Another week of amateur radio has expired. Expired Ham, get it? 🙂
Welcome to another issue of Expired Ham, a weekly newsletter where I discuss the ways I participated in the amateur radio hobby this week.
What a week for amateur radio, huh? I counted three CMEs that hit us this week in a matter of just a few days. These caused severe geomagnetic storms that made operating on the ham bands a bit trying and almost entirely put a stop to DX possibilities for a bit. Some lucky folks in northern latitudes who have darker skies were treated to an aurora showing as these passed over us. It must have been nice to see that.
I’m fascinated by the effects the sun has on our ability to use our radios. Before becoming an amateur radio operator, I never thought twice about solar flares, the number of sunspots present on the sun’s surface, the current solar flux index, or coronal mass ejections. Now, I’m trying to better understand how solar weather and its effects on our atmosphere and geomagnetic conditions can benefit, or hinder, HF radio wave propagation. Dr. Kerry Kingham, WA4BQM, gave a really easy-to-digest discussion at a Vienna Wireless Society club meeting on the topic of HF radio propagation that I recommend to anyone with an interest in the subject of how HF radio waves move from one place to another with the help of our planet’s ionosphere. You can watch the presentation here. Also, if you haven’t already been introduced to VE3EN’s SolarHam site, you should pay it a visit. Kevin includes a lot of really good real-time information about all things pertaining to solar weather and its effects on the Earth’s atmosphere. Really valuable information for us hams!
As things died down later in the week, I managed to get my EFHW into the air at home and hunted several POTA activators. Once they submit their logs, I should finally have reached Sapphire Hunter status, for what that’s worth. I can’t hunt every activator with my home antenna setup, but I can hear and reach quite a few places and that’s good enough to keep me happy. Perhaps someday, I’ll be able to erect a permanent antenna tower that lets me reach farther. Hopes and dreams, my friends.
I big shout out to Dave, W5CWT, for sharing a blurb on his website about my use of his ultra portable EFHW transformer. He mentions my list of ham gear that I keep on the site. You should definitely go peruse that list. This actually reminds me that I need to go add a few more items to the list. Perhaps I’ll finish out the weekend by doing that.
I hope you all had a great week and that the upcoming one is even better.
73,
Matthew, K2MAS
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