wheatley@inuxi.UUCP (Steven Wheatley) (03/11/86)
qst de k9eui hr propagation forecast bulletin nr 10 from arrl headquarters newington ct march 10, 1986 to all radio amateurs bt in the past two days, areas of the sun responsible for the february flux peak of 103, and the major geomagnetic disturbance of the 7th, were facing the earth again. the first of the two sunspot groups seen in february came back on schedule in early march, producing a flux peak of 93 on march 4, and a strong magnetic disturbance on the 7th. the other group which brought a secondary flux peak of 99 on february 10 has not returned to view, and flux values are running about ten percent below the february figures. the flux now appears headed for near minimum levels before the middle of march, with no major geomagnetic disturbances likely this week. with the flux currently in the middle 80s, the 21, 24 and 28 mhz bands are doing fairly well, though activity is moving towards mostly transequatorial coverage, and this becoming more brief as the flux moves lower. the dx potential of the 14 mhz band is also falling again. no reversal of this trend is likely before the last week of march. the prediction charts printed monthly in qst now become more useful as they are based on near minimum solar flux levels. seasonal propagation changes related to the increased hours of daylight in the northern hemisphere will also become increasingly noticeable. this seasonal factor is also apparent in the appearance of the qst charts. american sunspot numbers for february 27 through march 5 were between 6 and 25 with a mean of 16.9. the monthly means for january and february were 1.84 and 18.75 respectively ar