Topics and links of the broadcast 11-02-2024 11:00 am (CEST)
Radio propagation by PC5D
Propagation news is curated by Tom PC5D. In the composition he makes other use of the information relevant to the Netherlands from the weekly Propagation News of the British radio amateur association RSGB, dxinfocentre , darc.de/der-club/referate/hf/ , https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/specialist-forecasts/space-weather , https://www.poollicht.be/nl/poollichtactiviteit.html , Make More Miles on VHF and poollicht.be. Propagation news is also part of the radio news of the South Limburg Sunday morning round. The audio recording of this round is back listened on a22.veron.nl
HF
Last week, solar activity increased significantly. Since February 3, 19 M-class of solar flares. There was even an outburst of one on Friday afternoon at 1314 UTC with strength X3.4, the second strongest in the current solar cycle 25. The result was a strong radio blackout (R3) on the daylight side and a proton storm (S2). Communication about the polar ice caps was clearly disrupted. With an X-class a large CME is to be expected, but because this flame takes place found on the southwestern side of the sun, there is a small chance that it occurred on Earth is affected by this. A solar flare on Saturday, February 10, 03:54 UTC with strength M3.4 was less strong. The resulting coronal mass ejection at the southeastern edge appears larger than that on Friday.
With up to 10 sunspot groups on the side of the sun facing Earth, it is possible high levels of solar activity are also expected in the coming days. The solar flux index will be approximately 180. The chance of further M solar flares is about 60 percent, and for X class 25 percent. The Kp index remains limited to 3 to 4 for the time being. In the latest photos of the coronagraph of LASCO is a "blizzard" in progress. This is caused by high energy
particles bombarding the detectors on board the spacecraft. Saturday February 10th there is still a moderate (S2) radiation storm. This is caused by energetic particles that still reach the earth. Cause the increased particle levels
also a disturbance known as a polar cap absorption event (PCA). It main effect is a deterioration of HF signals through the polar zones, especially at lower ones frequencies.
We can expect continued good propagation on all bands for the coming week between 80 and 10 meters. The maximum usable frequency will vary between 11 MHz at night to above 36 MHz during the day. The critical frequency for the F layer is above 7 MHz during the day so that NVIS conditions at 40m are fine for the PACC.
VHF - UHF, EME
For the time being, the weather is determined by a nearby low-pressure area with the necessary wind and showers. With this characteristic weather type, the chance of tropo is nil and of rain scatter on the GHz tires bigger.
Other modes, such as meteor scattering, look a bit poor. There is always a chance of something happening random meteor activity, unlike Sporadic-E which is in its late winter blues usually lasts until April for the 10 and 6m bands. Because the recent CMEs on the sun does not hit Earth, there is little chance of aurora for the time being.
For EME operators, the moon's declination is negative and increasing and becomes positive at Monday the 12th. So there will be higher moon peaks and longer lunar windows during the whole week. Path losses were lowest at perigee on Saturday the 10th. 144MHz Sky noise is moderate to low.
WJLX-AM: 200-foot AM radio tower disappears, halting Alabama station broadcast (by PD4Z)
A 200-foot AM radio tower has been missing for at least a week, leaving an Alabama radio station in a financial crisis and on a desperate hunt.
As first reported by Memphis' Action News 5, Jasper, Alabama, radio station WJLX 101.5 FM/1240 AM, sent a bush hog crew to maintain the area around the tower on February 2. The tower is behind a poultry plant in a forested area, per The Guardian. Once there, a crew member called station manager Brett Elmore, informing him that the 200-foot structure that CNN says has been there since the '50s had disappeared.
"He said, ‘The tower is gone. There's wires [sic] everywhere, and it's gone,’” Elmore told Action News 5.
The total value of all the equipment reported stolen is nearly $200,000, Alabama's ABC 33/40 News said.
source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/200-foot-am-radio-tower-disappears-halting-alabama-station-broadcast/
source: Jeff Geerling interview with WJLX-AM on youtube
Collins Amateur Equipment Catalog pdf 1975 (by PA0GWS)
On surplus Radio Society "Het draadloos zendstation voor den amateur, J.Corver" in pdf format.
Source: https://www.pi4srs.nl/wp/homepage/uit-de-oude-doos-collins-amateur-equipment-catalog-1975/
Xiegu is working on a new portable direct-sampling SDR transceiver. The company announced this via X (former Twitter). (by PD4Z)
According to Xiegu, it is a new generation of ultra-portable shortwave transmitter-receiver. It uses advanced RF direct sampling architecture and is equipped with powerful capabilities. It integrates rich functions of major models and has a built-in popular remote network control function.
This device is a transceiver with RF direct reception architecture and supports HF/50MHz frequencies in full mode (TX/RX). It is able to listen to wideband FM broadcast frequency bands and aviation frequency bands. It features a built-in automatic antenna tuner and supports network remote control.
Source: https://ham-radio.nl/nieuws/xiegu-werkt-nieuwe-draagbare-ddc-duc-transceiver/