Topics and links of the broadcast 02-10-2022 11:00 am (CEST)
Amateur Radio Operators Continue Response to Ian
As Hurricane Ian, now a tropical storm, makes its way across Florida, amateur radio operators continue to provide communications support for weather updates and requests for assistance.
The hurricane made landfall at 3:00 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, September 28, 2022, just south of Tampa, Florida, as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 miles per hour. Millions of residents are without power, and damage was reported as extensive along the storm’s initial path.
ARRL Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, has been in regular contact with ARRL Section Managers and Section Emergency Coordinators in Florida and throughout the southeastern US. Johnston said ARRL is also in touch with national-level partners, including FEMA and the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), should any requests for direct emergency communications via amateur radio be needed.
Johnston said many ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) volunteers and their groups are involved across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. “Many ARES groups throughout Florida have been in a state of readiness since before the weekend,” said Johnston.
Source: qrznow
KNMI for the Caribbean Netherlands
They do not occur often, but when they happen, the consequences can be disastrous. The Caribbean area is monitored 24/7 for a tsunami threat by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. And when the time comes, it warns all the Tsunami Warning Focal Points (TWFP) of the different regions and countries.
KNMI is the Tsunami Warning Focal Point (TWFP) for Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. When KNMI receives a tsunami warning from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, the authorities of the islands are notified by email and phone. Crisis measures are started subsequently.
Check the current Tsunami Warnings here: http://www.tsunami.gov/
Source: knmidc
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The Online books page (Radio Amateur News)
Radio Amateur News was the original name of an American radio and electronics hobbyist magazine founded by Hugo Gernsback. He also edited all the issues published under this title.
Source: library.upenn.edu
Radio propagation and news (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/ , 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
The summer dip with lower maximum usable frequencies is now clearly behind us. This is due to the seasonal decrease in solar radiation and the associated cooling of the ionosphere. The ionosphere then contains more monoatomic and fewer diatomic elements and is therefore easier to ionize.
Last week the MUF above our region already rose above 30 MHz. There was DX on all bands, especially 21 MHz was good for example to East Asia, but also openings at 10m to the US west coast. Only Tuesday was the Earth's magnetic field disrupted, the Kp index rose to 6, and visible northern lights were observed. The solar activity has increased somewhat at the moment, causing the solar flux index to fluctuate around 137-140. There are some occasional class C and M solar flares. This won't change much as we enter the return of old sunspot region 3098 next week, which still appears to be active.
This weekend, Earth will be grazed by last Friday's coronal mass ejection. Therefore, take into account a Kp index up to 5 on Sunday and Monday and the accompanying light geomagnetic storm (G1). This will noticeably affect reproductive conditions until the beginning of the week. By the middle of the week, the turmoil of the Earth's magnetic field will have calmed down again
and will predominate calm to moderate values with a solar flux of 135 to 140 units, according to the U.S. Air Force.
The MUF will vary between 10 MHz at night and 26, possibly 28 MHz during the day. At these values, the upper bands will open quickly eastwards in the morning. They stay open in the evenings until after sunset. At local sunset, the MUF3000 is above 21 MHz. If we compare the times for sunrise and sunset with those of the previous weeks, we see that in the Northern Hemisphere the night length increases rapidly, in our case about 50 minutes within two weeks. The drop in the MUF after sunset is therefore already steeper, so that 30 meters are no longer open every night, but 40 meters. On the other hand, the DX capabilities on the lower shortwave bands also increase with the increase in night length.
VHF, EME
The current weather period is quite typical for autumn with a mix of fine, solid high pressure ridges punctuated by some low pressure passages with their associated fronts and gusty bands. These can be very powerful systems with a chance of storms in some areas, making this a good time of year to do final checks on antennas and fixings before winter comes.
In terms of propagation, this offers opportunities in the coming days. A conveniently located high pressure area drives moist air from the North Sea or the Bay of Biscay. On the dxinfocentre charts, this leads to moderate conditions towards England on Sunday to increased tropo conditions over France towards Spain's north coast. At night there can be some fog and haze, which usually boosts Tropo for part of the day.
The precipitation maps of ECMWF do not indicate heavy showers, so the chance of rain scatter on the GHz bands is small, since the expected Kp index in the coming days is around 5, there is a reasonable chance of
aurora, especially for the stations in the north of the country. For meteorscatter, it helps that the Sextantids are still active until October 9, although the peak is over.
The Moon is at minimum declination today (Sunday) and perigee on Tuesday. Path losses will be low and moon windows will lengthen as the week goes on. 144MHz sky noise is high today, but low as of Tuesday.