[CQ-Contest] Its not the Sunspots folks

[w7dra at juno.com]

until we get hams on mars we all play with the same prop

mike w7dra

what a great reson to cheat! i will raise my normal 7 watts input up to
20 watts input to compensate for conditions this CQWW! 
> 
> 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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