wythall radio club

QUESTION TIME AT WYTHALL RADIO CLUB TUESDAY 7TH MAY

and in answer to many questions:

 A SUNSPOT CYCLE PEAK FORECAST BY TIM BEAUMONT

Transformers.. overheating baluns.. indoor antennas… the intricacies of FT8 foxhunting …safety and mobile car operation.. receiver sensitivity and the wise use of the filters.. 30m noise levels…DSP v analogue filters…solar panels and EMI emissions.. content and lay-out of the ideal shack.. current propagation and 10 metre pop-up surprises..G0KYA band forecasts and Tim’s M0URX very own Mystic Meg forecast for the coming year????

15 of the  great and the good (see picture right) gathered for a meeting of the Wythall Radio Club recently to share their collective knowledge on a variety of subjects and within the hour provided a pretty exhaustive unpacking of the issues above. One shared ‘question’ was over the impact of the current solar sunspot peak 2024/2025 and we were lucky to have our very own Tim Beaumont to send us his thoughts reproduced below

We could have gone on (!) but the bar beckoned and enough questions been made to tax the little grey matter..

Tim’s propagation thoughts for the coming year are reproduced below (with kind permission of the author) and should whet the appetite for those with HF in mind.

(At the time of writing the sunspot counts stands at well over 227)

“Certainly this summer will be full of easy Sporadic E propagation not just single hop 1,500 to 2,000 miles but also watch out for multi-hop multi path Es which will happen- but I am not a mystic Meg to say when. 

So 6m and 10m is a must this summer.  If sunspots are consistently high listen out at night time on all bands: you may be surprised.  

Also with Sporadic E there will be very short hop propagation- as little as 100 miles.  This is great for catching DX in your dead zone, like Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man and Scotland: this can be great fun to catch the short hop Es. 

Short hop summer  Es will also help work stations from many parts of England.  Many say this is “unusual conditions” but it isn’t just normal and happens every summer.   

There will be plenty of F layer propagation especially In the sunrise and sunset plus and minus an hour or two and should filter up to the higher bands too.  But this will be best around the autumnal equinox. 

 The Autumn of 2024 will definitely be a good one for DX.

Just tune around and watch the clusters. There will be times of band disturbances too.  Make advantage of these. You will often hear pre-geomagnetic enhancements where the bands just explode with great conditions just before a solar storm hits earth.  This can also cause excellent Aurora conditions especially on the higher bands listen for that distinctive rasping sounds of the aurora to the voice or CW tones.

So without doubt Autumn 2024 will provide some incredible conditions. 

 It is beyond my understanding whether we will get a double peak on this cycle like we have done in the previous cycles.  But if we do my guess either this Autumn 2024 or Spring 25. 

 In Winter 2024, of course head down to the low bands but keep a watch on all bands at sunrise and sunset for the DX.”

COMING SOON AT WYTHALL RADIO CLUB…..  

1.TUESDAY 4TH JUNE-MAST ERECTION REHEARSAL FOR GB0BUS!

2.FRIDAY14TH JUNE SET UP FOR GB0BUS AT WYTHALL TRANSPORT MUSEUM

3.SATURDAY 15TH JUNE GB0BUS ACTIVATION

4.TUESDAY 18TH JUNE DIY 70CM ANTENNA BUILD AND FOXHUNT

DETAILS AND TIMES TO FOLLOW.