rjr@mgweed.UUCP (Bob Roehrig) (08/28/84)
qst de k9eui hr propagation forecast bulletin nr 35 from arrl headquarters newington ct august 27, 1984 to all radio amateurs bt solar activity has been below predicted levels most of the time since early may. the northern hemisphere summer is never a time of high f layer muf but this summer has brought near minimum dx activity on 21 and 28 mhz. some improvement will be seen during the ((last)) days of august and things will pick up further during the autumn months. solar flux and sunspot numbers have been below the levels used for the dx chart in qst during the summer. the charts for august 15 to september 15 are based on a flux of 97. the highest thus far in this period was 93 and there were ((garble)) days in the 70s. the current lull should not be taken to mean that high band dx is doomed for the next 5 years or so. even at present levels of solar activity the autumn months should bring many good days for users of 21 and 28 mhz. it seems likely that f layer dx on 50 mhz is over for this solar cycle, but other propagation modes will provide 50 mhz dx particularly in ((low)) latitudes and on transequatorial paths. for the forecast week, higher flux levels are expected, but disturbed conditions are likely august 28 through september 1. generally good propagation is likely september 2 to 4 and after september 6. american sunspot numbers for august 16 to 22 were between 17 and 9 with a mean of 12.4 (( k9eui fills)) ar