When I first got licensed the solar cycle was utter trash
Wow…memories come flooding back.
The ionosphere depletion really made an impression on me as a young man. In conjunction with my ham radio, I used to point a telescope at the sun that had a special lens on it to keep you from burning a hole in your head. Then I would turn the eyepiece 180 deg, put a regular lens in and point it onto a white piece of cardboard. You could watch the solar flares and track them across the sun as very dark shadowy spots on the cardboard. When there weren’t a lot of solar flare activity, signals went farther on the bounce. In my memory it was probably the last time that we as a global community banded together to solve the issue of ionosphere depletion because of aerosols.
Many many nights of QSL CQ! CQ!. I still have a trunk full of old QSL cards. Do they still do that now days?
Wow…memories come flooding back.
The ionosphere depletion really made an impression on me as a young man. In conjunction with my ham radio, I used to point a telescope at the sun that had a special lens on it to keep you from burning a hole in your head. Then I would turn the eyepiece 180 deg, put a regular lens in and point it onto a white piece of cardboard. You could watch the solar flares and track them across the sun as very dark shadowy spots on the cardboard. When there weren’t a lot of solar flare activity, signals went farther on the bounce. In my memory it was probably the last time that we as a global community banded together to solve the issue of ionosphere depletion because of aerosols.
Many many nights of QSL CQ! CQ!. I still have a trunk full of old QSL cards. Do they still do that now days?
Yes! Qsl cards are very much still alive and well. Some traditions will never die. The special event stations are fun to get cards from.
Super cool anecdote on the telescope thing, I’ve never heard of that.
I hope you get back on the radio, it’s a great hobby. It’s a nice stress relief outlet for me these days too.