[CQ-Contest] What happened (on 10M)

[Tom Macon]

Here in the upper midwest (WI), we experienced an opening to the east 
beginning at 0000 Sunday (1.5 hr after sunset) lasting for the next 5-6 
hours.  It began with the Maritimes and New England and proceeded steadily 
south to Nc and SC. Perhaps this was some sort of precursor to the events 
later Sunday, described by N7DF.

I made about 1/3 of my total Q's during this 5-hour period.

 - Tom, K9BTQ


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "N7DF" <n7df at yahoo.com>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 5:04 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] What happened


The surprising propagation that occurred on Sunday afternoon appears to have 
been the result of a major shift in the interplanetary magnetic field as 
evidenced by the NOAA plots

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ace/MAG_3d.html

http://spaceweather.com/glossary/imf.html

All day saturday the earth-sun flux path (Bz) was positive or north oriented 
but it shifted about 0300Z allowing the solar wind to penetrate the northern 
hemisphere until about 2000Z when it began to "ring" creating sparadic 
bursts of high energy areas in the ionosphere. This was evidenced by the 
"spotlight" opening that many prople enjoyed with good runs into limited 
areas.

This was one of the most clearcut cause and effect examples I have ever 
seen. It probably would not have been evident if it had not been for all the 
contest activity.



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