Aurora watching turned into a thing when the largest Geomagnetic Storm in more than two decades gave us Earthlings a spectacular view of the power and majesty of our sun last night.  Sadly, Rhode Island weather wasn’t as cooperative as it could have been, as it was very cloudy until about 3:30 AM this morning.  But that didn’t stop my wife, daughter, and me from heading out at O’dark hundred to see the sights.

View to NW around 3:30 AM near Schartner Farms in Exeter RI

My wife and daughter can be seen on the shore of Barber Pond (POTA US-10548) around 4:00 AM enjoying the celestial display due west

This amazing global display of Auroral activity was spawned by the first few of a large series of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), impacting the Earth Friday afternoon.  This drove the Kp level up to 9 and generated a G5 storm.  While things tapered off a bit this morning, they are back up to a level 8, with several more CMEs due to impact us in the next day.  Those with clear weather may be lucky enough to see more displays tonight.

By the way, viewing the event through recent smartphones will reveal more colors and details than can be seen by the naked eye.  In the examples above, the Aurora was occurring over the West Coast thousands of miles away  Had the sky been clear around 10 PM, the display would have been on top of us.  Nevertheless we could still see the Aurora with our naked eyes, but mostly saw the whitish green colors of the shimmering curtains.

The Kp index reached a value of 8 today, after the planet was struck by one or more CMEs, pushing the planet into a Severe Geomagnetic Storm (G4), something we haven’t seen for 20 years.  Multiple additional CMEs are headed towards Earth.  Fortunately we aren’t expected to see a Kp of 9 (Extreme), but who knows.  Currently the storm will likely be producing auroral activity that may be visible as far south as Texas and Alabama.  (Sadly, New England weather is anticipated to be cloudy overnight).

I subscribe to the Auroral Alert program from SpaceWeather.com so my phone has been buzzing with SMS messages for days now as many X-level flares have been detected.  Sure enough, I observed the noise floor increase and the waterfall go dead about an hour after the CME impact.

Capture of Solar Data from SolarHam.com – showing today and tomorrow being a level 8 storm.

From the Space Weather Prediction Center showing the radio blackout when the CME hit around 10 AM EDT.

SWPC – Shows the high level of D layer absorption happing as the particles from the CME spread out into the Ionosphere 2 hours later. Note 35dB attenuation in the 20 meter band, and that is one way. In other words 35dB going up thru the D layer to the F layer, the 35dB coming down, for a total of 70dB  Nothing like a 12 S-unit reduction in signal strength!

My wife and I headed to our favorite park, Beavertail (US-2868) on Conanicut Island, RI,  to watch the Eclipse this afternoon.  We were too far to the east to enjoy totality, but we figured it would be fun to see 91% of the sun occluded.  The weather sort of cooperated, with thin high wispy clouds and a temperature in the low 50s.  But I didn’t quite plan on the stiff breeze blowing right off the water into our faces – I was shivering, especially my hands.

I figured that I could use this as an opportunity to try out my Elecraft KH1 and it’s built-in 41-inch whip antenna at a park.  Despite my trembling fingers, I managed to make ten QSOs between 2:15 and 3:09 PM, all of which were during part of the eclipse.  I was actually pleasantly surprised  that folks could even hear me, but they did with a few fills required and signal reports ranging from 539 to 599.  That completes another of my goals for 2024, by the way.

My view looking SSW from Beavertail – it was a nice early spring day but WINDY.

My Elecraft KH1 laying down on my chair. It was fairly easy to work 10 stations with the attached 41″ whip (and 13 foot counterpoise wire laying on the ground)

New England weather has been fairly mild the last few winters, especially in December and early January.  The weather gods indicated mostly sunny skies and temps around 40 for New Year’s Day, so it seemed like an excellent time to head to a new (for me) park: Camp Cronin Recreational Area (K-10542), which is on the southern coast of RI, near the Point Judith Lighthouse.

I decided to run SSB to make logging a bit easier (juggling a laptop and a paddle for CW is always not-fun).  Despite some rather strong ignition noise from other cars around me (running their heat, no doubt), I was able to make 26 contacts rather quickly.  My wife walked our dog Jaclyn while I was on the air and took a nice photo of the car with the full size 1/4 wave vertical for 20-meters:

That’s the Atlantic Ocean about 10 feet in front of the car, looking toward Africa.

Over time, my POTA activation kit has grown smaller, due in no small part to a reduction in battery size.  I’ve transitioned from a 60AH, to 30AH, and finally a 15AH Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery.  Understanding the power requirements of my activation radio after 50+ outings has allowed me to activate with confidence that I won’t run out of power.

