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Why Was 6 Meters So Good Last Fall? – by WB2AMU What about that exciting F2 and aurora propagation this past fall? Perennial Magic Band promoter and outspoken propagation prognosticator Ken Neubeck, WB2AMU, gives his opinion on why we have had so much 6 meter F2 propagation. Here’s a bit of what he wrote so as to whet your appetite for the rest of his article: “Many 6 meter operators who were on the Magic Band during the mid-1990s had not yet experienced significant levels of F2 propagation on 6 meters. Thus, 6 meter operators were looking toward the peak of the current solar cycle (Cycle 23), which seemed to occur during late 2000. The year 2000 saw only moderate levels of F2 conditions on 6 meters during the months of November and December. “These levels, however, were nothing in comparison to what was seen during the last solar cycle (Cycle 22), much to the disappointment of many 6 meter operators. There were a few days during November and December 2000 where east coast U.S. stations worked into Europe, and east coast U.S. stations worked into the west coast. There was no sustained period of activity lasting more than a few days. The solar flux values during November and December rarely reached 200 (the magic number for 6 meter F2 activity) for any extended period of time. “Therefore, by the spring of 2001, when many scientists felt that the peak had passed, there were low expectations for the upcoming months in the fall of 2001. A continued decline in the solar flux values was expected by many of the propagation experts. “Surprisingly, it turned out that the solar flux values were consistently high for the fall of 2001, above 200, which is the magic level needed for 6 meter F2 activity. The increase in these solar flux values during the fall of 2001 suggests that Cycle 23 was a double-peak configuration. One of the big things with regard to this cycle compared with the last one was the presence of many more 6 meter operators because of 6 meters now being a common band in the newer HF rigs. “Most of the openings would occur during the daylight hours while one was at work. The internet became a very important tool for spotting 6 meter openings. It would be convenient to listen to these openings using a setup in the car while parked in the work QTH parking lot. Based on my experiences for 2000, I found that a simple vertical setup on the car was not always sufficient for working F2 openings, particularly when there were pile-ups and a little gain in the signal was needed. As a result, I would set up a 2-element Yagi on a mast into an umbrella stand at lunchtime, and this was proven to be effective in November of 2000 during a CW QSO with PYØFF on Fernando de Noronha. “This setup was too obvious to leave out during normal working hours, as it could fall down. Therefore, I developed a setup to hang it on a pine tree that was in the corner of the parking lot at the work QTH.” You can read the rest of Ken’s “Up a Tree on the Magic Band” story in the Spring 2002 issue of CQ VHF.
_________________ © Copyright 2002, CQ Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced or republished, including posting to a website, in part or in whole, by any means, without the express written permission of the publisher, CQ Communications, Inc. Hyperlinks to this page are permitted.
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