or returning sunspots, or not even fully formed sunspots at all.

One uncertain area looks to be a day or less away, and beyond that, the only thing visible is on the other side of the narrowing unseen area on our Sun's far side. At 1045 Friday morning that blind spot covers less than 11.7% of the Sun's total area.

So far in March the average daily sunspot number is 24.2. For all of every month of March since the end of the last century, the average (1999-2009) was 100.5, 203.6, 166.7, 154.3, 119.7, 81, 41, 21.3, 9.8, 15.9, and 0.77. Sobering, isn't it?"

So, sunspot activity is fluctuating....

In the meantime, as we move through the March Equinox, propagation into Melbourne on 11 MHz has been very good around our sunrise window - these entries of March 20 in the 1900-2000 period will be of interest:

11635 ALBANIA R. Tirana English *1945-2000*

11695 IRAN VOIRI English *1930-2030*

11845 ENGLAND RCI-Skelton French *1900-2000*

11875 FRANCE RTI-Issoudin French *1900-2000*

11910 N. KOREA VOK English 1945

11955 GERMANY AWR-Nauen Arabic *1900-2000*

12070 ENGLAND DW-Wooferton German 1930

Stay tuned for many frequency and schedule changes which will come into effect on March 29, for the A10 season!

This weekend, the Warrandyte Festival is underway, in the outer eastern suburb of Warrandyte, 20 km from Melbourne town. I went over there yesterday - joined the throngs - plenty of color and action!

Warrandyte is on the Yarra River, and was the site of the first gold discovery in Victoria in 1851.

See the images!

11 MHz spectrum survey

This from the ARRL Propagation Report of Feb 19, 2010:

"We've now observed sunspots continuously for the past 30 days, certainly a turnaround from the quiet conditions of the past few years. In fact, in ten weeks we have seen only three days with no sunspots, on December 25, January
6 and January 19. This is a little over 4% no-sunspot days, a nice contrast with all of 2009, with over 71% days with no sunspots.

Sunspot group 1049 emerged on Wednesday Feb 17, and it is growing.

The minimum non-zero sunspot number is 11. This is because the numbers are derived from the number of sunspot groups, plus areas inside the groups. Each group counts for 10, so the minimum sunspot number is 11, and the
minimum sunspot number for at least two sunspot groups is 22.

In 2009 only 87 days (23.8%) had sunspot numbers greater than 11, and 21 of those days were in December. Only 43 days (11.8%) had a sunspot number greater than 15 (14 of those in December), and only 26 days in 2009 had a
sunspot number of 23 or more (none had 22).

Since the first of the year, average weekly sunspot numbers were 14.6, 26.4, 18.6, 28, 14.6, 43.3, and 38.7.
Sunspot numbers for February 11 through 17 were 64, 38, 37, 28, 27, 28, and 49 with a mean of 38.7. 10.7 cm flux was 94.2, 95.5, 94.1, 89.4, 87.6, 86.8, and 86.9 with a mean of 90.6. Estimated planetary A indices were 5, 6, 3, 4,
14, 9 and 4 with a mean of 6.4. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 4, 4, 2, 3, 8, 11 and 2 with a mean of 4.9"

Here in Melbourne, sporting capital of the world, there continues to be excellent openings on 11 MHz in our post sunrise period, in the window 2000 to 2100, dominated by shortpath propagation from Europe, Africa, the Middle
East, and Asia. Longpath from the Americas has also been in evidence.

This is a summary of key occupancies observed on Feb 19, 2010, 2000 to 2100:

11510 EGYPT R. Cairo English to 2030*
11540 EGYPT R. Cairo Arabic
11550 USA WEWN Spanish (longpath)
11565 USA WYFR German (longpath)
11605 RWANDA DW Kigali German
11625 VATICAN VR SMG 2015
11650 AUSTRALIA RA Shepparton English 11660 11880
11665 USA WYFR Polish
11720 VIETNAM VOV East Sea service Vietnamese
11725 NZ RNZI English
11760 CUBA RHC English (longpath)
11770 CUBA RHC Arabic (longpath)
11775 ANGUILLA University Network English (longpath)
11820 S. ARABIA BSKSA Arabic
11865 CANADA RCI Sackville *2000 Arabic (longpath)
11900 MARIANAS RFA Tinian Mandarin
11915 S. ARABIA BSKSA Arabic
11975 N. ANTILLES VOA Bonaire English (longpath)
12030 SPAIN REE Arabic

Propagation and Monitoring - good Asian signals on 11 MHz

Sunspot activity continues to be ZERO, and the sun remains blank of sunspots (at least on the visible disk).

It's reported that there appears to be a new region that has formed high in latitude in the southern hemisphere.

Unfortunatly this region is rotating out of view and it's not known if there is a sunspot unless it survives the rotation around the hidden side of the sun.

So, Cycle 24 has still not started, and is not liklelt to so any time soon!

Although sunspots themselves produce only minor effects on solar emissions, the magnetic activity that accompanies the sunspots can produce dramatic changes in the ultraviolet and soft x-ray emission levels. These changes over the solar cycle have important consequences for the Earth's upper atmosphere.

See this NASA site for interesting information:

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml

MSFC Solar Physics Branch members at the Marshall Space Flight Centre have studied the sunspot record for characteristic behavior that might help in predicting future sunspot activity. Current predictions of solar activity for the next few years can be found at

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtml

See also

http://www.solarcycle24.com/

Despite the lack of sunspots, the ionosphere continues to work very well for long-distance propagation on frequencies above about 12 MHz for daylight transmission paths.

Reliable propagation over darkness, or semi-darkness paths, is confined to frequencies below about 12 MHz - here in Melbourne, the 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 11 MHz bands continue to be very good during the various propagation windows which appear during any 24 hour period.

We are very close to the September Equinox - after that, we will begin to experience the summer daytime propagation phenomena from Asia and Africa in the bands below 12 MHz.

Melbourne reception on 11 MHz is scintillating in our evening window, centred around 0930, with some interesting occupancies for broadcasters in Europe making increased use of relays in Asia and the Far East, at times when direct shortpath propagation is not posssible.

Some occupancies noted in the 0930 to 1000 window include:

11565 TAIWAN WYFR-Taipei Mandarin
11580 MARIANAS KFBS-Saipan Mandarin
11620 CHINA CRI-Xian, English
11675 SINGAPORE Croatian Radio, Kranji, Croatian
11700 PHILIPPINES RFE-Tinang, Russian
11735 N. KOREA R. Pyongyang, Korean
11740 SINGAPORE NHK-Kranji, Japanese
11765 USA KNLS Alaska, Mandarin
11780 CHINA CNR8, Minority Langs network, Uighur
11825 PHILIPPINES VOA-Tinang, Mandarin
11865 N. KOREA VOK, Japanese
11875 TAIWAN RFI-Tainan, Mandarin
11905 CHINA CNR6, Taiwan Network, Hakka
11965 THAILAND VOA-Udorn, Mandarin
11980 CHINA CRI-Kunming, Mandarin
12025 RUSSIA RFI-Irkutsk, Mandarin
12045 CHINA CNR1, Mandarin
12085 MONGOLIA V of Mongolia, Mongolian

Regards from Melbourne!