Are we headed into a "Little Ice Age" again?

Many scientists are starting to think that lower sunspot numbers may be signal a dramatic, long-term quieting of the sun. Although hams have followed the sunspot number closely for decades, physicists, climatologists and even weather forecasters are starting to take notice of what appears to be a 30-year trend in declining sunspot cycles. And if history can be trusted, fewer sunspots means more extreme weather and that could cost everyone from the family farmer to the oil and gas industry one thing: money.

So, it's probably not surprising that even Forbes magazine has added its take on the looming solar future in an interesting article.  Forbes adds to a growing body of news articles and websites (such as NASA's page from the Marshal Flight Center explaining the cycles and New Scientist's prediction page) that are heralding a lull in solar activity (and for us, a drop in propagation).

Ground Radials by the Numbers

Taken from "http://www.antennasbyn6lf.com/"... 

Series of QEX articles on ground system experiments

Last year I posted results from a series of experiments on ground systems for vertical antennas. That series of reports was converted with some modifications into a series of seven articles in QEX magazine. The ARRL has kindly given me permission to post .pdf files of these seven articles for those who do not have access to QEX.

A summary of these articles was published in QST for March 2010, pp. 30-33. In QEX for May/June 2010 letters to the editor I made the following comments. "I think too many people are taking the QST article as gospel when it should be viewed only as an interesting set of expriments which shed some light on a few questions. Even the QEX series, which is much more detailed, raises far more questons than it answers. I was really hoping to encourage others to expand on my work (as I expanded on Sevick's) by showing how it might be done. 73, Rudy N6LF"

Click here for N6LF's website and a copy of the series.