Fun with Solar Storms

[Lauri-CoyoteFrostbite]

Not long ago my physicist friend was visiting me in my mountains, and she idly started playing with one of my scintillation (radiation) counters.

"Oh Wow !" she said "the background count today is over 400 per minute"
"We must have had a solar flare"
(Where I am is almost 10,000 feet above sea level and our usual count is 60-80.)

"Lets check this out"-- and I flipped on my HF transceiver. Listening across the entire 20 metres band.... Nothing- not a signal..... in fact nothing anywhere in the HF spectrum---- just a raspy background noise, so solar flare-ish.


My friend was mildly interested in the coincidence- however she just shrugged it off.
...After all, we both had spent our careers around these phenomenons.
........Still, and probably to the vast majority of hams,- while being aware of solar weather, have never thought about looking into it themselves.

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So, have I still got your attention ?? --- geeky stuff, no?

Sites like NOAA's solar radiation web page offers starting place for the curious,

Solar Radiation Storm | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center

www.swpc.noaa.gov

or want to know in real time the background where you live ?

Radiation Network

radiationnetwork.com

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Equipment ? (Oh !, don't we love the equipment !)

You'll want a fairly good Geiger Counter to get started*.... there are a phethora of choices, new and used, but stay away from those 60's era Civil Defense meters - the ones that read out in Rads-- ( we never joked about such dose- meters, but the truth is, if they register anything you are already in deep sh---.)


If there is a scientific passion for a different bend to your ham radio, space weather may add a new dimension.


Lauri




* I have used a Ludlum Model 3 Survey Meter for years






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[KB2GOM]

Having navigated to the enthusiasts' dashboard on the NOAA site, as a "principles first" (top down) guy, I need to be pointed at some basic explanations of the things I need to pay attention.

Is there a primer/book/website you can point me to? Think "suitable for not totally dense high school student."

 

[Lauri-CoyoteFrostbite]

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Oh my, KB2GOM...............where to start ?

I don't want to come off as the snooty physic's prof, as this stuff gets very esoteric (ie: boring) very fast.
........Web searching such topics as " Coronal Mass Ejections ", solar flares, The Carrington Event are all excellent starting points, however, and the Web is replete with information.

In the next 24 hours (3/31) we are about to experience a good solar hit, so keep your eye's to the skies if you live North of 49 deg. N. Lat... **Auroras ! possible ! **
Point those 6 metre beams north, get out your CW skills and see what happens. You can work aurora with QRP (<50-100 Watts) even with simple antennas and at much lower latitudes... but you can forget the HF bands for awhile.....

Oh, and if you are like me, take an occasional peak at a Geiger counter , for who knows what interesting things are in store.


Lauri








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[jwt873]

Point those 6 metre beams north, get out your CW skills and see what happens. You can work aurora with QRP (<50-100 Watts) even with simple antennas and at much lower latitudes.

All set here... Waiting with anticipation. Been a while since I've had any AU contacts on Six.

One bad and and one good thing about living up here in the northern latitudes. We still have snow on the ground, but we get some pretty spectacular auroras.

 

[jwt873]

Is there a primer/book/website you can point me to? Think "suitable for not totally dense high school student."

Here's a chart showing the NOAA Space weather scales and the affects of various level solar events.. (Geomagnetic Storms, Solar Radiation Storms and Radio Blackouts.

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/NOAAscales.pdf

 

[K6GBW]

Nice to see someone else talk about this. I've had an interest in radio since I was a kid, but my interest in various forms of radiation started April 28th, 1986. I was in the Army assigned to what was then "West" Germany near the Coburg sector. That's the day we found out about Chernobyl. I spent the week being told there was nothing to worry about and to do my job. Hmm.

Later, as a police officer I volunteered for our departments Hazmat team because we had several radioactive hazards, a level 3 hot lab and various types of chemical and explosives in our jurisdiction. I spent thirty years doing this and loved it. As a radio operator I was drawn to what the effects of the sun and it's solar radiation does to our atmosphere. The site that I use is this:

https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/solar-flares.html

It has just about any information you might need, but I especially like the page on flares as it has a nice, easy to read, graph.

 

[w2xq]

Having navigated to the enthusiasts' dashboard on the NOAA site, as a "principles first" (top down) guy, I need to be pointed at some basic explanations of the things I need to pay attention.

Is there a primer/book/website you can point me to? Think "suitable for not totally dense high school student."

You don't need an engineering degree to understand this stuff. I was in high school when I started learning about propagation and solar activity leading up to the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Geophysical_Year of 1957-1958. Mason Southworth ran the ARRL'-IGY Propagation Research Project, and I learned a lot from the monthly newsletter. Perhaps two articles I wrote for CQ in 1983 may help. PDFs are available on my W2XQ.com : Bibliography page. Perhaps my webpage W2XQ.com : Propagation, Solar & Space Weather may also help. HTH.

 

[KB2GOM]

You don't need an engineering degree to understand this stuff. I was in high school when I started learning about propagation and solar activity leading up to the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Geophysical_Year of 1957-1958. Mason Southworth ran the ARRL'-IGY Propagation Research Project, and I learned a lot from the monthly newsletter. Perhaps two articles I wrote for CQ in 1983 may help. PDFs are available on my W2XQ.com : Bibliography page. Perhaps my webpage W2XQ.com : Propagation, Solar & Space Weather may also help. HTH.

Thank you so much! Put a Gold Star on your chart.

And if I may repay the favor in some small way . . . I offer this real-life radio story from my family's past: WWII Radio Letters: A real-life shortwave story

Cheers, Jock

 

[w2xq]

Thank you so much! Put a Gold Star on your chart.

And if I may repay the favor in some small way . . . I offer this real-life radio story from my family's past: WWII Radio Letters: A real-life shortwave story

Cheers, Jock

Interesting story, Jock. Thanks. Unfortunately war is a messy business. During the Vietnam War I supplied a local news station with several tapes of POW Christmas messages aired by Hanoi. SW is again having a resurgence in the current Russia-Ukraine war.