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Earth & Sun The sun is the dominant force in our solar system. How it wakes up every morning dictates how signals will fare around the globe. Energy from sunspots, in the form of plasma, wind and flares, charge the particles in our ionisphere in both positive and negative ways - and that affects how our signals will fare when we wake up, wander into our shacks and fire up our radios. |
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| Ham Radio, Art Galleries & More | 123Gold.com Design ©2015 | |
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And the Links If you haven't already, learn as much as you can about the earh and sun's relationships. It will help you to understand more about the hobby and certainly will come in handy with DXing and propagation Join a group, test your antennas. You can learn a lot. If you are on the West Coast, check out 7155 and the Ohana Net - and, please, let them know the Zebra sent you. 73! |
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(CREDIT FOR SOME OF THE LINKS ARE NOTATED IN BRIGHT GREEN - THANKS TO THESE TERRIFIC HAMS!)
This entire web site started as my notebook. Having it on the internet meant I could see it anywhere on my phone, pad or laptop. But then it grew and I was intrigrued by the idea I could provide information to others I wish I had when first feeling my way around. I will continue to store and share information, links and more group listings in the years ahead for everyone to use and enjoy. If you wish, drop me a line and say hello any time the spirit moves you. Oh, and every image on this page is a link, so don't miss what they have to offer!.
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| Here is a great Video that is part of a Free Study Course for the General License: |
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For more information, check out The Hamwhisperer.com
I have been called away of an assignment (this is 3/11/2015) and will be adding more, but slowly or slow-er, during this period expected to last until 5/1/2015
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This is a "Live" 3-day video (notice the dates) jUST CLICK THE STATIC IMAGE AT LEFT AND A WINDOW WILL APPEAR .. WITH THE LIVE SUN! How do you like this? What does it mean to us, as radio operators? If you are an amatuer radio operator, you'll experience what they call blackouts where you are hearing everyone fine, and then they all drift away, as if being carried off by the wind. That's what you'll hear when a solar flare "event" happens. Notice those whisps like cotton candy on the sun? Well, those are flares. When huge flares happen and spew their deafening engergies toward Earth, radio signals are degraded. (Keep in mind, when sunspot numbers are higher, radio reception is better). Hard to understand, but you'll be learning more about that in the days ahead. So, don't run out and buy a new radio when a flare happens. You could spend a lot of money that way if you do! Once about two years ago, in 2013, I was chatting with WM6P and he was peaking at 20 over 9 on my S-meter, and then this flare hit and I could hear his audio go softer and faded and then in a blink he was gone. It was as if his station had been catapulted into space, just like one of those movies where the actor is standing outside and then we see them fly off into space as if they were connected to an invisible bungie cord. That was my first, firsthand experience with a major solar flare event. For more videos visit http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/
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Weirdly Beautiful, Isn't It? Well, guess what, you live here! It's the Heliosphere
It is the region of space dominated by the Sun. The edge of the heliosphere is a magnetic bubble-like medium and is located far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Plasma "blown" out from the Sun, known as the solar wind, creates and maintains this bubble against the outside pressure of the interstellar medium.
In my opinion, this guy went a little dyslecic on us, although I'm sure his intent was well. You see, the sun gives off all kinds of energy, one of these energies is the solar wind. And you can follow his links above and find wonderful time-lapse videos that will show you what the sun is doing week to week. Don't miss those! (See my static links above.) The solar wind, in its density as plasma, shoots away from the sun and then, as he explains, is kept from going any further in space as a result of the pressure of that great void that holds it in. Much like gravity that keeps us from flying off into space! Anyway, the short version is, that great big beautiful "flower" up there is plasma, short and simple. See if you can find Earth in all of that and then see the video in the Tool Chest below called, "The Size of the Sun."
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73 for now -- Enjoy the Links, I beg of you! -- Use ones on top of this page each time you fire up your rig - Okay, for now, this is W6BQZ signing clear