HF Highlights
Steve Telenius-Lowe PJ4DX asks whether we are seeing the start of the next solar cycle and has news of the Bonaire 10/10/10 event.
Steve Telenius-Lowe PJ4DX asks whether we are seeing the start of the next solar cycle and has news of the Bonaire 10/10/10 event.
Welcome to the December HF Highlights. Even though this is being written in mid-October, the Christmas movies have already begun to appear on the television, so perhaps it is not too early to wish all readers a very Happy Christmas!
With a new year coming along soon it is time to look forward to a new solar cycle too. Although we have been seeing sunspots from the new cycle for some months (see, for example, the March 2020 HF Highlights column), we are now officially at the start of Cycle 25, according to an interesting article from the USA’s National Weather Service.
Entitled Hello Solar Cycle 25, the article states that the solar minimum between Cycles 24 and 25 occurred in December 2019 (see Fig. 1), “when the 13-month smoothed sunspot number fell to 1.8, according to the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel, co-chaired by NOAA and NASA. We are now in Solar Cycle 25 with peak sunspot activity expected in 2025”. The article went on to say that Cycle 24 was average in length at 11 years, but had the fourth-smallest intensity since records began in 1755 and was the weakest cycle for 100 years. The maximum occurred in April 2014 with sunspots peaking at 114, well below the average of 179.
The article continued: “Solar Cycle 24’s progression was unusual. The Sun’s Northern Hemisphere led the sunspot cycle, peaking over two years ahead of the Southern Hemisphere sunspot peak. This resulted in solar maximum having fewer sunspots than if the two hemispheres were in phase.” This explains why Cycle 24, in common with many solar cycles, appeared to have two peaks rather than the one that might be expected.
Cycle 25 is forecast to be another weak one: the maximum is expected in July 2025 with a predicted peak of 115 sunspots. However, the good news is that the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel has “high confidence” that the new cycle will break the trend of weakening solar activity seen over the past four cycles. the panel co-chair and a solar physicist with Space Systems Research Corp, was quoted as saying: “We predict the decline in solar cycle amplitude, seen from cycles 21 through 24, has come to an end... There is no indication we are approaching a Maunder-type minimum in solar activity.”
This latest report is in contrast to an earlier paper by five American and British scientists which concluded that Cycle 25 will be one of the best yet (see the September 2020 HF Highlights). It has to be said that this is a minority view, though, and the authors themselves admit their conclusion is “in stark contrast to the community consensus estimate of sunspot cycle 25 magnitude”. We will know which of the two predictions is correct in only a few years’ time. What everyone seems to agree on, though, is that HF propagation has now passed its current nadir and it should start to improve, although initially only gradually.
Bonaire 10/10/10 Event
October 10th marked the 10th anniversary of the dissolution of the country of the Netherlands Antilles when Bonaire, along with the islands of St Eustatius and Saba, integrated more closely with the Netherlands itself. At the same time, Bonaire became a new DXCC entity. To commemorate the 10th anniversary, Bonaire’s amateurs are taking part in a month-long operating event (see the October HF Highlights column).
As of the time of writing (October 11th) unfortunately there has not been as much activity as I had hoped due to a number of issues, including equipment failure, high local noise levels and in one case a move of house meaning no antenna was available. However, and I have been active on SSB, has been on FT8, and all three of us have also operated using the special event callsign PJ4TEN, Fig. 2, which will continue to be active until the end of the month.
Readers’News
“apologise for the lack of reports for over the last few months... As far as radio goes, I have not worked any contacts particularly inspiring on SSB or FT8 other than a few DX stations that pop up now and again... I will be looking forward to working PJ stations for the PJ4TEN Bonaire Island Award in October with hopefully more time on my hands.” I’m pleased to report that Reg does appear to be more active again now as I worked him on 14MHz SSB on October 10th, the exact anniversary of 10/10/10.
shows that even if you are not a dedicated contest operator you can still use contests to find and work the DX. He reported that “there was lots of activity this month with the Worked All Europe contest and the Scandinavian Activity Contest although conditions for the RSGB DX contest were disappointing with only one contact, namely PJ4DX (thanks also for the QSO in the WAE contest). In the RSGB contest I was only running 100 watts. Since the RSGB contest, conditions seem to have improved with 10m being open one day last week, S01WS in Western Sahara and ZD7FT both being audible. On 20m S79KW in the Seychelles has also been audible; he uses 100 watts to a loop antenna and he turned the power down to 10 watts during one QSO and was still audible with me. Conditions to the USA were also good during the month with contacts with stations in California, Washington state, Nevada and Alaska. The best DX in the month was on 40m during the Saturday evening of the Oceania phone contest when I managed to contact VK6NE
for a new band slot. I think I also worked 4U75UN [UN HQ in New York, celebrating the UN’s 75th anniversary – Ed] for an alltime new one yesterday, although his online log has yet to be updated so fingers crossed on that one. I also bagged PJ4TEN yesterday [10/10/20 – Ed]... All contacts SSB with power between 100 and 400 watts (I turned the amplifier on for part of the WAE contest and also to work PJ4TEN) to a quarter-wave inverted-L on 7MHz and a dipole on 14MHz.”
