eHam.net News

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Eye on Education: Ham Radio Club:

Posted: 13 Feb 2016 04:23 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36172


Bishop Ryan's amateur radio class has entered a week-long, worldwide
competition for the first time this year. John Doran stopped by to see how
the students enjoyed going over the waves. (John Doran-KX News) For the
first time, Bishop Ryan school is getting competitive with their ham radio,
entering into the "School Club Roundup" competition. (Joe Ferrara-Ham Radio
Teacher) "The idea here is to talk to, to get high schools, middle schools
and universities all over the world on it the same week." (John Doran-KX
News) The objective of the contest, which involves every level of
schooling, is to see how many people you are able to connect with using a
ham radio. Using the radio isn't just as simple as picking up a microphone,
however, there's plenty of science and mathematics involved. Students like
8th grader Corbin Okeson know that fitting this in with the rest of their
curriculum will one day help land him in a good college. (Corbin
Okeson-Bishop Ryan 8th Grader)"It looks really good on degrees. Say you're
trying to get a job in engineering and they say, 'oh you took ham radio?'
It teaches you a lot and it's going to set me up for life." (John Doran-KX
News) Joe Ferrara, the teacher, has seen many students come through his
class go on and pursue successful careers. Especially in its inaugural year
about 10 years ago. (Joe Ferrara-Ham Radio Teacher) "When we started this
we had three kids in our amateur radio class and one is a Navy Seal, one
has a PhD in Mathematics and the other has a PhD in optics, so it seems to
work." (John Doran-KX News) But what draws students to ham radio is the
fascinating ability to instantly connect with people around the globe with
no cell phones and no internet.


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Prediction Methods in Solar Sunspots Cycles:

Posted: 13 Feb 2016 04:22 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36171


The Sun is an important source of energy in our life. The sunspots and
solar flares have been observed and studied by many researchers. Many
models which are developed from the Ohl's Precursor Method1 have yielded
varying degrees of success in predicting an upcoming solar activity. In
this study, a simplified movable divided-blocks diagram is proposed to
explain the underlying physical principle of the Ohl's Precursor Method.
Based on the movable divided-blocks diagram, the most promising and
interesting regions for statistical evaluation are identified. The strong
correlationship between the sunspots activity numbers and the geomagnetic
index is numerically calculated and subsequently verified. It is
consequently shown from a statistical study of the time-delayed solar
events that the electromagnetic pole members to which the sunspots are
associated, are moving with a time interval which is determined
statistically in this study, toward the Sun's Equator in each solar cycle
under the influence of electromagnetic torques which are the higher-orders
corrections to the rotating magnetic dipoles. The sunspots, though seem to
have occurred randomly on the Sun, have exhibited another regular feature.
A butterfly pattern, which is observed in each of the solar cycles over the
centuries, has long been a puzzling phenomenon. The butterfly pattern, as
shown below, could be inferred from the various projected end-points left
by the precessing motion of the magnetic moments under the influence of the
electromagnetic torques. The calculated results are compared with the
observed sunspot butterfly diagram. The similarity between them is
interesting for further investigation and discussion. A recent attention
has been focusing on the possible forthcoming new ice-age like climate2,
which is based on a mathematical regression model that extracts two
principal components in the solar background magnetic field. This effect
would have a serious impact in our life. An understanding of the sunspots
activity and a long-term planning would help us to better prepare with the
changes. The correlation factors are calculated from the solar and
geomagnetic data sets with the selected time-windows as implied and chosen
from the movable divided-blocks diagram. A statistical study of the
time-delayed events, which would eventually produce a reasonable prediction
on the timing of the peak in the monthly sunspots numbers in the ascending
phase of an upcoming solar cycle, is presented for further investigation.