Author's bio

[altivo]

I hate doing these, and never like what I come up with. I found I had nine different versions from previous places and publications, but I didn't care for any of them. Now there will be a tenth that I'll probably dislike when I look at it later.

Big (BIG) solar storm in progress folks. If you're at a higher latitude in North America (Alaska, Canada, Maine, maybe even Minnesota or Wisconsin) and have anything like a clear sky, check it for aurora displays tonight.

This is probably already at its peak, but it's quite possible that another particle ejection from the sun could arrive before it settles, raising the energy to an even higher level.

Gary is fiddling with his embroidery machine. I asked him to do something for me and he hasn't used it in months so now it's out of adjustment. I feel bad about eating up his time on it now.

Not as cold as last night, but the stove is going again just the same. We get spoiled I guess and like warm hands and feet.

Comments

[hrrunka]

Eight-eights cloud here, so no chance of seeing any aurora, but apparently there's been some interesting VHF propagation, while HF has been flattened. HF will, presumably, pick up well once the bulk of the CME has passed...

[altivo]

Yes, we had dense cloud overnight as well, and now this morning it has cleared when it does no good for observing. (Though looking at the K index we probably wouldn't have seen much of anything this far south.)

Typical of a solar outburst, the HF bands collapse due to absorption while the VHF/UHF frequencies open up to bounce propagation. I guess it's particularly likely to be interesting in the 6 meter band if you have access to that. My license gives me access but I have no suitable antenna for it.

[hrrunka]

This morning I was listening a bit on 40 metres. It was up and down rather a lot. I wasn't paying attention to the bands yesterday, but there was a 6m competition yesterday evening, so I expect they might have had fun. I'll take a peek at the early results later.