Winnipeg Senior Citizens Radio Club

04/25/2026

More on magnetars .. given that WSC has recorded a gamma ray burst from one!

Geoff VE4AE

46K likes, 1.8K comments. "Magnetars: Neutron Stars but Scarier!"

04/24/2026

https://youtube.com/shorts/gw-uimKEzjY?si=Uww9a_nvMulvkOTb

Magnetar Short .. see previous post regarding SID depiction of x and gamma ray disturbance to ionosphere. Geoff VE4AE

38K likes, 529 comments. "Replacing the Sun with a Magnetar 😱 "

04/24/2026

Sanford Solar Center Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance Monitor # 9532 has been operated at WSC since 2023.

On April 19th 2026 at 14:00 UTC it captured the ionospheric disturbance resulting from a magnetar flare.

A magnetar is a neutron star and the most magnetic object in the universe. When it unleashes energy (x and gamma rays) from breaking magnetic fields it outdoes the sun (by far) in energy release.

We usually see the disturbance of the ionosphere when the magnetic field between magnetically paired sunspots snaps thus creating a solar flare. This is the first time we have directly imaged a singular extra solar event. We regularily image background “cosmic ray” noise at night.

Geoff VE4AE,
Winnipeg Seniors Amateur Radio Club.

04/18/2026

Week 2 of the Advanced amateur radio course at the WSC. 12 students in the course including online. Plus one other auditing.

04/05/2026

GOES ground station block diagram. WSC Training room.

Geoff VE4AE

04/05/2026

Brad ve4bsc installing Linux on SID computer. Windows 11 has proven to be too unstable.

Geoff VE4AE

04/05/2026

April 4 2026 data from Sudden Ionospheric Disruption (SID) station (Stn # 9532). Three flares detected from Hawaiian station (NPM 21400 KHz, 1 MW). Class M flare, 7.5, Class C 7.9, Class M 1.0.

Monitoring Station is at Winnipeg Seniors Club and nominal runs 7 X 24 with data sent daily to Stanford Solar Center, Stanford University.

The photo is Stanford representation of WSC-Winnipeg (9532) data.

Geoff VE4AE

04/05/2026

Working on antenna of GOES ground station .. Proggy’s ve4zwr on the roof installing LNA..

LOL … we need to target GOES 19 .. GOES 16 was put into retirement orbit.

Geoff VE4AE

01/30/2026

The Annual General meeting of the WSC is being planned for March 18th in the club rooms and via zoom. Inforamtion will be in a newsletter coming out at the beginning of March

01/30/2026

Advanced Amateur Radio Course
The WSC in the old firehall will be putting on a 10 week Advance Amateur Radio course
Time: Saturday mornings starting April 11 until June 27 (exam day).
Cost: $180.00 which includes the study guide and the exam.
$105.00 without the study guide.

Register: Send an email to [email protected] with Student name, Student email address & Student phone number. Please indicate if the student wants a study guide or not.
Payment: Interac transfer the course fee to [email protected]

An email will come out approx. 1-2 weeks before the course starts with document lists and links as well as information needed before the start of the first class.

01/17/2026

The Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance (SID) Stanford Solar Center Data Base and SID Project Station 9532 (WSC-Winnipeg).

Stanford Solar Center (part of Stanford University) established a program to study the sun and solar weather and profile solar science in universities, schools and to the public by making available relatively inexpensive monitoring equipment to measure the disturbance to the D ionospheric layer caused by solar flares. These Ionospheric monitoring stations are distributed across the world with data being sent daily to the Stanford Solar Center by ftp.. The Winnipeg Senior Club station is # 9532.

The monitor uses a magnetic loop antenna to capture the magnetic component of the refracted Very Low Frequency (VLF) signals (in the range of 20,000 Hz) These signals are generated by powerful stations designed to communicate with submerged submarines.

I’m not sure I’ve published the URL for the SID Database which records and displays the “civilian science” outputs of hundreds of SID stations around the world.

WSC is monitoring 3 VLF stations NAA 24000 Hz 250 KW (Maine),NLK 24800 Hz, 566 KW, and NPM 21400 Hz, (Washington State), 1000 KW (Hawaii) The longest path is Wpg to Hawaii and this is our most productive frequency. This list may change.

The current antenna seems capable of capturing M and X flares and occasional extreme C flares (Flares are ranked A, B, C, M, X based on X-Ray energy measurements).

I am correlating K values to flare observations. Canada has 14 operating geomagnetic monitoring stations with Brandon being the closest. (The other Manitoba station is Fort Churchill .. FCC). There are a number of K indexes: Kp, K, Khr. More on K values and other space weather indexes in future communications.

Our station is # 9532 WSC-Winnipeg and can be searched at the URL noted below. We have been sending data for years (with an exception for summer 2025 when the station was temporarily transferred to WSC2-Kenora).

The station is now back at WSC where it will stay. I will bring back my larger and more sensitive loop antenna from Kenora on the Spring.

The URL is:

http://sid.stanford.edu/database-browser/

Do not use Apple mobile platforms. Access is best through a PC Windows Environment.

Geoff VE4AE

Sent from my iPhone