29 Nov 2011

Sunspot peak to be over 100?

The latest NOAA sunspot predictions show cycle 24 now peaking in May 2013 at a smoothed sunspot high of exactly 100. This is UP on earlier forecasts and the actual trend since this forecast was made is still upwards, I believe at a rate faster than NOAA was predicting.

So, despite the gloomy predictions of even 6 months ago, we seem to be enjoying a decent solar cycle after all with every prospect it will be better than even current forecasts suggest. Whatever, conditions on HF will continue to be good for 5 years to come, so go and enjoy them.

Today my QRP WSPR was copied in Australia a couple of times on 10m yet again. It appears that every time I fire up it gets >16000km. I just wish a few more East Coast USA stations would  come onto 6m WSPR as this is where the excitement will be for the next  few weeks if F2 MUF reaches 50.293MHz.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Roger - on your xbm10,did you find the xtal earpiece because of its 'toppy' response ok for lower pitch?
did you use the receive section of the xbm10 when you worked those stations?

Thanks
Tony b

Roger G3XBM said...

Tony B, yes Chirpy has been used for three 2-way QSOs so far. As long as the received signal is better than about 5uV copy is perfectly fine. Weaker signals can be heard too in a quiet room. BTW, I don't find hi-Z crystal earpieces high pitched.