Tuesday 12 April 2016

April 2016

Propagation Summary
Following disturbed conditions on March16 and17, caused by a high-speed solar wind stream flowing from a geo-effective coronal hole on the sun’s surface, quiet Solar conditions have prevailed for the remaining days of March, with the Solar Flux at 90, The planetary A index at 5, and the K Index at 2.

Propagation Forecast for April
April will start out with disturbed conditions, particularly on April 3 and 4, with the Solar Flux at 90, the A Index at 30 and the K Index at 6, which usually indicates storm conditions.   Calmer conditions should prevail until April 10-14 when storm conditions are likely, but quiet to unsettled conditions are expected from April16th.
( http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/27-day-outlook-107-cm-radio-flux-and-geomagnetic-indices )

Meteor Showers in April
The Lyrids are due on April 21-22, but the 2016 showers are forecast to only be 10-15 meteors per hour, which may not be much use for meteor scatter propagation, but in past years these meteor showers have been at the rate of around 100 per hour.
( http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide#lyrids )

Radio Propagation Blog
Bob Zanotti and Bob Thomer, known as the 2 Bobs on Swiss Radio Internetional have done a number of podcasts on switzerlandinsound.com , featuring some re-recordings and some original programming of their long running Dx programme.  An interesting edition about shortwave propagation can be found here
The next propagation report will be in June. Links to propagation articles can be found on my propagation links page at : www.jameswelsh.org.uk