Solar Monitor
NVDA add-on for radio amateurs. Provides quick access to solar activity data, HF band propagation conditions, and VHF propagation via a virtual keyboard interface.
Features
- Solar indices: SFI, sunspot number, A-index, K-index, X-ray flux, solar wind, proton and electron flux, helium line, aurora index, geomagnetic field status, noise level, MUF
- HF band conditions for 80-40M, 30-20M, 17-15M, 12-10M with separate day and night values
- VHF propagation conditions: aurora scatter, sporadic-E for Europe and North America
- Virtual keyboard interface with no visual elements, designed entirely for screen readers
- Context-sensitive parameter descriptions (press D on any parameter)
- Data from hamqsl.com, updated automatically with 15-minute local cache
- Full Russian and English interface
- Configurable gesture via NVDA Input Gestures
Installation
Download the .nvda-addon file from the releases page and open it. NVDA will ask to confirm installation and will restart.
Usage
Assigning a gesture
After installation, open NVDA menu, go to Preferences, then Input Gestures. Find the Solar Monitor category and assign any gesture to "Open or close the Solar Monitor virtual interface".
Keyboard controls
Press the assigned gesture to open the virtual monitor. NVDA will announce "Solar Monitor. Loading data..." and then read the first parameter when data arrives.
Inside the monitor:
- Down arrow: move to the next parameter
- Up arrow: move to the previous parameter
- Right arrow: switch to the next page (Solar Indices, HF Band Conditions, VHF Conditions)
- Left arrow: switch to the previous page
- D: read a detailed description of the current parameter including normal ranges and their effect on radio propagation
- Assigned gesture again: close the monitor
Pages
Page 1: Solar Indices
- SFI: Solar Flux Index
- Sunspots: Wolf number (sunspot count)
- A-index: 24-hour geomagnetic activity index
- K-index: current geomagnetic activity index with text status
- X-ray: solar X-ray flux class
- Magnetic field Bz: Z-component of interplanetary magnetic field in nanoteslas
- Solar wind: speed in km/s
- Proton flux: high-energy proton flux in pfu
- Electron flux: relativistic electron flux in pfu
- Helium line: solar UV emission at 304 angstroms
- Aurora: auroral activity index
- LatDegree: geomagnetic latitude of current auroral zone boundary in degrees
- Geomag field: geomagnetic field status in plain text (QUIET, UNSETTLD, ACTIVE, MINOR STORM, MAJOR STORM, SEVERE STORM)
- Noise level: HF band noise level on S scale
- MUF: Maximum Usable Frequency
Page 2: HF Band Conditions
Propagation quality for each band, separately for day and night:
- 80M-40M
- 30M-20M
- 17M-15M
- 12M-10M
Values: Good, Fair, Poor.
Page 3: VHF Conditions
- Aurora scatter propagation (Northern Hemisphere)
- Sporadic-E propagation for Europe, North America, and 50/70 MHz bands
Parameter descriptions
Press D on any parameter to hear a detailed description. For solar indices this includes: what the parameter measures, normal range, threshold values, and effect on radio propagation. For HF and VHF conditions: which factors affect this band and what to expect.
Data source
Data is fetched from hamqsl.com, a dedicated solar data service for radio amateurs. Data is cached locally for 15 minutes to avoid unnecessary requests to the server.
Requirements
- NVDA 2025.1 or later
- Windows 10 or later
- Internet connection for data updates
Author
r1bqe r1bqe@mail.ru
Amateur radio callsign: R1BQE, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
License
GPL v2. See COPYING.txt for details.
Source code
https://github.com/R1BQE/solarMonitor