First X-Class Flare of Cycle 24 Carries Shark To Spain!

Yesterday I predicted that solar activity would affect my little DaVinci code QRSS beacon. Sure enough, Pablo, EA4FUK, reports seeing my shark fin this morning on EA1FAQ's grabber. He sent this image:
A big X-Class flare took place at 0200Z, which was probably just a few hours before Pablo was looking at the FAQ grabber. This pond crossing probably also coincided with gray line time at his location.

Paul, NA5N, puts it all in context (in a message to QRP-L):

Gang,
There was an X2 flare about 0200Z 15 FEB (about 2100 EST). This has caused HF radio blackouts on the sunlit side of the sun (not us!). As this
subsides, the E/F layers will be highly ionized for good reflection. This
event has already elevated the solar flux to about 113 (average lately about
80-85). While this doesn't do much for us right now in North America, it
could create some very interesting morning gray line propagation if you're
one of those morning people.

The X2 event didn't have much density to it, only creating a shock wave of
about 550 km/sec. However, the M6 two days ago had a shock wave of about 1200 km/sec. - enough to cause a geomagnetic storm when it is expected to arrive Tuesday morning.

What is important is to keep an eye on the sun for further activity at:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/today.html or other sites.

These active regions are near the center of the sun, meaning any further
flares will send shock waves directly at us. The active regions are highly
magnetized, meaning they are capable of generating further M or X class
flares. If another flare or two happens tomorrow (Tuesday) during daylight hours, it will raise the solar flux and the higher bands will be open for the duration of daylight.

Therefore, the upper bands may be open, but may be interfered with for a few hours if a geomagnetic storm is triggered. It's a matter of dodging the bad stuff (geomagnetic storms) to get to the good stuff (enhanced E/F
propagation).

The only question left ... is this a hiccup on the sun, or is it finally
waking up from hibernation?

72, Paul NA5N

YouTube meets QRSS

They seem like two very different technologies, right? They are certainly at opposite ends of the speed spectrum. But David, EA1FAQ, has made innovative use of YouTube video to present -- in a very useful form -- the signals received by his QRSS grabber over a three day period. This kind of system brings to to visual QRSS a bit of the retrivabililty that makes WSPR so useful and interesting.

David's test period happened to include the time that I was out at our country place with my 3 mW QRSS beacon. Back in Rome I could indeed see my sigs in David's video. He was kind enough to follow up with the actual shanpshot of my signal crossing the Med:

On to the Canary Islands

Got up this morning, walked into the shack and saw on my computer screen a thin green line from Rome to the Canary Islands. I knew that my little WSPR station had reached out to new territory, and had established a new distance record (for me). Life is good!
As I've been doing, I decided to see who was at the other end of that line. It was Luis, EA8AY (pictured above). Luis's station picked up my 18 milliwatt signal at 2106 UTC on April 24. The distance was 1871 miles (3011 kilometers). I was 23 db below the noise.
Luis has a very nice web page: http://www.ea8ay.com/index.html (Warning: This site will likely cause feelings of extreme jealousy: Luis is living in a fantastic location, with a beautiful family AND he is the owner of an Argonaut 509!)
On his site, Luis has a nice video that will give you a sense of what WSPR is like:


wspr with 100 mw from luis on Vimeo.

The MOSquito -- More Minimalism from Catalonia

Joan and Eduardo -- the guys who brought us the Flea -- have come up with another very interesting insect: The MOSquito. A single IRF510 does all the RF work. There is a computer involved, but it looks to me like it just does some audio DSP. The video is in Spanish, but all true Knack victims will be able to follow it. More info their web site:
http://ea3ghs.googlepages.com/mosquito
Enhorabuena Joan y Eduardo!

The Flea: Minimalist QRP from Catalonia

Here is a really interesting little rig from Joan, Ea3FXF, and Eduardo, EA3GHS. They have a very nice web site with more info, including SPICE simulation files and SPICE waveform results.
Check it out: http://ea3fxf.googlepages.com/flea