Lisa Simpson wrote:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...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!

- Matt

"Radio TexMex" wrote in message
...
Lisa Simpson wrote:


http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...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!

- Matt

During the solar minimum period the low bands ( from about 5-6 MHz and
down), including the MW BCB and LF beacons, are at their peak for DXing.
The rest of this winter and next winter will provide the best low band DXing
opportunities until the next solar minimum 11 years from now. Take
advantage of it!

In article ,
Radio TexMex wrote:

Lisa Simpson wrote:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...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.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

In article
,
Telamon wrote:

In article ,
Radio TexMex wrote:

Lisa Simpson wrote:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...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.

Maybe things will pick up sooner than we think. This in reuters news
from a link in the Drudge report.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...eNews&storyid=
2006-03-06T204858Z_01_N06327000_RTRUKOC_0_US-SPACE-SUN.xml&rpc=22

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

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?

"Telamon" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Radio TexMex wrote:

Lisa Simpson wrote:


http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...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.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

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

Lisa Simpson wrote:
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?

That's a tall order Lisa, but in general as the next sunspot cycle
begins, the 'solar flux' (energy measured at 2800-Mhz or 10.7-cm
wavelength) will gradually increase over a period of several years. At
the minimum of the cycle such as now, the flux is averaging in the 70-80
range. The flux has dropped into the 60's in some past cycles. At solar
maximum the flux can reach 300. This causes the ionosphere to become
more energized and able to support the propagation of higher frequencies
in the day and well after sunset too. The 17-m and 19-m bands can be
active all night during solar maximum, whereas now they drop out shortly
after sunset because the ionosphere isn't receiving enough energy during
the day to keep it active at night. The ionosphere is a huge cloud of
electrically charged ions (charged atoms) which surrounds the earth
above the lower atmosphere. The sun supplys the energy during the day
which keeps the ions separate from electrons. This condition is
necessary to support the propagation (refraction) of radio energy. At
night the ions and electrons slowly recombine into neutral atoms which
do not support radio propagation. Of course the sun is always shining on
half the earth so this process is going on all the time somewhere in the
ionosphere.
The down side to a more active sun during the maximum of the cycle is an
increase in solar storms which can emit high energy particles and
radiation. This can wreck havoc with the ionosphere, making it
effectively useless for radio propagation for hours or even days.
Sunspots have been seen by man for at least a thousand years, probably
much longer. Scientists have been studying the sunspot cycle since the
middle of the 18th century. We are currently experiencing a quite sun at
the end of cycle-23 which began in May-1996. The first signs of cycle-24
will be the appearance of sunspots at low latitudes near the sun's
equator. These will gradually expand towards the higher latitudes as the
cycle progresses. The sunspot cycle is driven by the dynamics of the
sun's magnetic properties. You might enjoy reading more about it at the
following website.

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/lin.../sunspots.html
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/lin...pot_cycle.html

HFguy wrote:
Lisa Simpson wrote:

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?


That's a tall order Lisa, but in general as the next sunspot cycle
begins, the 'solar flux' (energy measured at 2800-Mhz or 10.7-cm
wavelength) will gradually increase over a period of several years. At
the minimum of the cycle such as now, the flux is averaging in the 70-80
range. The flux has dropped into the 60's in some past cycles. At solar
maximum the flux can reach 300. This causes the ionosphere to become
more energized and able to support the propagation of higher frequencies
in the day and well after sunset too. The 17-m and 19-m bands can be
active all night during solar maximum, whereas now they drop out shortly
after sunset because the ionosphere isn't receiving enough energy during
the day to keep it active at night. The ionosphere is a huge cloud of
electrically charged ions (charged atoms) which surrounds the earth
above the lower atmosphere. The sun supplys the energy during the day
which keeps the ions separate from electrons. This condition is
necessary to support the propagation (refraction) of radio energy. At
night the ions and electrons slowly recombine into neutral atoms which
do not support radio propagation. Of course the sun is always shining on
half the earth so this process is going on all the time somewhere in the
ionosphere.
The down side to a more active sun during the maximum of the cycle is an
increase in solar storms which can emit high energy particles and
radiation. This can wreck havoc with the ionosphere, making it
effectively useless for radio propagation for hours or even days.
Sunspots have been seen by man for at least a thousand years, probably
much longer. Scientists have been studying the sunspot cycle since the
middle of the 18th century. We are currently experiencing a quite sun at
the end of cycle-23 which began in May-1996. The first signs of cycle-24
will be the appearance of sunspots at low latitudes near the sun's
equator. These will gradually expand towards the higher latitudes as the
cycle progresses. The sunspot cycle is driven by the dynamics of the
sun's magnetic properties. You might enjoy reading more about it at the
following website.

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/lin.../sunspots.html
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/lin...pot_cycle.html


Here's an interesting story on the latest sunspot cycle theory.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11701699/