The e107radio web site is now launched. Why has it been launched? Well, e107 is a great content management system and is ideally suited to producing many different web sites including radio based ones. What we hope to achieve here is a forum where radio related plugins for the CMS can be showcased as well as becoming a useful radio resource for all radio enthusiasts around the world.
It seems that the Sun has come alive. We are seeing SolarSpots almost for a month and a week now with the exception of only two days without SunSpots.
Since the 8th. of December we have seen SunSpots from a count of 10 or more till a maximum of 45!!! I have seen also a SolarFlux of 94!!! A new highlight number for the new SolarCycle.
So I am convident that bandconditions will slowly improve. At last!!! We waited long enough.
Today (2nd Christmas day 2009) I made a nice QSO with Australia. I just turned my antenna to the USA (because of the time of day) when I saw him calling. Earlier that afternoon I had called to another Australian station without success. The last 2 months I made just a few QSO's. See the first screenshot for VK8DPX. If you click on the image then you get a larger image.
On the 14th. of November I had a QSO with ZL4AD. This was the 3rd time I had a QSO with him this year. One QSO even by the long-path.
I also had today a contact with an American station on the Westcoast (NQ6L). Also with the back of my antenna (directed to Australia). Not bad for a boring 2nd. Christmasday !!
RIJSWIJK - If there are no clouds then you can see this weekend falling stars without using a telescope. This happens because the Earth is travelling through the orbit of the death comet Phaeton. Because of this we have every year more falling stars from the sky than normal. This news is comming from the 'Nederlandse Vereniging voor Weer- en Sterrenkunde' (KNVWS) on Thursday. The highlight of this event will be in the night of 13/14 December. More than 100 falling stars/hour will appear in the sky. A falling star or meteor is a dust particle or a little rock from the space entering our earth atmosphere. It will hit with a high velocity the molecules in the air which causes them to light up for a brief moment. It can be seen on the earth as a very short light in the sky. (ANP)