QRN

[AC2OY]

Was it just me tonight or were the HF bands tonight horrible tonight? So must static and noise that I could barely hear anybody.

 

[majoco]

Read all about it....

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

 

[AC2OY]

Ok so I guess the moral of the story is when a solar flare or a geomagnetic storm occurs we get crappy radio bands or QRN? Much better tonight. Thank you man for the response I was hoping it wasn't just me. I did hear some folks say they were experiencing heavy noise or their end but at about that point I gave up.

 

[mancow]

The bands have been crud for a while now.

 

[Ed_Seedhouse]

There have been quite a few magnetic storm events lately, even though the x-ray output of the sun has been declining after the peak of the solar cycle. Lately most come from bits of plasma that flood out through holes in the solar corona. Eventually they often get here and if the magnetic poles of the ejected plasma are of opposite polarity to the Earth's magnetic field they get sucked in and the HF bands go to pot.

Last night (Sept. 19) a coronal mass ejection from a long lasting C class flare reached us earlier than predicted and caused a short lived strong geomagnetic storm. Today there was an M2 (moderate) class flare which ejected plasma but it might not be coming our way. In the northern hemisphere we still have weak geomagnetic storming but currently conditions are predicted to be good on 20 meters.

We've had more periods of geomagnetic storming lately than we had when the current cycle was at it's peak.

Go to the home page of QRZ.COM to see current solar conditions and predicted HF band conditions.