As hams, we live and die with the sunspot cycle. (OK, OK, that’s being a bit drastic, but you get my point.) And, it’s no secret that we’re at that point in the cycle where sunspots are few and far between. It seems that it’s been so long since we’ve gotten any good news on [...]

NASA-funded researchers have released to the general public a new “4D” live model of Earth’s ionosphere. Without leaving home, anyone can fly through the dynamic layer of ionized gases that encircles Earth at edge of space itself. All that’s required is a connection to the Internet.

A screenshot of the 4D Ionosphere. Red denotes regions of [...]

There are a bunch of propagation forecasts available on the Net, but two are available as e-mail, delivered directly to you each week:

Propagation de K7RA. This is the propagation bulletin broadcast by W1AW. The e-mail version is nice because it contains links to websites referenced by the report. To get the bulletin by e-mail, you [...]

NOAA: Sunspot is Harbinger of New Solar Cycle, Increasing Risk for Electrical Systems
January 4, 2008
First official sunspot belonging to the new Solar Cycle 24.
A new 11-year cycle of heightened solar activity, bringing with it increased risks for power grids, critical military, civilian and airline communications, GPS signals and even cell phones and ATM transactions, showed [...]

CNN reports that a government panel charged with forecasting the next sunspot cycle predict that
the current solar cycle will probably end next March, when Solar Cycle 24 will begin. That will mean Cycle 23 lasted 12 years, slightly longer than the usual 11-year cycle.
They are divided, however, on when the peak of the next [...]

In my General Class license course, when I cover propagation, I often joke that the only index I use is the E-index. When I get a puzzled look, I explain that E stands for “ear,” and if I can hear stations that means propagation is good. If I can’t hear any stations, it means [...]

Mike, K8XF, sent this link to this NASA news item about a prediction for the next peak in the sunspot cyle. According to Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), “The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one,” she says. If correct, the years ahead could [...]

From the NARTE News, Winter 2007:
Cornell researchers have discovered that strong solar flares cause Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers to fail. Because solar flares are generally unpredictable, such failures could be devastating for “safety-of-life” GPS operations such as navigating passenger jets, stabilizing floating oil rigs and locating mobile phone distress calls.
“If you’re driving to the [...]

From the Science@NASA website:
Evidence is mounting: the next solar cycle is going to be a big one.
Solar cycle 24, due to peak in 2010 or 2011 “looks like its going to be one of the most intense cycles since record-keeping began almost 400 years ago,” says solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space [...]

Last night, at the ARROW meeting, George K9TRV was a last-minute replacement for our scheduled speaker, who, apparently, had gotten into a poison ivy patch over the weekend. George showed us a couple of websites and demonstrated some propagation software he’s been using. I’d say the results speak for themselves. George has worked 120 countries [...]