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Sunday, April 8, 2012

We need more sunspots!

Conditions on 17 meters are bad today. I pulled out my 6 inch reflector telescope to do some troubleshooting on ol' sol. Yea, just as I thought: one measly sunspot. Confirmed by the SOHO image above.
There was a discussion on QRP-L recently about historical solar flux data. I started wondering what the SFI was on the day I was born. A few clicks with google brought the answer: On September 14, 1958 SFI was close to 300. Today it was 94. :-(

Something should be done about this! Write to your Congressman! Demand more solar activity!

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4 comments:

  1. Well this is fun:
    http://www.solen.info/solar/history/


    Looks like I was born right at the tail end of Cycle 20, ~100 SFI (eerily similar to today when we 're supposedly on the upswing..)

    My first really good year in this solar system wasn't until 1979, unfortunately I was only 6 years old at the time, and not able to fully appreciate SFI #s in the 200's & higher :)

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  2. Click the DONATE button at the upper left corner of this page. Your contribution, along with those of other S-Smokers will be used to purchase 1 large sunspot with the SolderSmoke logo.

    Happy April
    N5RTF

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  3. 1958 was the best Sun Spot Cycle ever! I had just started chasing DX after upgrading to General and thought it was normal to be able to work anywhere in the World 24/7 with just 25W and a dipole. Even 10m would sometimes be open all night.

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