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Geo- magnetic storm in progress
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Geo- magnetic storm in progress
On Thursday, August 2, 2012 3:24:52 PM UTC-4, (unknown) wrote:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html Kp=5 Jim (MI) Using binoculars, I saw a huge sunspot at sunrise this morning, which for me was right after 6:00 a.m. outside Washington, DC. It looked like the transit of Venus. Really, it was that large and noticeable. The atmosphere was so humidity-laden that I could look at the sun through the binoculars without any needing any glass from a welder's mask. YMMV. |
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On Thu, 2 Aug 2012 12:43:54 -0700 (PDT), Beloved Leader
wrote: On Thursday, August 2, 2012 3:24:52 PM UTC-4, (unknown) wrote: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html Kp=5 Jim (MI) Using binoculars, I saw a huge sunspot at sunrise this morning, which for me was right after 6:00 a.m. outside Washington, DC. It looked like the transit of Venus. Really, it was that large and noticeable. The atmosphere was so humidity-laden that I could look at the sun through the binoculars without any needing any glass from a welder's mask. YMMV. Do you remember the giant sunspots during the 1960's you could see with the naked eye? Solar flux over 200. I used to pick up WWV on 25 MHz on my cheap walkie-talkies. New Zealand used to blast in around midnight local time just below 18 MHz. Good times. Jim (MI) |
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"Michael Black" wrote in message
ample.net... Do you remember the giant sunspots during the 1960's you could see with the naked eye? Solar flux over 200. I used to pick up WWV on 25 MHz on my cheap walkie-talkies. New Zealand used to blast in around midnight local time just below 18 MHz. Good times. I'm surprised you could hear 25MHz WWV on a cheap walkie talkie. Surely band conditions opened up that you'd get all the CBers first, so they'd wipe out WWV. The superregenerative receivers were wide band, but the CBers were a lot more plentiful. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the 60's, there were relatively few CB'ers, and the ones that were around were legal 3 watt output. The big CB boom didn't happen until around 1971 or 72. WWV would have been what? About 50KW? At any rate, a lot more powerful than a 3W CB. |
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"Michael Black" wrote in message
ample.net... Do you remember the giant sunspots during the 1960's you could see with the naked eye? Solar flux over 200. I used to pick up WWV on 25 MHz on my cheap walkie-talkies. New Zealand used to blast in around midnight local time just below 18 MHz. Good times. I'm surprised you could hear 25MHz WWV on a cheap walkie talkie. Surely band conditions opened up that you'd get all the CBers first, so they'd wipe out WWV. The superregenerative receivers were wide band, but the CBers were a lot more plentiful. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the 60's, there were relatively few CB'ers, and the ones that were around were legal 3 watt output. The big CB boom didn't happen until around 1971 or 72. WWV would have been what? About 50KW? At any rate, a lot more powerful than a 3W CB. |
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On 08/02/2012 05:37 PM, Brenda Ann wrote:
"Michael Black" wrote in message ample.net... Do you remember the giant sunspots during the 1960's you could see with the naked eye? Solar flux over 200. I used to pick up WWV on 25 MHz on my cheap walkie-talkies. New Zealand used to blast in around midnight local time just below 18 MHz. Good times. I'm surprised you could hear 25MHz WWV on a cheap walkie talkie. Surely band conditions opened up that you'd get all the CBers first, so they'd wipe out WWV. The superregenerative receivers were wide band, but the CBers were a lot more plentiful. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the 60's, there were relatively few CB'ers, and the ones that were around were legal 3 watt output. The big CB boom didn't happen until around 1971 or 72. WWV would have been what? About 50KW? At any rate, a lot more powerful than a 3W CB. There was a big CB boom when it was first authorized. 1961 or so. My dad put a ground plane outside my window. |
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On Fri, 3 Aug 2012, Brenda Ann wrote:
"Michael Black" wrote in message ample.net... Do you remember the giant sunspots during the 1960's you could see with the naked eye? Solar flux over 200. I used to pick up WWV on 25 MHz on my cheap walkie-talkies. New Zealand used to blast in around midnight local time just below 18 MHz. Good times. I'm surprised you could hear 25MHz WWV on a cheap walkie talkie. Surely band conditions opened up that you'd get all the CBers first, so they'd wipe out WWV. The superregenerative receivers were wide band, but the CBers were a lot more plentiful. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the 60's, there were relatively few CB'ers, and the ones that were around were legal 3 watt output. The big CB boom didn't happen until around 1971 or 72. WWV would have been what? About 50KW? At any rate, a lot more powerful than a 3W CB. I didn't think there was that big a difference between "the sixties" and 1971 in regards to CB. It was a small number of channels, and almost from the start some were trying to DX. But even without those attempts, people realized early on that it was the wrong place in the spectrum, because with the skip in, you did get everyone else. I don't know what it was like when the boom hit a few years later, but with a crummy Hallicrafters S-120A receiver that had little selectivity and little sensitivity in 1971, when conditions were good, it wsa a solid whine across the CB band. I'm pretty sure that would have been the case even a few years earlier. The issue isn't so much density, but that skip might come in from multiple places, and each place was using those channels, so added up, it made the whine. Remember a superregen has virtually no selectivity, which is why he could hear WWV at 25MHz when CB started just below 27MHz. But that also meant no real selectivity, just a multitude of stations coming in when conditions were good. Michael |
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On Thu, 2 Aug 2012, dave wrote:
On 08/02/2012 05:37 PM, Brenda Ann wrote: "Michael Black" wrote in message ample.net... Do you remember the giant sunspots during the 1960's you could see with the naked eye? Solar flux over 200. I used to pick up WWV on 25 MHz on my cheap walkie-talkies. New Zealand used to blast in around midnight local time just below 18 MHz. Good times. I'm surprised you could hear 25MHz WWV on a cheap walkie talkie. Surely band conditions opened up that you'd get all the CBers first, so they'd wipe out WWV. The superregenerative receivers were wide band, but the CBers were a lot more plentiful. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the 60's, there were relatively few CB'ers, and the ones that were around were legal 3 watt output. The big CB boom didn't happen until around 1971 or 72. WWV would have been what? About 50KW? At any rate, a lot more powerful than a 3W CB. There was a big CB boom when it was first authorized. 1961 or so. My dad put a ground plane outside my window. People forget, it was relative. There had been demand, there had been dreaming, of "personal radio" for a long time. If nothing else, all those people who wanted to be hams but didn't want to take the test. And I gather the rules or the public knowledge was ambiguous to begin with. I've seen early issues of Popular Electronics where CB was promoted as a hobby band, not just peripheral things like 'build your own monitor scope" but outright columns about DXing. And it was no wasteland. They soon learned it was a lousy place in the spectrum for something like that, since even without people trying to work long distance, the long distance signals came in when conditions were good. One reason the Heathkit Sixers (supreregen receivers with simple transmitters, a variant of the CB version) did so well at 50Mhz was that when the band opened up, 5watts input was more than enough for DX, even witha lousy antenna. At 27MHz, the same thing applied, except the band opened up even more often. Michael |
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On Fri, 3 Aug 2012 09:56:51 +0900, "Brenda Ann"
wrote: "Michael Black" wrote in message xample.net... Do you remember the giant sunspots during the 1960's you could see with the naked eye? Solar flux over 200. I used to pick up WWV on 25 MHz on my cheap walkie-talkies. New Zealand used to blast in around midnight local time just below 18 MHz. Good times. I'm surprised you could hear 25MHz WWV on a cheap walkie talkie. Surely band conditions opened up that you'd get all the CBers first, so they'd wipe out WWV. The superregenerative receivers were wide band, but the CBers were a lot more plentiful. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the 60's, there were relatively few CB'ers, and the ones that were around were legal 3 watt output. The big CB boom didn't happen until around 1971 or 72. WWV would have been what? About 50KW? At any rate, a lot more powerful than a 3W CB. These were cheap crystal controlled transmit walkie talkies. The receive as mentioned was wideband and in the late afternoon during peak solar conditions (late 60's) WWV would fade in and out. I don't know what path the signal took,or even what frequency I was hearing - I assume it was 25 MHz - but I could hear it pretty well from northeast Detroit, MI. Jim (MI) |
All I remember was that in the early years, there was no CB radio equipment for sale, and the couple that the manufacturers came out with - were pretty poor excuses for a CB radio.
