Re: [HCDX] Dxers Unlimited´s mid week edition 12-13 April 2008

["Prof. Arnaldo Coro Antich" <inforhc@xxxxxxx>]

Radio Habana Cuba
Dxers Unlimited
Dxers Unlimited's weekend program for 12-13-April 2008
By Arnie Coro
radio amateur CO2KK

Hi amigos radioaficionados ! Welcome to the our weekend edition of Dxers 
Unlimited, your favorite fully integrated radio hobby program, covering each
and every aspect of the wonderful world of radio... from hunting for DX 
AM broadcast band stations using the most sophisticated crystal sets 
that are able to provide reception without any external power at all, to 
sending amateur radio signals on the 3 centimeters or ten gigaHertz band 
to the Moon and establishing a two way contact with another operator 
located half way around the world... In between these two extremes there 
is, of course a very nice aspect of our hobby, short wave listening to 
international radio broadcasts, the way many of us learned for the first 
time about this
nice hobby, and don´t forget about TV DX, FM broadcast band DX, 
homebrewing radio receivers and transmitters or building and testing 
antennas... All in all, I have a list of 83 different ways you and I 
enjoy radio... Now here is yet another one...extreme satellite TV Dxing, 
using very sensitive receivers and relatively large size parabolic 
antennas to pick broadcast satellites that are located very near the 
horizon so they are not normally received at that your location...In 
other words those TV satellites´s footprints are beyond the location of 
your receiving station. By using a combination of the extremely 
sensitive low noise receivers, the big oversize antennas and the 
eventual help of tropospheric ducting propagation, TV satellite Dxers 
have picked up signals that have amazed even those who designed the 
satellite's footprints.. As you may realize amigos, there are still many 
challenges to deal with, and everytime a radio hobbyst faces one of 
them, many interesting things happen... Take for example, when many 
years ago, radio amateurs found out that so called short radio waves 
could be used for long distance communications, when professional radio 
engineers and scientists of those times, had proclaimed that the short 
radio waves should be given to amateurs as they were useful only for 
short distance communications... Now here is item one of today's Dxers 
Unlimited's edition... A question, sent in by several listeners... they 
all want yours truly to tell them how to continue to deal with the 
already very long period of solar minimum years....The typical question 
was : Arnie, you are insisting about the end of the solar cycle, 
mentioning during the weekend program that we had seen again several 
days with a spotless Sun... ZERO SUNSPOT COUNT !!! What can be done to 
face that situation of extremely low solar activity...???
Well amigos, I'll be more than happy to provide you all with some ideas 
about how to deal with the now already with us extended, and I believe 
almost record breaking solar minimum....
Stay tuned, as Dxers Unlimited's weekend edition continues... I am Arnie 
Coro, radio amateur CO2KK now also , like you, facing what seems to be 
the most prolonged solar cycle in recent times, and amigos, we all have 
to deal with the very much extended SOLAR CYCLE MINIMUM... back with you 
in a few seconds...
........

Si amigos, Dxers Unlimited is a very practical radio hobby show... and 
all along its existence I have always tried to provide my listeners with the
facts that will help them to enjoy the hobby... Dealing with the many 
consecutive months of very low solar activity is today's program main 
topic... and I do hope that you can take notes, tape the program or read 
the script posted to the ODXA e-mail list, the Ontario DX Association 
YAHOO mail list that so succesfully has provided its members with up to 
date radio hobby information
.. SOLAR MINIMUM.... yes, you have heard that dreadful phrase more and 
more often as we approached the years 2006 and 2007, when scientists had 
forecasted a period of extremely low solar activity as solar cycle 23 
was reaching its end... But, first things first... don't think that one 
cycle comes abruptly to an end, like flipping a switch off and the next 
one starting at the flip of another start up switch... Solar cycle 23 
has winded down now for a very extended period, and now it is predicted 
that soon we will be hopefully seeing more sunspots of cycle 24... as 
the two cycles overlap for a period lasting many months... Cycle 23, the 
present one, was a higher than average one, that showed to peaks of 
activity,but now scientists are forecasting that cycle 24 will be no 
match to the preceding two cycles, but that's something yet to be seen...

