Alexa Seleno
@alexaseleno

EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR FLARES

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Fast-growing sunspot 3981 is directly facing Earth and crackling with strong solar flares. An M8.8-class explosion on Feb 3rd was only percentage points below category X. NOAA forecasters estimate an 85% chance of M-class flares and a 20% chance of full-fledged X-flares on Feb. 4th.

BIG SUNSPOT ALERT

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A sunspot complex more than 500,000 km wide is crossing the solar disk and crackling with solar flares. In the past 24 hours alone there has been one near-X flare and a half-a-dozen shortwave radio blackouts. This sets the stage for a week of potentially high solar activity.

CQ World Wide WPX RTTY Contest

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The CQ World Wide WPX RTTY Contest begins at 0000 UTC on Saturday, February 8, and concludes at 2359 UTC on Sunday, February 9. The objective is for amateurs world-wide to contact as many stations and prefixes as possible. Single Operator stations may operate for 30 hours of the 48-hour contest period. Multi-operator stations may operate for the full 48 hours. Complete rules are available at www.cqwpxrtty.com/rules.htm.

NCJ North American CW Sprint

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The NCJ North American CW Sprint begins at 0000 UTC on Sunday, February 2 (Saturday evening in North America) and concludes at 0359 UTC. The object of North American stations is to contact as many radio amateurs as possible. Stations located outside of North America can contact as many North American stations as possible. The exchange is the other station’s call sign, your call sign, a sequential serial number, your name, and your location (state, province, or country). Full rules are available at ncjweb.com/Sprint-Rules.pdf.

If you’ve never participated in a Sprint before, check out the Thursday night, 30-minute practice session sponsored by the Northern California Contest Club, starting at 0230 UTC. See www.ncccsprint.com for more information.

– Thanks to Ward Silver, N0AX.

ARRL Hamfests and Conventions

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