In article ,
"Lisa Simpson" wrote:

"Telamon" wrote in
message

In article ,
Radio TexMex wrote:

Lisa Simpson wrote:


http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/06mar_solarminimum.htm?list205275

Yup. There she blows, bare as a baby's bottom.

NASA solar physicist David Hathaway explains: "Solar minimum
has arrived." -

So, since that fella said it, I guess its official. This won't
stop me from enjoying my hobby, but that damn powerline
situtation in the backyard sure makes it hard.

Happy DX'ing!

This just means that the lower bands will be better than the upper
bands. The international broadcasters change the frequencies they
broadcast on seasonally and yearly based in part on the sun spot
count so it should not affect your listening to a large extent.

They smaller broadcasters are not as flexible though so you might
lose out there during the minimum sun spot years.

Having no long term experience in SWL personally, would those with a
couple cycle's worth please share their experiences? What can we
expect for the next ~11 years?

There are three cyclic things I can think of that affect propagation.

1. The night and day cycle.
2. The winter and summer cycle.
3. The solar minimum and maximum cycle.

All three are similar in a way in that the propagation is affected by
the amount of sunlight in the hemisphere you reside in.

Basically the 11 year cycle will exaggerate the night/day and seasonal
effects in a way similar to the tides where when the moon and sun
gravitational pulls line up you have the same tide cycle but the levels
change is more dramatic.

Right now we are at or near solar minimum and so the lower bands are
generally better with over all lower levels of solar ionization. As the
time of day and season favor the lower bands they will be even better at
these times than during the solar maximum.

Consequently high band propagation is not as good. The current daytime
MUF is not so high this past the winter but was higher this past summer.
The daytime MUF will be higher in the solar max winter than this past
winter and even higher in the solar max summer than this past summer.

Over all, low bands are better these days and higher bands not so good.
During solar maximum the low bands will not be so good and the high
bands will be much better when the season and time of day favor them.

The change in middle bands will not be as great as in the low and high
bands going from solar min to max.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California