Now here is the answer to today's question sent to our ASK ARNIE section 
of Dxers Unlimited by many listeners from all around the world... Here
is a STRATEGY TO DEAL WITH SOLAR EXTENDED MINIMUM !!!!
First things first.... monitor the Sun's activity more precisely than 
ever, as during the solar minimum there are certain periods of higher 
activity
that will provide you with nice Dx opportunities on the higher frequency 
bands..As a matter of fact, we have just gone trough of those "active 
periods" during solar minimum, and even a solar flare erupted from a 
sunspot region that reached a complex magnetic configuration.
So, rule number one of the game: MONITOR THE SUN on a daily basis and 
keep a record of the daily number of sunspots, the solar flux and 
information about coronal holes...
Your solar records will help you plan in advance for any upcoming 
contest, as the Carrington solar rotation, the 27 days and forty one 
minutes that the
Sun takes to rotate at its Equator will help you to forecast periods of 
lower or higher solar activity...
NOW, second rule of the game: MONITOR the HF bands using the higher 
frequencies first approach, also known among experts as the downward sweep..
A receiver with a slow motion dial drive is ideal for this purpose, and 
it is second only to a HF spectrum analyzer connected to a wideband antenna
system, equipment that is totally out of the question for normal people 
like you and I... Doing the downward spectrum sweep with a receiver 
connected to a 14 meters long Tilted Terminated Folded Dipole wideband 
omnidirectional antenna, will give you information about the highest 
frequency that is propagating at anytime... For example, Monday late 
evening local time here
in Havana, it was actually about two o'clock in the morning, I ran a 
downward sweep starting at 15 megaHertz, and met with the first signals on
the 25 meters international broadcast band, around 11.9 megaHertz...It 
was obvious that the maximum useable frequency curve was way down , 
something that led me to keep tuning down in frequency until I reached 
the 40 meters amateur band, where many signals from Europe, Asia and the 
Pacific where
present...
So, if you have not yet built your wideband TTFD short antenna for the 
frequency range between 7 and 35 megaHertz, it's about time to start
collecting the materials and homebrewing one, as this antenna will be 
your number one aid during solar minimum years...
More about how to deal with SOLAR MINIMUM as Dxers Unlimited's weekend 
week edition continues ..
.......
Si amigos, an unusually extended solar minimum is here, but that doesn't 
mean that you have to shut down your radios and wait until the sunspots 
are back... Here is now Arnie Coro's number three tip for dealing with 
the solar minimum years...
Build yourself a large sized magnetic loop antenna, capable of operating 
from 1.5 to 5 megaHertz.... If used for receive only applications, the 
magnetic loop may be tuned using a conventional receiving type variable 
capacitor... Why do I recommend the magnetic loop for the 1.5 to 5 
megaHertz frequency range... well, because a lot of DX activity is 
certainly happening there during these long months when the sunspot 
count is extremely low...

A good friend of mine, with whom I discussed the strategy for the solar 
minimum years recently, said that he was getting ready to homebrew a five
meters by five meters magnetic loop, using the fiberglass spreaders that 
are made for building cubical quad antennas for the amateur bands... He 
has already made a two by two meters magnetic loop, using RG-213 coaxial 
cable for the antenna element with very good results...And he is looking 
forward on how to deal with the much heavier five by five meters version 
of the magnetic loop that he affirms will be able to tune down to the 
low end of
the AM broadcast band, where Dx stations from Europe may be frequently 
picked up in the Americas during the solar minimum years.
Now rule number four: And this one applies only to amateur radio 
operators..,rule number four calls for calling CQ DX as much as possible 
, yes,
calling CQ DX everytime you have an opportunity... You will be 
pleasantly surprised to see that calling CQ DX at three o'clock in the 
morning local
time on an otherwise apparently dead band,like 30 meters may seem to be 
at that time, may bring in DX from halfway around the world, exactly as 
it happened to me on the 30 meters or 10.1 megaHertz amateur band at 
exactly that time from Monday to Tuesday my local time, that was at 0700 
UTC.
Last but not least, if you are the happy owner of a lot of real state 
where to install long wire antennas, by all means try them ! A Beverage 
long wire
terminated antenna three,four or five city blocks long, mounted on 
typical fence posts at about 2 meters above ground will bring incredible 
DX from the direction to where the termination of the antenna is looking 
at... Some low frequency Dxers, the guys that enjoy most the solar 
minimum years have installed not one, but several long wire terminated 
Beverage antennas in preparation for the very low solar activity that is 
expected to continue for the next several months...
Well amigos, I hope that this information on how to deal with the solar 
minimum years will be useful to you all, both newcomers and experts... the
newcomers to the hobby will be remembering their first quiet Sun, and 
the oldtimers will recall really lengthy periods of the quiet Sun as the one
that happened during 1965...
AH... and before I forget... running a little higher power on your 
amateur radio transmitting equipment will also help to deal with the 
solar minimum..
Boosting the power from 10 Watts to 100 Watts, that is by 10 decibels 
will improve your chances of having nice two way contacts under a very weak
ionosphere ...
If you have any further questions or doubts about how to deal with the 
low sunspot we are all watching now, send me an e-mail to 
inforhc@xxxxxxx <mailto:inforhc@xxxxxxx> VIA AIR MAIL to Arnie Coro, 
Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba


.....
Well amigos, I hope that the information provided during today's Dxers 
Unlimited will be useful for you all... now , here is our exclusive and 
not copyrighted HF plus low band VHF propagation update and forecast... 
Sporadic E openings soon to be starting on a day to day basis.. You 
should be able to pick up many low band TV channels stations using 
simple antennas like my 2 meters long VHF TTFD omnidirectional 
antenna...Radio amateurs will also enjoy the first two way contacts of 
the sporadic E season really soon, especially on the 10 meters and 6 
meters bands, but signs of very short skip will also show up during 
sporadic E openings on the 12, 17 , 15 and 20 meters amateur bands, 
remember that calling CQ DX when there are signs of an opening is very 
important, so that other amateurs will be able to know that the bands 
are open. Solar flux is still at very low levels, as well as the zero 
sunspots condition…., latest solar flux figure was around 68 units, and 
the optical sunspot count was ZERO... See you all at the midweek edition 
of Dxers Unlimited next Tuesday and Wednesday UTC days amigos, and don't 
forget to set aside a little time to send me feedback about today's 
program to inforhc at enet dot.cu , again inforhc@xxxxxxx, so that the 
next edition of the program may be , thanks to your help, a bit better 
than this one !!!


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