[CQ-Contest] Its not the Sunspots folks

[Radio K0HB]

I'm thinking Cycle 28 will be awesome.

73, de Hans, KØHB
"Just a Old Man and his Radio"™
On Mon, Oct 31, 2016 at 18:57 <kr2q at optimum.net> wrote:

> Sorry for the reposting, and hate to rain on your parade, but.....
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:52:53 -0400
> From: Carl Luetzelschwab <carlluetzelschwab at gmail.com>
> To: topband at contesting.com
> Subject: Topband: what's in store for 160m
>
>
> About a week ago Wolf DF2PY posted a message here commenting on the recent
> adverse levels of geomagnetic field activity and how it will now change for
> the good - giving us good 160m propagation.
>
> We'll certainly see less geomagnetic field activity as we move into winter,
> but there's another issue we should be aware of. The Sun's magnetic field
> is weakening - probably to the lowest levels in our lifetime. With a weak
> solar magnetic field, more galactic cosmic rays will be able to get into
> the Earth's atmosphere. We are now seeing unprecedented high neutron counts
> (neutrons are one of the by-products of cosmic rays)
>
> Since galactic cosmic rays are mostly *very energetic* protons, they can
> get down to low atmospheric altitudes, causing collisional ionization in
> the D region (and lower E region). A cursory estimate using cosmic ray
> ionization rates confirms more ionization in the lower atmosphere. 160m is
> not very tolerant of more absorption, so we may see an adverse effect of
> the weakened solar magnetic field.
>
> Many of us think that "solar min is solar min is solar min". But maybe a
> solar minimum can be too deep for 160m. A good question to ask in the early
> 2020s will be "how was 160m?" So stay active on 160m and let's see what
> happens.
>
> Carl K9LA
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-- 
73, de Hans, K0HB
--
"Just a boy and his radio"™