Especially the mobiles - they might have only had 1 - 5 transmit channels and the same receive. At that time, the way i remember it, it was probably illegal for the manufacturers to sell Amateur Radio Equipment to anyone that did not possess a license. The next generation of transceivers to come out was mostly kit form - Knight Kit, Heathkit, Lafayette, Eico - etc... To put it in today's perspective - if a kit transceiver cost $80 - $160, and a fully assembled transceiver or any quality was $265 - $600/ and Gasoline was $.20 a gallon, and mininum wage was probably around $.50 a hour! A new CB radio / by the time you bought the crystals - doubled the cost, and would be like $1000 - $7000 in todays money.. The Part 15 / now Part 95 rules was that you were not allowed to transmit more then 155 miles. Unless you had a really good transceiver - Browning, Tram, Courier, Regency - you didn't have to worry about that anyways... AND - the technology was there - as far as antenna's were concerned, that you just bought the largest antenna you could find and it was a very good substitution for the loosers with the amplifiers today... Just think how much transmit and receive power a person had with a Long John - ( HY Gain ) or Duo 6 Beam antenna had... Even a Duo 3 - was enough to turn your 5 watts - ( when all the tubes were new ) transceiver, into a signal which was perceived like a 120 watt transceiver... In Western PA, if you wanted to talk Skip to Australia, you had to get up early in the morning - around 5 AM and listen to the SSB portion of the lower frequencies - channel 1 - 12..... At that time, there was a observed band plan - channel 11 was the call channel, you called your CQ on 11 and then when you made contact with someone - you jumped up to another channel... Hence my handle was the Channel Jumper.. We all had call signs and we all had to act like ladies and gentlemen. Then the manufacturers got the bright idea that there was more money to be made by manufacturning solid state transceivers - since the tubes did not last long in a mobile enviroment with the spring / solid axle trucks and the fact that there was a million big rigs on the road and they could make a killing by selling everyone a CB radio.... After a couple of CB radio movies, it wasn't long before the truckers felt that no one could tell them what to do, and what not to do, and the call signs were dropped, the enforcement of the rules was dropped, the idiots from Texas and the southern states took over with their tall towers and huge amplifiers, and soon it wasn't possible to find a quiet place to talk... By the 1980's = most people just shut them off and took down the antenna's and put it all away. By that time, it was easier to get a Amateur Radio License and people had more money into their pockets and more disposable income and the price of CB radio got to the point of where it became disposable - $25 for a mobile / and the Amateur Radio equipment got cheaper - when Yaesu, Kenwood / Icom got into the business and all the quality went by the wayside.. Hammerlund, Eico, Johnson, National , Heathkit, Hallicrafters, Collins all saw the handwriting on the wall.. At the same time, no one was willing to spend hundreds of dollars on the Browning , Tram, Courier , Regency - when you could do the same thing with a $50 Teaberry, Kraco, Cobra, Midland, Pierce Simpson........ The golden age of CB radio was probably the 1960's due to the fact that there was several good band openings in 1965 - 67 and again in 1971 - 74.. |
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Geo- magnetic storm in progress
As I remember, and don't take my memory to the bank, 11M came about 1958. I built a 5 crystal/channel Heath around 1960, I believe. Ch 9 was the call channel, this was before REACT came about. The only radios out there were a Halli, Courier, and Heath. Near as i recall, Allied came out with a rig around 1962. I remember taxi and some truck company's on ch23. It was a real mess. Hams were ****ed, but most I knew were in there with the rest of the noise. Lots of medical inside ch22A and B. Which became ch24 and 25 when they opened up to 40. As I said, 9 was call, 10 to 15 was to anyone, other channels were inter-ticket only. It was fun, but when it got busy, I walked away. Did make some nice local friends on it. Lafayette, and then Allied/Radio Shack really got it moving with reasonable priced radios. I still remember my Allied with tunable receive and a spot for TX/RX. I was a 20Q call. And that's about all I remember from back then. Or, I could be wrong on some of this info. Drifter... E.F. Johnson also made early CB radios. |
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On Fri, 03 Aug 2012 11:23:28 -0400, Drifter wrote:
