Last night I noticed some very interesting propagation.
I first heard SM4CAN around 0230 with a good signal but coming
in best via my 80 degree Beverage. My true bearing to SM from here is
34 degrees, so apparently the signal was skewed south by the disturbed
geomagnetic field caused by auroral conditions (WWV K5 at 03 UTC and K6
at 06 UTC). Kent's signal was also readable on my 40 and 110 degree
Beverages but 80 was definitely best. I heard Kent comment to another
station that he was even hearing us over South America so the skew must
have been reciprocal on his side.
I stayed up until 0400 and worked several more EU (DM, OK, TA,
US5, HB9, DJ, IT9, SP and OK) until I got tired of fighting the S9+
QRN which had started to build up over this time. All of these
signals were coming via the same 80 degree bearing from here.
This morning ZL2REX was skewed north and was best on my 290
degree Beverage so apparently the skewing conditions are still in
effect. N4XP/V7 also had a tremendous signal about 30 minutes before
my sunrise this morning. I have never heard him before and don't
have a basis for comparison but perhaps his signal was enhanced by
the conditions.
If you see aurora reported, or notice high K indices on WWV,
don't forget to check Topband...it may surprise you!
73, Bill W4ZV
P.S. The following data is from Cary Oler's very useful Website:
(http://solar.uleth.ca/solar/www/160mag.html)
Current Selected 1-Hour Geomagnetic K-Indices
UTC 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11
College, Alaska (N64W147): 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Baker Lake, NWT (N64W96): 2 2 2 * * * 4
Churchill, Manitoba (N58W94): 5 3 4 * * * 3
Cambridge Bay, NWT (N69W105): 3 2 3 2 * 5 4
Yellow Knife, NWT (N62W114): 3 3 6 * * * 4
Post de le Baleine, VE2 (N55W77): 7 4 3 * * * *
Hartland, U.K. (N51W004): 4 3 3 3 2 4 3
* = No Data or Data Not Available.
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