Pat Dyer
  5315 Silvertip Drive
 San Antonio, TX 78228
Deadline: 5th of month

OCTOBER 1978
         
Late 50-MHz news - Aug 24 0900 Z, Hilo, HI to Australia (TE); Sep 2
2150 Z Ohio heard Argentina (LU3EX) (Es-F2); Gibraltar beacon (ZB2VHF)
will soon be on 50.035 (from 50.003); French beacon off due to antenna
and other problems, will re-locate; Korea beacon (HL9WI) on 50.085
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My loggings. Hallicrafters SX-62 with 30' wire @ 12' nw-se run; Swan
250, Ameco nuvistor preamp, 5-el horiz. Cushcraft yagi @ 23' w/rotor;
All F2 (bs-backscatter) with daily peak MUF noted; GMT used

8-7: 1830 37.62          18: 2130 42.03          31: 1735 35.28
  8: 2359 35's bs            2335 43.58 bs           1950 35.62 bs
  9: 2028 40.07              1915 41.63         9-1: 1820 35.62 bs
 10: 1855 30.30          21: 2100 35's bs            2120 35.28
     2210 35's be        22: 2015 mid-36'         2: 2335 49.63
 11: 2155 49.58          23: 2100 mid-36          3: 2335 mid-36
 12: 1940 35.28          25: 1815 32.96                   OK City bs
 13: 2100 hi-35          26: 2030 38.55                   V. of Chile
 14: 1910 36's           27: 2100 low-31          4: 2136 49.85
 15: 1935 37.000                  35's bs         5: 2015 hi-30 US
 16: 2110 37.11          28: 1750 37.58              2210 49.92
 17: 0110 mid-31 US      29: 1805 low-36
     2115 44.50          30: 2100 38.85

 OK City 35.58 voice pager;  Voice of Chile  30.36 (apx)  harmonic

 also noted 50-MHz 2Es on Sep 2 (2000-2200) to Puerto Rico, Bermuda,
 and Venezuela. rare at this time of year after a poor August of Es;
 -several frequencies just below 6-m (e.g., 49.58/.63/.68/.73/.78)
 noted are believed to be from Colombia/Bolivia/Argentina in on F2
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Large aurora caused by the largest magnetic storm of the year on Aug
 27-28 was reported visible as far south as Santa Fe, NM
 ----
 Solar flux, after dropping below 100 for the first time since January,
 rose within a week to the 170-180 range. That represents the highest
 flux in a September since 1960.
 ----
 Swiss sunspot predictions have the smoothed number for December at 117.
 That's higher than the peak smoothed value for Cycle 20.
 ----
 Another recent prediction on Cycle 21 has a peak in late 1979 of just
 over 200 (sunspot number), with a 66% chance it will fall within the
 160 to 250 range. That's getting into the size of the record Cycle 19.
 ----
 With all this the fall F2 season should easily be the most active since
 the 1968-1970 period. This will be maybe the best chance to catch the
 BBC TV signals before they move them from low-VHF (see p. 10 Aug VUD).
 With the right conditions the transcontinental MUF might get to the
 50-54 MHz region (or more).
 ----
 I have available an abstract of Texas stations in the 30-50 MHz band
 from the Feb 1971 (and update Aug 1972) ITU list. It runs some 12 pages.
 A lot of the police/fire can be found elsewhere, but a lot of the bus-
 iness listings might not be so easily located. $2 to cover Xerox and
 mailing costs. (in ascending frequencies then alphabetically by town)
 Can be very useful in identifying all those KK-###  calls in Texas.

                                 73,   WA5IYX