‰ Now 18 WPM transition file follows ‰

in the only contested section manager race this winter, glen sage,
w4ghs, outpolled incumbent sm carl clements, w4cac, 720 to 656.  in
north carolina, tim slay, n4ib, will succeed john covington, w4cc,
who did not run again.  in pacific, former sm bob schneider, ah6j,
returns to succeed kevin bogan, ah6qo, who did not seek another
term.  in san diego, former sm tuck miller, nz6t, will take over
from pat bunsold, wa6mhz, who did not run again.  incumbent sms in
four other sections also ran unopposed and were reelected.  new two
year terms begin april 1. Average daily sunspot numbers this week
rose over 7 points to 9, but this doesnt mean much. Check out the
sec.noaa.gov web site to see how many days with a blank sun were
noted over the last thirty days.  Plan on seeing even longer
stretches of 0 sunspots over the next year. A couple of years from
now we should see a new cycle 24 rising faster than this old one
declined. Check out a great website showing sketches of sunspots
drawn in 1612 by Galileo Galilei. The coolest part is the
arrangement of the sketches into a sort of flip book animation,
which you can view with any media player such as Windows Media
Player or Apple QuickTime.  This gives us a reproduction of what the
sun was doing over the 35 days that Galileo made these sketches.
What a remarkable thing.  Geophysical Institute Prague predicts
slightly different conditions, with February 19 unsettled to active,
and February 21 and 22 just unsettled. They think today and
tomorrow, February 17 and 18, will be quiet. They predict quiet to
unsettled conditions for February 20 and 23.  Sunspot numbers were
24, 13, 11, 0, 0, 0 and 15 with a mean of 9. 10R7 cm flux was 74R8,
75R2, 76, 76, 76R3, 77R3, and 78R5, with a mean of 76R3. Estimated
planetary A indices were 2, 2, 6, 3, 2, 1 and 12 with a mean of 4.
Estimated mid latitude A indices were 2, 2, 4, 2, 2, 1 and 7, with a
mean of 2R9‚

‰ End of 18 WPM transition file ‰