wheatley@inuxi.UUCP (Steven Wheatley) (02/19/86)
qst de k9eui hr propagation forecast bulletin nr 7 from arrl headquarters newington ct february 17, 1986 to all radio amateurs bt from january 26 to february 16 the solar flux was higher than at the same point in the previous solar rotation. over the first 15 days of february the solar flux was never below 82, and it was 90 or higher for 10 days beginning february 2. not since june 1984 have we seen numbers like these, and for comparable conditions on our dx frequencies we would have to look back even farther. also exceptional was the intensity of geomagnetic disturbances of february 8 and 9. the writer cannot recall hearing wwv k indices of 8 and 9 before, in 12 years of daily monitoring. the february 8 a index of 110 is exceeded only once in our records. as evidence piles up it seems that few auroras, if any, have had such impact on the world above 50 mhz. users of 432 mhz, particularly, marveled at the strength, quality and geographical coverage, though it must be remembered that uhf stations and techniques have improved markedly in recent years. the two fairly impressive sunspot groups involved have now gone around the west limb of the sun and we can expect flux values in the low 70s and high 60s until almost the end of the month. it will be interesting to see if these active areas return in early march, when their part of the suns (surface) will be facing the earth again. the author is not betting on it. american sunspot numbers for february 6 through 12 were between 21 and 46 with a mean of 33 ar