I became a licensed ham a few years ago. As is my luck, I got licensed right at the end of the previous solar cycle. What’s the solar cycle, you might ask?
The sun operates on an 11 year cycle. During this cycle, there is a period of increased solar activity and a period of dormancy. During the active period, the sun lets of solar flairs and the surface is covered in sun-spots. When the sun is active, the material that the sun lets off charges the ionosphere — which is awesome because you can bounce radio signals off of a charged ionosphere.
We’re just at the start of the next solar cycle. Last week, the sun left off a few CME’s which caused radio black outs at first, but charged the ionosphere enough to improve its ability to bounce radio waves. Upon hearing this, I had to dig out my shortwave radio and give it a try. My radio has a max power of 100 watts. I was running at 50 watts, which is overkill for a weak signal mode such as FT-8.
All of the blue balloons on the map showing times are marking where I was heard by other Amateur stations running the FT-8 software.
Not too bad. There are nights where my signals barely even make the coasts of the US.
This map was generated by PSK reporter. You can enter callsigns and it will show you if it’s heard them. If your looking for more information on current space weather conditions, look no further than spaceweather.com.
