Short Wave News –
The K7RA Solar Update
Many of us are nearly giddy with joy over the recent steady increase in sunspot activity that seems long overdue. Average daily sunspot numbers rose more than 10 points this week compared to last — from 21.1 to 31.4! The monthly average daily sunspot numbers for September, October and November were 6.6, 7 and 7.7, so this is quite a large jump. Sunspot numbers for December 17-23 were 24, 20, 43, 42, 42, 26 and 23, with a mean of 31.4. The 10.7 cm flux was 86.9, 84.2, 81.7, 83.7, 82.7, 82.2 and 78.4, with a mean of 82.8. The estimated planetary A indices were 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2 and 2, with a mean of 1.4. The estimated mid-latitude A indices were 2, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2 and 3, with a mean of 1.7.
AMSAT Announces Annual Straight Key Night
AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, has announced its annual Straight Key Night will take place from 0000-2400 UTC on January 1, 2010. Get out your straight key and join amateurs the world over as they connect with each other via the OSCAR satellites. According to AMSAT past vice president Ray Soifer, W2RS, the AO-51 satellite will be configured as an SSB/FM Repeater, V/U (CW QSOs only on Straight Key Night) with an uplink of 145.880 MHz USB and a downlink: 435.150 MHz FM during the event. “Participating in SKN 2010 on all satellites is easy,” Soifer said. “No rules, no scoring and no need to send in a log — just operate CW through any OSCAR between 0000 and 2400 UTC on January1, 2010 using a straight hand key. In keeping with the friendly nature of this event, all participants are encouraged to nominate someone they worked for ‘Best Fist.’ Your nominee need not have the best fist of those you heard, just of those you worked. Please send your nomination via e-mail. A list of those nominated will appear in AMSAT News Service and The AMSAT Journal.”
MARS Gets New Name As It Fine Tunes Mission
On Wednesday, December 23, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued an Instruction concerning MARS, effective immediately. This Instruction gives the three MARS services — Army, Air Force and Navy/Marine Corps — a new focus on homeland security and a new name: Military Auxiliary Radio System. The Instruction is the first major revision to MARS since January 26, 1988 — as such, the first revision since the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, two major events that changed the way Amateur Radio dealt with emergency communications.