W4FT on Amateur Radio

NASA reports an M-9 class solar flare erupted around 03:59 UTC this morning (around 11 pm EST Sunday night) from sunspot 1402. Just short of an X-class flare, it is expected to arrive around 14:18 UTC Tuesday, Jan. 24th (around 9:18 am EST), give or take 7 hours. This follows an M-3 flare from sunspot 1401 that erupted between 15:15 to 16:30 UTC Jan 19th. The resulting CME arrived around 06:30 UTC (1:30 am EST) Sunday morning, Jan 22.

Does this mean that solar activity is suddenly ramping up in intensity? Will we be getting better and better HF propogation in the immediate future? We’ll have to wait and see.

For more details, check out http://www.spaceweather.com/