On 8/3/2012 8:28 AM, wrote: On Fri, 3 Aug 2012 09:56:51 +0900, "Brenda Ann" wrote: "Michael Black" wrote in message ample.net... Do you remember the giant sunspots during the 1960's you could see with the naked eye? Solar flux over 200. I used to pick up WWV on 25 MHz on my cheap walkie-talkies. New Zealand used to blast in around midnight local time just below 18 MHz. Good times. I'm surprised you could hear 25MHz WWV on a cheap walkie talkie. Surely band conditions opened up that you'd get all the CBers first, so they'd wipe out WWV. The superregenerative receivers were wide band, but the CBers were a lot more plentiful. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the 60's, there were relatively few CB'ers, and the ones that were around were legal 3 watt output. The big CB boom didn't happen until around 1971 or 72. WWV would have been what? About 50KW? At any rate, a lot more powerful than a 3W CB. These were cheap crystal controlled transmit walkie talkies. The receive as mentioned was wideband and in the late afternoon during peak solar conditions (late 60's) WWV would fade in and out. I don't know what path the signal took,or even what frequency I was hearing - I assume it was 25 MHz - but I could hear it pretty well from northeast Detroit, MI. Jim (MI) Jim. As I remember, and don't take my memory to the bank, 11M came about 1958. I built a 5 crystal/channel Heath around 1960, I believe. Ch 9 was the call channel, this was before REACT came about. The only radios out there were a Halli, Courier, and Heath. Near as i recall, Allied came out with a rig around 1962. I remember taxi and some truck company's on ch23. It was a real mess. Hams were ****ed, but most I knew were in there with the rest of the noise. Lots of medical inside ch22A and B. Which became ch24 and 25 when they opened up to 40. As I said, 9 was call, 10 to 15 was to anyone, other channels were inter-ticket only. It was fun, but when it got busy, I walked away. Did make some nice local friends on it. Lafayette, and then Allied/Radio Shack really got it moving with reasonable priced radios. I still remember my Allied with tunable receive and a spot for TX/RX. I was a 20Q call. And that's about all I remember from back then. Or, I could be wrong on some of this info. Drifter... I am talking about a cheap 100mw output crystal controlled (ch 14 transmit only), hand held walkie talkie. Japanese made (I seem to remember the Alaron brand name). I don't know what it used for receive but you could listen to a large part of the 11 meter band. There was no tuning adjust. And once and a while, if you were lucky enough to catch someone on channel 14, you could make a contact. Of course I used to hook up 500 feet or so of transformer wire to the whip antenna to try and improve reception. It did, overloading the cheap receiver, but I heard all kinds of stations including WWV. Now you know the rest of the story...... Jim (MI) |
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Channel Jumper wrote:
Then the manufacturers got the bright idea that there was more money to be made by manufacturning solid state transceivers - since the tubes did not last long in a mobile enviroment with the spring / solid axle trucks and the fact that there was a million big rigs on the road and they could make a killing by selling everyone a CB radio.... What killed CB in the US was the trucker's strike. Every trucker had one by then and they did not want to be tacked down and prosecuted, either for using the CB to organize their activities, or for the activities themselves, so they started using "handles" that were not close to their name, and not their real callsigns or names. It became a free for all, as there was a perception that the FCC and the other police were powerless to stop them. The FCC responded by raising the price of a CB license to $25 per year. Someone sued them claiming the price was excessive and won. So for a few years you could get a CB license for free. You could get permission for up to 25 radios on your license, so everyone did. If you had a radio and no license, in order to get on the air you could use a temporary callsign, which I think was something like KBG and your zip code. I don't know what they did in a big city the day after christmas when there were hundreds of new owners. :-) By that time no one was using their callsigns anyway, so the FCC changed their policy that any existing licenses would be valid "indefinately", and anyone who had a radio was licensed by posessing the radio. Current FCC regs require you to identify yourself, but don't specify how to do it except that if you already have an FCC issued call sign, you may, but are not required to use it. I recently moved, and in the process found my old CB licences, one for voice and the other for remote control, so I have added them for nostalgia to my signature. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, N3OWJ/4X1GM/KBUH7245/KBUW5379 |
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"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote in message
... If you had a radio and no license, in order to get on the air you could use a temporary callsign, which I think was something like KBG and your zip code. I don't know what they did in a big city the day after christmas when there were hundreds of new owners. :-) Geoff. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The system you are referring to was the use of the letter K or W (depending on geography), followed by the first and last initials of the user, followed by the zip code in which the user lived. e.g. KBD97214 (this was technically only valid for a short time while an actual license was acquired.. but it never worked out that way.) |
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On 8/2/2012 3:43 PM, Beloved Leader wrote:
On Thursday, August 2, 2012 3:24:52 PM UTC-4, (unknown) wrote: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html Kp=5 Jim (MI) Using binoculars, I saw a huge sunspot at sunrise this morning, which for me was right after 6:00 a.m. outside Washington, DC. It looked like the transit of Venus. Really, it was that large and noticeable. The atmosphere was so humidity-laden that I could look at the sun through the binoculars without any needing any glass from a welder's mask. YMMV. I hope you realize that amongst the rods and cones on your retina, there are NO pain receptors. It is really easy to damage your retina and not realize it -- and looking through a telescope or binoculars without a solar filter (not depending on clouds) can quickly cause serious damage. NEVER look at the sun without a solar filter. Do NOT depend on clouds or fog. Oh, did I mention NEVER? |
