Don't know why I didn't write about this when it happened.

August 9th, the daily Sunspot Number (SSN) was 382. That seemed enormously high. I couldn't remember a single time when the SSN was that high. So, I did some digging.

I downloaded all the SSN data, converted into an Excel spreadsheet and did some analysis. The SSN hasn't been that high since 1991. That's 33 years ago!

The SSN has only been this high a total of ten times in my lifetime (since February 1961) -- Five in 1979, Twice in 1989, and Three times in 1991. 

Of course, none of this compares with Cycle 19, where daily SSN values were well over 500 for many days. But those values all happened 1956-1959, well before I was born.

Cycle 25 is shaping up to be much better than Cycle 24, which was really lousy, and possibly better than Cycle 23.  The smoothed SSN has already exceeded the maximum value for Cycle 24, and it is far from over. 

We've already seen a huge change in the bands in the last couple of years. 20m is open 24 hours, and 15m much of that time. 12 and 10m is open every day. I'm hoping we might see some 6m F2 openings. Enjoy it while you can. We should have two more years of these conditions before the cycle starts back down.

Surrounded by the green grass tranquility of Hot Springs State Park, a temporary ham radio...

I was QRV in Gordon county briefly - only a couple of weeks. I managed to erect the 80/40/20m dipole I had up in Warren county, which previously flew over Fulton county. It was a cobbled-together mess, made from wire left over from the original 80/40m dipole, newer traps, and old insulators and rope.

Using the Mark III Antenna Launcher, I did a good job casting over a tree in the front yard. Weight sailed up over the tree and came right down beside the trunk. The 1/16" guide line went back out to the antenna launcher, and then the 1/4" nylon halyard came back over. Perfect.

At the far end, I had more trouble. Not wanting to crawl over a fence, I cast sideways to branches overhanging the edge of the yard. The first toss wasn't great, so I pulled it down. Second toss got stuck in the tree, and I lost the weight. I was down to my last antenna weight. I confidently tied it on, pulled back, let it fly, only to watch it sail off the end of the fishing line and into oblivion. Nuts. 

With no weights handy, I couldn't use the antenna launcher. I opted to use a small hammer and toss the halyard over a branch about 20 feet up in the tree. At least I didn't lose the hammer. 

The resulting installation sloped the dipole from about 25 feet on the south end, to about 60 feet on the north end. No matter - it would work. At least, until I could make more weights and get it higher in the air. 

I used it to make about 100 contacts for the NAQP Phone in August, plus a little casual operating. Then I found most of it lying on the ground after a few windy days. Inspecting the remains showed that the wire between the 20 and 40 meter traps had broken. That particular segment was pretty old, being part of the original 80/40m dipole, and might have used wire from the ancient untuned doublet before it.

This meant that one of the 40m traps was still up in the tree. Looking carefully, I could see it about 50 feet up. Untying the rope, I could not get it to drop, and instead pulled the halyard to recover the rope. The wire ended up coming off the insulator, leaving wire and one trap stuck in the tree. Drat.

The rest of the antenna lay across the yard and lower driveway. I don't use that driveway, so I didn't think about it. However, some folks came to visit the parsonage and apparently didn't see the traps laying there. Two of the trap forms got crushed in the process. Doggone it.

I guess I have to rebuild this antenna from scratch, using new wire and traps. That will take some doing, as most of the parts are back in Gwinnett county. Plus, I have to make more antenna weights to put it back up. 

In the meantime, I'm off the air in Gordon county.