With an understanding that Rhode Island is fairly rare, my activations almost always generate a pile-up, and maintaining a rate of 1 contact per minute (60 an hour) is easy to do.  At this point I plan on the following:

• CW Activation 5.5 AH per hour of operation
• SSB Activations 5.1 AH  per hour of operation

Yep, CW takes more power on average!

Since LiFePO4 batteries allow you to safely consume in excess of 90% of their rated capacity before the battery voltage tails off significantly, that pretty much says I can have about 2.5 hours of heavy operating time using a 15 AH battery.  In my world, that corresponds to 2 parks between charges.  Using that rule of thumb, I’ve never run out of power in the field, and I’ve done as many as 4 shorter 30 minute activations in a single day.

I do carry a smaller 9 AH battery as a “backup”, but I’ve only used it once in 50+ activations (and that was because my primary battery failed).

I started working POTA right before the pandemic, and have continued on.  I had managed to work 51 of the 52 parks in Rhode Island, and had activating Block Island as my goal for 2022.  Things didn’t work out last year, so it went back on the list of goals for 2023.

My club, Newport County Radio Club, decided to sponsor a “Work All RI POTA” event from September 6 through the 10th.  Prolific activators from all over the country descended on little RI, to activate all 52 of our parks.  Thanks to some incredibly wonderful assistance from Willy W1LY, a fellow club member, we planned to activate Block Island on September 7th.

For those not familiar, Block Island sits in the Atlantic Ocean, about 15 miles south of Rhode Island.  Unless one is an Olympic Swimmer, folks usually take a ferry from Point Judith to Old Harbor.  The trip is 19 miles by sea, and takes almost exactly an hour from dock to dock.  As a reference, a round trip for a full size van/truck and two adults is about $140.  Book weeks in advance during the summer to ensure you get a reservation.

Willy picked me up in his camper van (all the comforts of home, except for a water closet) at 6:40 AM, as vehicles are required to arrive at least an hour before departure time.  We were underway about 8:30 AM, and at the dock on The Block by 9:30.  For those RI natives, we know that there are many 100+ year old hotels and homes on the island.  Sadly about two weeks ago, the Harborside Inn burned.  This is what greeted us as. we were waiting in line to leave the ferry:

Harborside Inn, over 140 years old, was gutted by fire on August 18, 2023

Prior activators of the Block Island National Wildlife Refuge (K-0513) complained of difficulty finding a place to access the refuge, which isn’t surprising as it was made for animals and not people.  Most would go to the town transfer station, near the northern tip, and activate from that parking lot, but it was never clear that the parking lot was actually within the park boundary.  Some map sleuthing indicated that there was a road that cuts right through the middle of one of the sections of the park (the park is made up of a bunch of isolated sections, not one continuous piece of land).  I’ve included a section from the US Fish and Wildlife map below that shows that Skipper’s Island Road, a left turn off of Corn Neck Road, passes through the refuge (slate blue color). The road is made up of crushed sea shells and is in good shape, probably because it services a few homes.

Sure enough, we caught the attention of some of the wildlife:

Deer observing radio operations in the Block Island National Wildlife Refuge

We were set up and making contacts by 10:15 AM local time (14:15 UTC).  Willy W1LY was on 40 meter SSB using an end fed wire in an inverted-V configuration held up by a jack-kite pole.  I ran 20 meter CW, feeding a mag-mounted 17 foot whip on top of the van.  We had a dry run the prior weekend at another park and were pleasantly surprised to find that we did not interfere with each other, despite the antennas being within feet of each other.

We took a lunch break in the middle and swapped bands.  When we wrapped things up at 1:45 PM, we had just enough time to get back to the ferry dock by 2 PM.  Willy had 104 Qs on SSB, and I had 52 on CW.  As we were waiting to board the ferry for our 3 PM departure, there was another reminder of the tragic fire – demolition equipment was being offloaded from the ferry.  By this time next week the Harborside Inn will be nothing more than an empty lot and fond memory.

Large crane offloaded from the ferry to help with the Harborside Inn demolition

Thanks to Willy W1LY, I’ve now activated all the parks in Rhode Island!

As of early yesterday morning (3 AM), I completed CWT #90 on the year.  This earns the Silver Medal (which I achieved my first year).  I need 30 more contests to get to 120 and earn the Gold Medal (which I achieved last year).

The past few weeks, propagation has been so good, I have been getting up at 3 AM to participate in the 4th contest of the week (Wednesdays at 1300Z, 1900Z, 0300Z, and 0700Z).  But at this point, I think perhaps I will just do 3 a week and skip the 0’dark hundred one.  By the end of September I should be at 120.