Etienne Vrebos OS8D/ON8DN in Brussels has had a problem with his Acom 1500 amplifier, bought new in February. It is probably the mains transformer that has broken down and the amplifier is back at the retailer for repair. Consequently, most of Etienne’s QSOs this month were made with ‘barefoot’ power. He comments that he looked on 5MHz but could find no SSB activity. That is also my experience: we have had access to the band here in Bonaire for a few years now and although there were some CW and SSB signals on the band early on all I ever hear there now is FT8 activity.
Tony Usher G4HZW says that he “decided to try and disprove the saying that ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ by purchasing a Kent Keys twin paddle Morse key. It’s not easy to say the least! Perhaps the expression will be proved correct! I thought I’d buy British but I was surprised to see they appear to be made in Germany. In the meantime I continue with FT8/FT4 on 28MHz and 7MHz... 28MHz is open to EU most days and has been good to South America in the late afternoon and early evening on a number of occasions. On 7MHz, despite the ongoing noise problem, I worked VK a number of times, lots of east coast Ws plus Monaco and Kenya, new ones on 7MHz FT8.”
Steph Foster G4XKH of the Riviera ARC in Torbay operated as GB1BOB in September in commemoration of Battle of Britain Day, Fig. 3. Steph wrote, “We were active on CW, phone, data and VHF/UHF FM. The club is affiliated to the RAF Amateur Radio Society and I’m former RAF so it meant a lot to us.”
“Conditions were atrocious for the first week of September” said Victor Brand G3JNB and it took him until the 7th to open his log with his ‘regulars’. “FY5KE and OV1CDX were unusually weak but worked on 30m while a watery TZ4AM Mali, CQing on 40m, was simply not hearing many of his callers, including me! But later, on 20m, T6AA in Kabul and AA3B in PA both obliged. My annual SSB contact with PJ4DX was on 20m during the Worked All Europe contest. Conditions were so poor I had to attract his attention on CW!
“With no DXpeditions in prospect, it seemed to me that working mostly the same DX stations every month (those regulars) was daft. Additionally, the inevitable strictures of age, suggested that my third and possibly final ‘downsizing’ should be brought forward. So, I stripped out the entire station, retired the FT-2000 and reinstalled my QRP FT-818 as the main rig, Fig. 4. Supported by the Ham Radio DeLuxe suite, it is computer controlled, operating from ‘Top Band to Two’ and feeding five antennas. Backup is my venerable Heathkit HW8. Testing completed, on the 19th I checked 20m and heard Robert T6AA in Kabul running a pile-up. Tentatively, I called three times and waited. He continued working the ‘big guns’ then
just stopped... until there was silence. The cacophony having ceased, I heard “G3JNB 599”! A confirmatory e-mail said ‘I thought it was you, but weaker than usual!’ Further QRP loggings include Jeff TZ4AM Mali, VE2CSI Sept-Isles [in rare Zone 2 – Ed] and OH0/DL2SWW Åland Islands.
“Meantime, following retirement and over the past 27 years of DXing (330 DXCC confirmed), it was pleasant to just indulge in a two-way QRP, 40m rag-chew with Olaf DL4HG/P and his K1. But, my ‘contact of the month’ was surely a 20-minute chat with Martin VE2WU in Quebec who reported that I was ‘armchair copy!’ Amazingly, PSK Reporter showed that, over on the West Coast, K7FE’s long wire had copied my signals – 5191 miles! I do seem to be ‘getting out more’. Funny that!”
Kevin Hewitt ZB2GI wrote that despite going up the Rock four times during September he did no HF operating from there. “I did some maintenance on the 10m wire, repaired the 5V DC/DC converter for the WSPR Flexi and received some SSTV images from the ISS. I also operated Maritime Mobile in the Bay of Gibraltar with John King ZB2JK, Fig. 5. John made three contacts on 20m and streamed to the Ham Radio Operator Live Stream Facebook group.
