This is an update of some of our activities from the month of May, 2024.
First, we hope that everyone had a happy May Day filled with whatever pleases you. For us, it was very nice to see that someone ran a special event station for International Workers’ Day during the first week of May.
We also welcomed a new comrade this month. They are a longtime community organizer from the Pacific Northwest who is passionate about radio as a community tool for building connections and emergency response networks. They are currently learning Morse code and scheming about the next antenna build.
One of our comrades has been studying CW and following this pretty decent YouTube series. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=irpAeqkr11Q&list=PLuvVda3FOP_2dkB4pyY7LplwxG1nNJ01J&index=1&pp=iAQB
At least two of us have acquired – or will soon acquire – a 17 foot stainless steel telescopic whip antenna. This is a very versatile piece of equipment which can be used in many configurations. Fully-extended, such an antenna is resonant down to the 20 meter band, and can be shortened to be resonant up to the 6 meter band. However, there are many supplementary pieces of equipment that can be DIYed from basic hardware store material such as PVC pipe and copper wire. Air core inductors for bottom- or top-loading the antenna, clip-lead wire extensions, and transformers could all be used to extend the useful bandwidth of the antenna down to the lower bands from 30 and 40 meters down to 80, 160, and conceivably even lower if the radio equipment supports it.
This one piece of equipment could be used to build modular portable kits akin to commercial alternatives provided by Chameleon Antennas and Wolf River Coils, but with more versatility, creative potential, and at much lower cost. We look forward to writing about our experiences with this in the future.
The Lilygo T-TWR Plus seems to have potential as a lower cost Bluetooth packet TNC for APRS, as well as having some other potential for experimentation. We’ll relay anything of interest after the unit arrives.
One member’s direct drive 3D printer upgrade should make printing weatherproof parts easier and more reliable. Thoughts and prayers as always for the fickle 3D printing process.
Earlier this month, from May 10 – 13, the Earth was struck by the most powerful solar storm since 1989. This event caused radio blackouts on the HF bands, as well as disruption to the GPS network.
GPS disruptions forced farmers to halt planting for the entire day, as large-scale automated agricultural equipment relies on GPS for navigation.
Aurorae were visible in the Northern Hemisphere as far south as the Yucatán Peninsula, and as far north in the Southern Hemisphere as Queensland, Australia.
In comparison to the legendary Carrington Event superstorm of 1859, the solar storms of May 2024 were only about half as strong as the minimum estimated strength of -800 nT, and about 23% as strong as the maximum estimated strength of -1750 nT. The May 2024 solar storms reached a peak Dst index of −412 nT at 03:00 UTC on 11 May.
Please note that none of us are sun scientists or whatever. Here’s a video from Tamitha Skov, who understands this stuff way better than we do.