[SEDXC] Interesting Phenomena. Worm hole entrance or strange propagation?

[Greg Potter]

In 50 years of Ham, my experience on Dec. 31, 2010 at about 1545z was the
very strangest I had ever experienced.  Maybe it is just that I was "born"
as a ham at the bottom of a cycle and have never spent much time on those
higher HF bands.  
On the other hand, maybe I drove by a worm hole entrance or perhaps an
amateur radio CW "Tower of Babel" in South Central Georgia.  Whatever it
was, it was certain weird. 
On that New Year'S Eve, early in the afternoon, I was out in my mobile and
operating on the County Hunter's net frequencies.  I was heading for Johnson
County because there were a bunch of folks that were looking for that one.
It was a great day, conditions were good.  The weather was beautiful and I
was having a really good time as I ruined the environment with the exhaust
from my "should have been a cash for clunkers" pick-up truck.
I had pulled over in Baldwin County to finish up the run on 17 meters.  Jim,
KB6TAL was acting as net control when all of a sudden I could no longer copy
him.  His signal was S9+ into Georgia, but when he transmitted all I could
copy was the first and last letter that he sent.  It was really weird.
Everyone else that was transmitting was fine at my end except for Jim.  I
thought QRM, but no it was not.  I soon realized I was receiving Jim twice.
I thought "long path", but that was initially rejected because both signals
were just too strong (both of the KB6TAL signals being received were S9+).
The next logical explanation was some type of E layer ducting.  There was a
pretty big storm front about half way between us at the time.  I just can't
explain the delay in the signal.  It was about half a morse character (or
less)  at 25-30 wpm.  That would make the delay about half a second.  Maybe
my ears were off and the delay was say 100 mSec.  That would make the
distance 186000*.1 = 18,600 miles.  That is very close to the circumference
of the earth.  WOW! ..  Could it have been a combination of ducting and Long
Path propagation? This all lasted three or four minutes and then just
stopped as quickly as it started. 
Any propagation experts out there who could explain this?  More info
available on request.  I am collecting information on this so if you had any
unusual happenings on 17 meters New Year's eve day, please share them.
I wish I had a tape running on this one!   73 de Greg NM2L, Sugar Hill, GA