In “The Reverse Beacon Network” (Oct. 2016 QST, pp. 30-32), Pete Smith, N4ZR, and Ward Silver, N0AX explain how the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) is used to observe and report both CW and RTTY communications to the DX spotting network and to a data archive. This article explains how to be spotted by the RBN, how to download RBN data, and also how to become an RBN receiving node.
In “The New Sunspot Numbers” (Oct. 2016 QST, pp. 38-41), Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA, reviews the history of sunspot numbers and how they are calculated, as well as explains a new formulation of sunspot numbers in use by the Royal Observatory of Belgium. Sunspot numbers are important because they are correlated with the atmospheric ionization on Earth.
Researchers and HamSCI volunteers meet at the 2016 Dayton Hamvention to plan the 2017 Solar Eclipse QSO Party. (Left to Right) Magda Moses KM4EGE, Nathaniel Frissell W2NAF, Ward Silver N0AX. Photo by Bob McGwier N4HY.
The first preview of the HamSCI website is now online at http://www.hamsci.org. It is built using Drupal 7.41 and the Bootstrap base theme. It is hosted by the Hume Center at Virginia Tech.
The next step is to focus on the content we would like to have for when the website goes live to the general public.
