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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Well this is fun:
ReplyDeletehttp://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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ReplyDeleteHappy April
N5RTF
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ReplyDelete1958 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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