https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tec...nications/

Military use of HF has been superceded by satellite comms which is less vulnerable to solar activity. Unfortunately, satellites are highly vulnerable to anti-satellite warfare as this article explains. So now the European military - and presumably others too - are getting back into HF. Good article, very interesting especially in how the military is using weak signal technology, high data rates and Automatic Link Establishment (ALE) to get the most out of HF despite possibly adverse propagation conditions.

This Parks On The Air program is getting to be more fun than a barrel of monkeys. XYL, dog and I spent 3 days in our trailer up at Grundy Lake Provincial Park (85km south of Sudbury, off highway 69) this week. I took my portable kit comprising a Yaesu FT-891, homebrew L-match tuner and my End-Fed-Half-Wave antenna (electrically a half-wave on 80m but physically shortened with a loading coil).

I operated in two sessions, one on Monday afternoon and again on Tuesday afternoon. The objective was to get 10 contacts within the same UTC day (i.e. between 00:00 and 23:59UTC). The fun thing about POTA is that once you get "spotted" you get a pile-up of "hunters". It only takes a couple of CQs, if you are a CW op, to get spotted. The Reverse Beacon Net (RBN) spot is picked by POTA and re-spotted to the POTA site. That didn't seem to work on the first day, but fortunately Grundy Lake Provincial Park is close to the highway so I used my cellphone to self-spot directly to the POTA site.

It was quite cool in the park so I was operating from inside my trailer and putting out 100 watts. The signal reports I received were generally better than my received signal reports. Maybe the FT-891 sensitivity isn't so good, or my antenna (up 30ft in a tree) didn't have good ears. Anyway, I logged enough QSOs each day to qualify for the activation so I was very pleased with that. My log is attached below.
John VA3KOT
   

VHF:
VE3VCG Marvin
VA3TS Tom
VE3MIO Maureen
VA3KOT John
VE3BQM Bernie
VE3PAV Bobbie
VE3RQY Greg
VE3IJD Gene
VE3DGY Doug
VE3RWY Rob (NC)

   

NB: I tuned around 80m SSB but couldn't find GBARC. If anybody else has a log for the HF net please post it; thanks.

from ARRL:

Sunspot Index and Long-Term Solar Observations (SILSO) in Belgium said this month that the minimum between Solar Cycles 24 and 25 “most probably” took place last December. SILSO, a part of the Royal Observatory of Belgium and formerly known as SIDC, cited as evidence the January 2020 increase in the 13-month smoothed sunspot number — the first upswing since the Cycle 24 maximum in April 2014.

“For now, this latest smoothed value in January 2020 is the very first point indicating a rise of the activity. So, the date of the minimum still needs a full confirmation over the coming months,” SILSO said on its website. “For now, preliminary smoothed values, limited to less than 13 months, hint at increasing values over coming months. If the rising trend indeed continues, this [December 2019] date will become fully definitive.”

SILSO said another indication of the transition between the two solar cycles can be drawn from counting individual sunspot groups that belong to either the old or new solar cycle. “While most sunspot groups belonged to the last solar cycle [Cycle 24] until September 2019, the dominance switched to groups of the new cycle in November 2019,” SILSO said.

SILSO said that in terms of the number of active regions, the minimum between Cycle 24 and Cycle 25 falls in October 2019. “This is close to December 2019,” SILSO said. It attributes the difference to three factors:

• The sunspot number also takes into account the total number of spots, and thus the size of the emerging active regions.
  

• The time of the minimum depends on the respective trends of the declining phase of the past cycle, and of the rising phase of the new cycles, over the 12 months surrounding the minimum.
  

• The date of the minimum has a significant uncertainty range. Near minimum the activity hardly varies and is close to minimum during a few months. “The date of the minimum is thus always less sharply defined than the date of the maximum of the cycles, which are more sharply peaked,” SILSO explained.
  

• “This late-breaking upward trend is now expected to accelerate over the coming months,” SILSO predicted. “So be prepared for a more eruptive and interesting sun!”
  

Packed up the portable radio kit and drove up to Restoule Provincial Park (just south of North Bay) this week for three nights camping. I have always been keen on operating ham radio outdoors and I have been looking into the Parks On The Air (POTA) program for a while. This trip I was determined to attempt my first "activation" of a park. I prepared in advance by posting my planned activation to the POTA website (parksontheair.com). I needed to make 10 contacts within the same UTC day to achieve my goal.

On the first day of my scheduled activation I sent a CW message in the prescribed format:
                      CQ CQ POTA VA3KOT VA3KOT VE-0363 K
VE-0363 is the POTA designation for Restoule Provincial park.
The Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) picked up my signal; POTA posted a "spot" on its spotting page and "hunters" looking for points in the program sought me out on the air.

Now, I am accustomed to struggling to make random contacts when I am operating outdoors. I am usually satisfied if I get a couple of contacts after a prolonged period of calling CQ. POTA is different - way different! Within seconds of calling CQ I had a pileup. It sounded like every CW op in the world calling me at once. Some of the callers were sending much faster than I could copy and others were sending as slow as 10 words per minute. My CW practice has enabled me to copy callsigns at 25-30wpm -I needed that skill for this activation. I was transmitting at 18wpm but I was so excited that my sending was somewhat QLF ("I am sending with my left foot"). 10 contacts were needed between 00:00 and 23:59 UTC. I made my 10 contacts in just 17 minutes and went on to make a total of 14 contacts over 30 minutes before calling QRT.

I am planning three more camping trips over the next couple of months and hope to activate Grundy Lake, Arrowhead and McGregor Provincial Parks. Man, this POTA thing is the best fun I have had in ham radio!

Here is my log for Restoule Provincial Park (VE-0363) activation on 27th August 2020:
Callsign | RST Sent | RST Received | QTH
NT2A 559 599 NY
N8II 559 579 WV
WA9LEY 559 559 IL
K1RO 579 579 NH
N4HD 599 599 VA
W4NA 599 449 WV
W8UA 559 599 OH
NE1D 559 599 MA
N2IGW 599 599 NY
AA8CL 599 449 OH
KD1CT 599 599 NH
WA3TVH 559 559 PA
NE4TN 559 559 TN
WB8CPG 559 449 OH

My portable rig: Yaesu FT-891 running 80 watts into a MFJ-1979 telescopic 17ft vertical with a homemade loading coil for 40m and two 33ft radials on the ground.    

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