Santa Cruz County Hams Called to Assist During Wildfires

Almost 20 years to the day since the Loma Prieta Earthquake shook California’s Bay Area, a wildfire was burning through Santa Cruz County (approximately 75 miles south of San Francisco) just miles from the epicenter of the quake that delayed the 1989 World Series. Just as Amateur Radio operators responded to calls for assistance for the earthquake, 20 years later on October 25, they responded when needed for a 485 acre wildfire.

Surfin’: Mapping Up

This week, Surfin’ gets geographical with new online mapping features and applications.

The K7RA Solar Update

Well, what a week it has been. The solar flux hit 82.3 on Tuesday, the highest recording yet since the first-observed “new cycle sunspot” in January 2008, the “official” visual start of Solar Cycle 24. Even as I write this, the flux is still at 80, thanks to sunspot region 1029, so let’s hope that it is a sign of better things to come. Sunspot numbers for October 22-28 were 0, 30, 21, 28, 29, 29 and 26 with a mean of 23.3. The 10.7 cm flux was 71.6, 72.9, 75.6, 75.5, 81.3, 81.5 and 79.9 with a mean of 76.9. The estimated planetary A indices were 14, 8, 8, 5, 3, 3 and 2 with a mean of 6.1. The estimated mid-latitude A indices were 12, 7, 5, 3, 3, 2 and 3 with a mean of 5. The region (1029) produced several B-class solar flare events and a single C2.2 class flare on the 28th, but luckily CQWW SSB was unaffected for the most part.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 9:25 pm and is filed under Short Wave Radio News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.