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On Mon, 6 Aug 2012, Joe from Kokomo wrote:
On 8/2/2012 3:43 PM, Beloved Leader wrote: On Thursday, August 2, 2012 3:24:52 PM UTC-4, (unknown) wrote: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html Kp=5 Jim (MI) Using binoculars, I saw a huge sunspot at sunrise this morning, which for me was right after 6:00 a.m. outside Washington, DC. It looked like the transit of Venus. Really, it was that large and noticeable. The atmosphere was so humidity-laden that I could look at the sun through the binoculars without any needing any glass from a welder's mask. YMMV. I hope you realize that amongst the rods and cones on your retina, there are NO pain receptors. It is really easy to damage your retina and not realize it -- and looking through a telescope or binoculars without a solar filter (not depending on clouds) can quickly cause serious damage. NEVER look at the sun without a solar filter. Do NOT depend on clouds or fog. Oh, did I mention NEVER? That was why during the eclipse of 1970, everyone was told the safest method was to pit a tiny hole in a box and watch the projection against the other side. Michael |
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(top-posting, which the new inteface makes more understandable than any alternative)
Thanks for the information. When I observed the transit of Venus back in June, I used a really dark piece of glass from a welder's mask. Whatever the number was, it was dark enough that I could not see surrounding terrain. On Monday, August 6, 2012 7:42:18 PM UTC-4, Joe from Kokomo wrote: On 8/2/2012 3:43 PM, Beloved Leader wrote: ... The atmosphere was so humidity-laden that I could look at the sun through the binoculars without any needing any glass from a welder's mask. YMMV. I hope you realize that amongst the rods and cones on your retina, there are NO pain receptors. It is really easy to damage your retina and not realize it.... |
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On 8/7/2012 12:46 PM, Beloved Leader wrote:
Thanks for the information. When I observed the transit of Venus back in June, I used a really dark piece of glass from a welder's mask. Whatever the number was, it was dark enough that I could not see surrounding terrain. Humph! Even an 8 or 10 is "dark enough that I could not see surrounding terrain."...but that is not a high enough number. The recommended number is #14...and they are additive if you can't find a 14. For the recent transit, my welding supply shop did not have a #14 but they did have a #10 and #4, which I taped together. Additional note: Put the #14 glass in FRONT (input side) of your binoculars. If you put it on the output side, the concentrated heat could leave you with a face full of shattered glass. |
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On 8/8/12 06:17 , Joe from Kokomo wrote:
On 8/7/2012 12:46 PM, Beloved Leader wrote: Thanks for the information. When I observed the transit of Venus back in June, I used a really dark piece of glass from a welder's mask. Whatever the number was, it was dark enough that I could not see surrounding terrain. Humph! Even an 8 or 10 is "dark enough that I could not see surrounding terrain."...but that is not a high enough number. The recommended number is #14...and they are additive if you can't find a 14. For the recent transit, my welding supply shop did not have a #14 but they did have a #10 and #4, which I taped together. Additional note: Put the #14 glass in FRONT (input side) of your binoculars. If you put it on the output side, the concentrated heat could leave you with a face full of shattered glass. If you're near an observatory, they'll have viewing glasses, certified for solar events, in the gift shop for about a buck. They'll also have a public viewing on site. |
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On Wednesday, August 8, 2012 12:38:01 PM UTC-4, D. Peter Maus wrote:
If you're near an observatory, they'll have viewing glasses, certified for solar events, in the gift shop for about a buck. They'll also have a public viewing on site. Yes, there were local viewing sites, but the lines went on forever. Because of the clouds, the transit could be seen only sporadically. Typical: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrfochs...@N22/lightbox/ |
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www.mdonnelly.ie They close for lunch, 1:00 PM to 1:30 PM. (I Likes dat) I wonder if they close for the solar storm too?
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Geo- magnetic storm in progress
On 08/08/2012 09:49 AM, Beloved Leader wrote:
On Wednesday, August 8, 2012 12:38:01 PM UTC-4, D. Peter Maus wrote: If you're near an observatory, they'll have viewing glasses, certified for solar events, in the gift shop for about a buck. They'll also have a public viewing on site. Yes, there were local viewing sites, but the lines went on forever. Because of the clouds, the transit could be seen only sporadically. Typical: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrfochs...@N22/lightbox/ It was on the web live |
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