[CQ-Contest] Re: THE BIG "A" --- CONTEST TIME!!!

[Jim Reid]

Great idea,  however wish I had known about it 12 hours ago,  now is
2345 UTC.  Some info on the A index,  which at 2316 UTC, 4 May,
was:

	A = 116

Also,  following commets from Jay Alvestad,  Solar Terrestrial Activity
Report:

"Comment added at 1245 UTC: The Ap index for the 09-12h interval was "only"
89. Minor to severe storm conditions are likely for the remainder of the
day. As for the Ap index of 317 earlier today it should be noted that such
values are only recorded during the most powerful disturbances. We have to
go back to 1991 and 1992 to find similar values and all the way back to the
great storm of March 13-14, 1989 for a disturbance that is significantly
stronger than the current one.

Comment added at 1900 UTC: Geomagnetic activity has decreased quicker than
expected with minor storm noted from 12 to 15h UTC and unsettled between 15
and 18h UTC. Activity could increase again but not to anywhere near the
levels seen early today. Otherwise there has been very little flare
activity of interest today, however, an increase in the background x-ray
flux levels over the last few hours hints at the possibility of more
substantial flaring."

But as reported above,  the A index has climbed again since the 1900
posting of
above.

Have fun,  80 meters will not come to life out here in KH6 land until
about  0505 UTC of 5 May,  or about  5 1/2 hours from now.  Will see
what I hear/can do on 80 after that time,  0505Z is sunset time here
on Kauai this coming evening.

73,  Jim,  KH7M




At 06:42 PM 5/4/98 -0700, utahfolk at konnections.com wrote:
>Checking ftp://ftp.sel.noaa.gov/pub/latest/wwv.txt  at 98 May 4 @ 18Z
>data for May 3 : Boulder A (BA)=50 and Solar Flux (SF) = 117.  
>
>The BANDS ARE DEAD!    Baloney!   Don't be a weakling!  Don't let
>those dirty little D-layer ping pong electrons eat your lunch! 

 All YOU gotta do is fire up on 80M as follows:
>
>     If power is 100 watts or more, then work 3540-3550
>
>     If power is less than 100 watts, then work 3555-3565
>
>and report in the following format:  
>
>Your Call + QTH + ...... log items ....
>
>             LOCAL                              DISTANCE  POWER
>DATE  TIME   TIME    FREQ   QSO CALL  LOCATION   MILES    WATTS  BA  SF
>e.g.,
>May 5 1823Z  1223Z   3555     N7XJ    UT-MANTI   1234      123   66  123
>
>log continued .... ANTENNA
>
>                   wet noodle
>
> ... where BA= Boulder A-Index and SF= Solar Flux as taken
>from WWV as near as you can from the time you made the qso.  
>
>This egram to both cq-contest at contesting.com and the QRP crowd at
>qrp-l at lehigh.edu ... I'll report all the logs I get to both reflectors
>in summary .... then we can argue who won! ... Oh, one more thing, the
>"QSO" has to last at least 5 minutes!
>
>Big A Contest Time Period:  From May 2 @ 12Z until
>the Boulder A index drops below 30 and fizzles for a spell into the
>twilight!  Come on, don't let them QRP boys kick dirt in yer face!
>
>Send logs to Dave Fischer/NC7W  ===>>> utahfolk at konnections.com




--
CQ-Contest on WWW:        http://www.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests:  cq-contest-REQUEST at contesting.com