October 2021 has come to a close and here are the Monthly Solar Numbers. The Mean Solar Flux is 89 (88.9) and the Monthly Mean Sunspot number is 38(New Scale). The Solar Flux is up a couple of ticks from the previous month while the SSN is down 26 percent from 52(NS) recorded in September.

While the drop in Sunspot Count is considerable October's Number is still the second highest of SC25.
The October Daily SSN Peaked at a value of 96(NS) on Oct 28 down from the SC25 high of 124 (NS) recorded on Sept 10. The Smoothed Sunspot Number for April is recorded at 24.9 which is revised 2 tenths lower from September. The projected SSN for October is 49.1 down 1.5 from the October 1 Revision.

The big news is 2 SC24 Regions surfaced during the month of October. The first appeared on October 24 at latitude North 01. The second SC24 Active Region emerged on October 29 at latitude South 04. As with all such Active Regions in this stage of the Solar Cycle both dissipated away a few hours after they emerged. This is both bad and good new as it confirms the magnetic bands from SC24 are still interfering with SC25 Activity but it does explain the pull back in Solar Activity during October.

Let's hope that November turns out to be the month we shake the monkey. Band Conditions are picking up especially on 15 & 10 Meters. 15 had solid openings between Europe and the East Coast for both days of CQWW Phone. 10 Meters had solid TEP Propagation both days of the Contest and the Big Guns were able to bag European Stations on 10 for multipliers. Best of luck to all in CQ WorldWide DX CW Contest November 27th and 28th.

AA6XE