On 6/25/2010 10:08 PM, Don Tucker wrote:
> Tis not about antennas and towers but the reason we put 'em up. Interesting
> article re the (or lack of) new solar cycle.
>
>
> http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627640.800-whats-wrong-with-the-sun.html
>
>
I'm surprised to see this in "The New Scientist" because it ignores so
many points and hangs on so few. They talk about the sun and cold winter
in Europe and completely ignore the record heat in Australia and
Greenland. Greenland had one of the warmest winters on record and at
times last winter southern Greenland which is far North of us was much
warmer with some temps as much as 40 degrees above normal. Our winter
temp in Central Michigan (34:35N) was above average with the exceptions
of two or three weeks which were were normal or slightly below normal.
Much of Europe is temperate due to the Atlantic ocean currents
So while they are hanging on the sun's output being down as the likely
reason Europe had a cold winter, they are ignoring much of the rest of
the world which was above average both North and South of the Equator.
They are also ignoring that 11 of the hottest years on record occurred
in the last 13.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071213101419.htm
Now, whether the sun's activity picks up or not is something else. One
point we should remember is some of the largest CME's (Coronal Mass
Ejections) and disturbed conditions have occurred during relatively
quiet periods on the sun according to geologic records. According to
NASA
http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html#q10 the
variability in the sun's output has very little to do with climate
although it has changed weather for a few seasons and there are
exceptions such as the Maunder Minimum.
Actually the lower output might be a good thing for both climate and
propagation. 75 and 40 have been outstanding for DX the past few years.
40 has been like a new 20 at night with strong signals world wide. I've
hardly missed the 20, 15 and 10 meter openings as 40, 75 and even 160
have been outstanding. OTOH I've never had WAC in one conversation on
any band other than 10. (Came close of 6-meters though) Yes, they do
suffer from QRN at times, but I've noticed the nighttime noise even
this past week with all the storms in the US, to have been very quiet at
times with several nights not showing any movement of the S-meter from
noise or static crashes, while European and Australian stations were
well over S9 on simple, half wave, center fed, sloping dipoles.
73
Roger (K8RI)
> Don W7WLL
>
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