North American QSO Party Rule Changes

Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2013 08:59:32 -0600
From: K4RO Kirk Pickering
To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] NAQP Rules for 2013

The NCJ North American QSO Party CW contest is scheduled for this coming weekend. Unfortunately, the rules for the NAQP and Sprint contests were accidentally omitted from the January/February 2013 issue of NCJ. You can now find the official rules for the 2013 NAQP contests at the following link:

http://naqp.contesting.com/naqprules.pdf 

All rules for NCJ NAQP and Sprint contests will be published in the March/April 2013 issue of NCJ. The rules at ncjweb.com are currently out of date, but will be revised soon.

Contest on!

Latest SWPC 3-day Space Weather Forecast

The North American QSO Party CW event is scheduled for Saturday morning and Cycle 24 has taken a dramatic turn for the better through this week. Will conditions remain stable enough for a fun filled RadioSport weekend?

Currently, I've logged the states of Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Indiana, and Florida on 30m CW through this week with one Zulu Fox (ZF2) logged on the same wavelength. The Buddipole off center fed dipole continues playing exceptionally well despite my geographically challenged location.

Lastly, I heard for the first time a Victor Uniform (VU2) here in Shell Beach on 30m CW as VU2GSM was into sunrise and an hour or less into my sunset. He wasn't logged however it was a telling propagation moment.

Latest SWPC 3-day Space Weather Forecast: Geophysical Activity Forecast: The geomagnetic field is expected to be at quiet levels for days one, two, and three (10 Jan, 11 Jan, 12 Jan) with a chance of unsettled levels on day three (12 Jan).

Contest on!

Cycle 24 Approaching Record Sunspot Count

Current sunspot count is 196

Polar Path as of 8 Jan 2013

Good afternoon as the Buddipole off center fed dipole is listening to a swarm of CW signals on thirty meters. I've recently logged a couple of stations on the same wavelength located northwest of my QTH (ie. Oregon and Washington) and Five Cities DXers are curious why we aren't hearing at the DX level?

My question is, "Is there a relationship between aurora oval, latitude, and hearing at the DX level on the coast of California?"

For example, several of us are low power, low profile with dipole antenna systems and, given previous experiences with far less optimal numbers, we are not hearing much DX in our cans. Wavelengths like 10 and 12m seem almost void of activity however 30m CW is very active at least from the Shell Beach shack.

Our gray line is fast approaching and I'm going to pump a few CQs into the ionosphere on 30m CW in order to test 'good' propagation at night as suggested by the widgets. In the meantime, Cycle 24 has maintained its record count since November of 2011 and we are a spot or two away from a a new record. Let's see what happens in the next 24 hours?

73 from the Shell Beach shack.  

Will Cycle 24 Break Record Sunspot Count?

Count of 208 was recorded 9 November 2011

Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) Image

North American Polar Paths To Europe And Japan 

Good afternoon from the Shell Beach shack after a winter's morning rain shower leaving behind a partly cloudy sky with a temperature nearing 55 degrees plus or minus a few degrees.

Right now, I'm listening on 15m while machines speak to machines in the mechanical language of RTTY under the control of RadioSport operators, who undoubtedly are smiling ear to ear. The pain of the chair seems less painful when Cycle 24 maybe approaching a record count?

I never paid attention to auroral data and, with critical polar paths playing a fundamental role in the success of RadioSport scores across the globe, I finally get it.

NOAA Explains
Auroral data is as important as the solar flux indice, sunspot count, and both indexes. Each measure gives a reasonable guess at what I can expect on a given RadioSport weekend as NOAA explained it this way, "Energetic auroral particles (primarily electrons) not only produce the visible aurora but also greatly influence the properties of the ionosphere and are connected with strong electrical currents (as much as several million amperes) that flow in the ionosphere and connect along the geomagnetic field to a dynamo process at high altitude in the magnetosphere."

NOAA further stated, "Thus, this same display provides a similar "best-guess" estimate of the geographic locations that may be subject to geomagnetic fluctuations that result from electrical currents flowing in the ionosphere, or the radio propagation paths that maybe degraded because of increased absorption of the radio signal by the disturbed ionosphere."

In Sum
The potential for a storm increases as the number of sunspots increase and the possibility of a record count is approaching. Although, I'm a little perplexed because I'm not hearing much CW activity given current conditions? Those RTTY operators get all the luck!

73 from my Shell Beach shack.