“National Day is celebrated in Gibraltar on the 10th September to commentate the sovereignty referendum of 1967. I used the special prefix ZG2 from the 5th to the 10th to mark the occasion. The Gibraltar government cancelled all National Day events this year” [due to coronavirus]. Bill Ward 2E0BWX wrote with “Just a very short report from me this month. I’ve been quite busy at work so very little radio time unfortunately.” Bill’s report is in ‘Around the Bands’: I believe this is the first time I have received a report from anyone using PSK31 since starting to compile the column in 2015!
Ken Churms EA5/G4VZV wrote about his pedestrian mobile activities from the salt lagoons of Santa Pola, 20km south of Alicante, Spain. Ken has been active with his two-wheel sack trolley station,
Fig. 6, and says he has managed some radio time despite regional lockdowns due to Covid-19. In September Ken managed some excellent DX contacts into VK, ZL and the Pacific. From his CQ calls he managed E51JD (South Cook Islands) and FK4RD (New Caledonia). He spoke to Yves FK4RD on 40m using the full-size quarter-wave vertical wire on the DX Commander antenna attached to his trolley. Jim E51JD was worked on 20m with the shorter quarterwave vertical, again attached to the trolley station. As winter time approaches Ken is hoping to work more from the Pacific via long path from his salt lagoon location.
Around the Bands
Owen G0PHY 7MHz SSB: 5B4AIF, N9NB, RM9I, UP0L, VK6NE. 14MHz SSB: 4U75UN, 5B4AIF, A42K, AE7KI, D4Z, KL7SB, KW7Y, NO6T, NP4Z, PJ4A, PJ4DX, PJ4TEN, PT5J, RU9I, UP0L, VE2IM, VE5MX, W7WA.
Etienne OS8D/ON8DN: 7MHz SSB: HB0/ OP2D. 14MHz SSB: 9M63MJ, BY1CY, D4Z, JH4UTP, JQ1BVI, KL7SB, PJ4A, PZ5RA, S79VU, TO0Z, UN0LM, VR2XAN, YB0AR, YC9BHJ, ZA1E. 18MHz SSB: E20WXA. 21MHz SSB: 4L2M, FR4QT, OD5OJ. 28MHz SSB: S01WS.
Tony G4HZW: 7MHz FT8: 3A/IW1RBI, 5Z4VJ, 8P4JB, AA2PQ, C31LK, CO8VWZ, HI8RMQ, KC1HXR, LU5DF, VK2WJ, VK3FCBR, W3L, WP4EJH. 7MHz FT4: 4Z5ML, AB8JL, HI8RD, K1DJE, K2CYS, KD4JS, KP4DVM, N3YEA, VA3TIC. 28MHz FT8: C31RP, CX2AQ, LU1DG, LU5FF, LU6HR, PP5JR, PT2VHF, PU7KRK, PY3JFS, PY5XD, ZD7MY.
Kevin ZB2GI: 14MHz SSB: 9Z4AH. 14MHz FT8: AC5AV, AK0MR, CU3AT, HF90TPCG (90yrs PZK), K6EI, K7KB, KA9FOX, KV4GA, N2PC, N3SL, VE3HLM, VE7NZ. 18MHz FT8: 2U0WZY, 9K2DB, EA8KH, EA9BO, K0RS, TF1A, W6IZT. 28MHz FT8: WP4SD.
Kevin also operated as ZG2GI: 5MHz FT8: PA9CC. 7MHz FT8: EA6SA, EA8W, TK5IH. 10MHz FT8: 9H1SR, K1KA, KD5M, N4AWP, VA2PM, WE2X. 14MHz SSB: 9Z4FE, AL7AF, K1DSK, K2AR, K4CNF, K7ZZX, KD3TB, KP4M, KP4S, N9CQB, PY6HD, VO1CH, W5SV. 14MHz FT8: 4X4MF, DQ100SL (100yr Versailles Treaty), EA8ZG, J69DS, K4EA, SX300ML (2500yrs Battle of Thermopylae). 18MHz FT8: 4X4MF, CU3AC, EA8MU, K0DEQ, K3LA, K4CIA, K6ZH, K9MK, KC0V, KD5M, NP3XF, TA0S, W1OP, W5AP, WB2QJ, VE3XN. 21MHz FT8: HB9MFL.
Bill 2E0BWX: 7MHz FT8: DM1AD, F5AOW, IU1DXU, PD0WAG. 14MHz FT8: EA9ACD, RK4FF. 14MHz PSK31: HA8LD. 18MHz FT8: RN3DEY, UX7QV.
Signing Off
Thank you to all contributors. Please send all input for this column to teleniuslowe@gmail.com by 11th of each month. Photographs would be particularly welcome! For the February issue the deadline is December 11th. 73, Steve PJ4DX.