[VHFcontesting] Aurora

[N1BUG]

On Wednesday 10 November 2004 02:01 pm, KA2IVS at aol.com 
wrote:
> The last few days have seen K indices off the scale with
> visible auroras as far south as Arizona!  I dialed around
> last night and didn't hear anybody.  Did some of us take
> advantage?

There has been a lot of aurora activity on 6 through 222 
(and some on 432) over the past few days, especially Sunday 
afternoon through late night and Tuesday afternoon with 
another good session late Tuesday evening through the night 
and into this morning.

I will add that checking the K index isn't the best way to 
tell when aurora is actually occurring on the VHF bands, 
because the K index refers to geomagnetic activity observed 
during the *previous* 3 hours. For example the 2100Z K 
index is a measure of geomagnetic activity observed during 
the period beginning 1800Z and ending 2100Z. Aurora can 
start and stop rather abruptly, so a more "real time" 
indication is helpful.

There may be more aurora late tonight or tomorrow afternoon 
and/or night. Another disturbance is expected, but the 
exact time and intensity will only be known when it 
arrives.

73,
Paul  N1BUG
(really enjoying all this great aurora!)