rjr@mgweed.UUCP (Bob Roehrig) (01/18/85)
qst de k9eui hr propagation forecast bulletin nr 2 from arrl headquarters newington ct january 13, 1985 to all radio amateurs bt the exceptional run of very low solar flux reported last week continued through january 11. for ten of these days the reading was seventy. on the fifth it dropped to 69. at this time of year this is very close to quiet sun conditions. no comparably quiet period appears in the records for cycles 18, 19 and 20 more than a few weeks from the end of any cycle. this does not necessarily imply that cycle 21 is about to end more than two years short of the average length of all cycles for which accurate records are available. what it does tell us is that our higher dx frequencies can hardly be worse than they have been since late september, regardless of how near or far we may be from the end of cycle 21. the solar flux rise predicted last week is under way and the upswing is sharper than expected. the flux reached 75 on the 12th. two more days at this rate could make a marked change in the dx picture on all bands. the author has had poor sun viewing weather thus far. if significant visual observation is possible we will pass along results at once in a special bulletin. meanwhile, checking of the beacon range between 28.175 and 28.3 mhz is recommended. american sunspot numbers for january 3 through 9 were between 0 and 2 with a mean of 0.3 ar