Topics and links of the broadcast 17-10-2021 11:00 am (CEST)

October 17: RF webinar about the loop antenna

The successful presentation on mobile HF antennas by Andy HB9CVQ on September 19th will be continued. On Sunday 17 October Hans PA3ECT will give a presentation entitled: “The loop antenna, with a dominant magnetic field, viewed from a practical point of view”.

Various loop antennas with which Hans has gained good experience in recent years are discussed, such as:

The small magnetic loop for 80 meters
The big run for 80 meters
Various mobile magnetic loop antennas for the car
Delta shape of the field antenna magdelta loop for 80 and 160 meters
Small loop antenna for 2 meters
Lots of practical experiences with some technical support!

For more information and possible registration, please refer to the website (in dutch): RF Seminar.

Release the KrakenSDR!

KrakenSDR is now available for crowdfunding on Crowd Supply. Thank you to all interested parties for your patience while we navigated recent pandemic-related delays.

KrakenSDR is a five-channel, RX-only software-defined radio (SDR) based on the RTL-SDR and designed for phase-coherent applications and experiments. Phase-coherent SDR opens the door to some very interesting applications, including radio direction finding, passive radar, and beam forming. You can also use KrakenSDR as five separate radios.

KrakenSDR is an upgraded version of our previous product, KerberosSDR. It provides a fifth receive channel, automatic phase-coherence synchronization capabilities, bias tees, a new RF design with cleaner spectrum, USB Type-C connectors, a heavy-duty enclosure, upgraded open source DAQ and DSP software, and an upgraded Android app for direction finding. We are constantly working on new software and sample applications, so keep an eye out for future updates!

Radioweather (solaractivity)

ad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: Although we saw sunspots on every day of the October 7 – 13 reporting week, solar activity declined somewhat. Average daily sunspot numbers went from 30.7 to 23.7, and average daily solar flux from 86.9 to 85.6. Geomagnetic indicators were higher, with average daily planetary A index rising from 8.1 to 12.4, and average daily middle latitude A index from 6.7 to 10.1.

On Saturday, October 9, Spaceweather.com reported a strong earth-directed M1.6-class solar flare and CME erupting at 0640 UTC, causing an HF radio blackout over the Indian Ocean. This caused the planetary A index on October 12 to hit 45, and Alaska’s College A index to read 60.

Predicted solar flux is 82 on October 15; 80 and 78 on October 16 – 17; 76 on October 18 – 22; 85 on October 23 – 24; 90, 100, 95, and 90 on October 25 – 28; 88 on October 29 – 30; 85 on October 31 – November 5; 88 on November 6; 85 on November 7 – 13; 88 on November 14 – 15; 90 on November 16; 88 on November 17 – 18, and back to 100 on November 22.

Predicted planetary A index is 8 on October 15 – 16; 5 on October 17; 12 on October 18 – 19; 8 on October 20; 5 on October 21 – 24; 10 on October 25; 5 on October 26 to November 1; 8 on November 2; 5 on November 3 – 5; 10 on November 6 – 7; 8 on November 8 – 9; 5 on November 10 – 12; 10, 12, 12, 10, and 8 on November 13 – 17; 5 on November 18 – 20; 10 on November 21, and 5 through the end of the month.

Here’ the geomagnetic activity forecast for October 15 – November 9 from F.K. Janda, OK1HH.

The geomagnetic field will be:

  • quiet on October 16 – 17, November 3, 5
  • quiet to unsettled on October 20 – 22, 24, 26 – 27, 30 – 31, November 4
  • quiet to active on October 23, 25, November 6
  • unsettled to active on October (15, 18 – 19, 28 – 29,) November (1 – 2,) 7 – 9
  • Active to disturbed — Nothing predicted

Solar wind will intensify on October (19, 22, 25,) 27 – 31, November 1, 9

Source: spaceweather.com

Propagation (by PC5D)

This week in Propagatienieuws:
• HF: strongly fluctuating conditions last week,
• VHF+: chance of tropo on Tuesday
• MS: Orionids meteor shower (ZHR=15) peaks on October 21,
• EME: EME path losses are increasing
Propagation news
HF
Last week the HF propagation varied strongly with sometimes good conditions, but in the middle of the week of terrible conditions. The latter was due to a coronal mass ejection (CME) that Kp index to 6 did shoot. Matter from the CME hit Earth in the early hours of 12 October. A geomagnetic storm was the result, causing over a large area of ​​aurorae could be seen.

On that day, the maximum usable frequencies (MUF) were adversely affected to such an extent that sometimes the maximum frequency for propagation paths of 3000 km dropped from 28 MHz to less than 14MHz. Still, many will take the DXpedition S9OK to Sao Tome and Principe on one or more were able to log tapes. S9OK eventually managed to make 107505 QSOs. By Thursday, when the Kp index had returned to a value between 0 and 2, the signals settle to near-normal levels. Then the frequency was for 3000 km propagation paths above 27MHz.

Now that we're on our way to solar maximum in a few years, we can do more CMEs and therefore sometimes temporarily worse conditions. For next week, NOAA predicts a solar flux index between 85 and 90 with a maximum Kp index of 4 on October 19. The MUF will vary between 8 MHz at the end of the night and 29 MHz during the day. So take advantage of the autumn HF conditions and choose the highest possible HF band to minimize the D layer absorption. VHF and above.

William Hepburn's DX Info Center expects little elevated tropo conditions next week for the Netherlands, except possible on Mondays, but especially on Tuesdays. Tuesday late a band with markedly elevated index values, which from the morning of the south of The Netherlands moves to the north. The band runs from the Netherlands across the Channel along the French north-west coast. Within the band, the Hepburn Tropo Index ranges between 3 (moderate) and 5 (strong). Increased tropo conditions therefore seem promising, especially during the afternoon, in the east-west direction, for example towards the south of England.

Meteor scatter
On October 21, the Orionids meteor shower peaks with a ZHR of 15. The Orionids are pieces from Comet 1P/Halley, known as Halley's Comet. Besides the Orionids, there are two more minor meteor showers: the Epsilon Geminids with a ZHR of 3 on the 18th, and the Leonis Minoris with a ZHR of 2 on the 24th. So next week it will be interesting for lovers from meteor scatter.

EME
Monthly declination turns positive again on Monday. So we'll see the moon higher in the sky thus increasing EME path losses.
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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. Propagation news is also part of the radio news of the South Limburg Sunday morning round.

This news in dutch can be opened here.