Topband: Auroral Oval

[Paul Kelley N1BUG]

W4ZV wrote:
> So disturbed conditions can sometimes actually help.

It's all part of the magic I guess. Even up here in the soon to be 
frozen north, where in general we suffer more with geomagnetic 
disturbances, they sometimes help. Sometimes even very challenging 
paths, such as 9V and JA, are enhanced during disturbances. In fact 
I heard 9V1GO exactly 4 times, all with disturbed conditions! The 
last one resulted in a QSO.

I have noticed a trend, both in recent observation and my previous 
top band operations years ago. Conditions on nearly all paths, even 
high latitude circuits, are often enhanced during the first few 
hours of a geomagnetic storm. This effect is especially pronounced 
if there have been several days of magnetically quiet conditions 
preceding the storm. Has anyone else noticed this? I've seen some 
amazing enhancement at such times. Once a disturbance has been going 
for many hours - and certainly by the second day - most high 
latitude paths are usually poor or useless. It takes several days to 
recover to good/normal conditions if it was an intense or prolonged 
storm. If a storm follows several days of unsettled to active 
conditions - or comes too soon after a previous storm - there is 
little or no 'storm enhancement' at my location.

73,
Paul N1BUG