rjr@mgweed.UUCP (Bob Roehrig) (03/05/85)
qst de k9eui hr propagation forecast bulletin nr 9 from arrl headquarters newington ct march 3, 1985 to all radio amateurs bt the gradual drop in the solar flux that began at 81 on february 19 ended on the 27th, at 70, the lowest since february 1. it wavered between 70 ane 75 through march 3. there was very little visible activity on the sun all last week. to make propagation matters worse, there was a major geomagnetic storm on the 28th. this produced auroral effects in the higher latitudes and enhanced transequatorial propagation on frequencies below about 30 mhz, but made for poor high latitude communications over the arrl dx contest weekend. flux readings close to quiet sun levels are expected to continue through march 6, after which a minor rise is likely. march is upon us for auroral propagation on 28 mhz and the vhf bands. a good auroral warning is a wwv k index of 3, and rising. weak and wavery signals are usually heard on lower frequencies, especially on high latitude paths, and late afternoon on through the night. the incidence of auroral conditions is not closely related to sunspot numbers. very intense auroras can occur in low sunspot years, as of present. american sunspot numbers for february 21 to 27 were between 25 and 8 with a mean of 14 ar