This is a question for my upper Midwest DX friends: With this historically cold polar vortex dropping down from the North Pole and causing temperatures of -30 to -40 below with wind chills as low as -65 from North Dakota to Minnesota to Chicago, I was wondering if the extremely cold weather effects DX conditions. Namely, does the cold weather and cold ground conditions cause better ground conductivity? I doubt the brutal cold weather effects skywave, but I can imagine it does effect groundwave with the ground frozen solid. Just curious!
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Does Brutally Cold Weather Effect DX Conditions?
- Thread starter asugeorge1
- Start date
I'm in Columbus, Ohio, so not the Upper Midwest but still the Midwest. It does have a positive effect. Groundwave from distant stations is noticeably better when it's cold and even better when there's a snowpack ... WLW, WJR and WTAM are just a few stations I notice that are stronger in my car now than during the summer or even when it's 50 degrees.
This has been years ago before the kind of electrical interference that is common today, but I remember picking up 670 and 720 from Chicago at midday on a regular radio in my house near here during an extreme cold snap like this in the mid-90s. Those signal usually die off 30-40 miles northwest of here and they were still pretty weak, but they were there. There was a good amount of snow on the ground then as well.
This has been years ago before the kind of electrical interference that is common today, but I remember picking up 670 and 720 from Chicago at midday on a regular radio in my house near here during an extreme cold snap like this in the mid-90s. Those signal usually die off 30-40 miles northwest of here and they were still pretty weak, but they were there. There was a good amount of snow on the ground then as well.
I live in West TN but when I listened to AM regularly I could definitely tell that more distant or weaker stations came in better in the Winter, and especially when there was snow on the ground.
I recently traded cars (a 2019 Hyundai Elantra) and I'm surprised how much better the AM reception is than most of the other cars I've had over the last 10-15 years, and it's coming from a window antenna. Unfortunately there's very little I want to hear on AM now.
I recently traded cars (a 2019 Hyundai Elantra) and I'm surprised how much better the AM reception is than most of the other cars I've had over the last 10-15 years, and it's coming from a window antenna. Unfortunately there's very little I want to hear on AM now.
I lived in cold, frozen ass Alaska for nearly 2 years.. i cant say the cold really helped much
In New England, I've experienced good and bad DXing days in extreme cold. Reception conditions are helped immensely in the winter by the lack of atmospheric interference, which may create the illusion that propagation is somehow being improved by the cold. Just as there's a difference between weather and climate (I think, LOL), propagation and reception are different as well.
Technically, cold weather on the ground doesn't have anything to do with DX conditions -- it's mostly a function of the ionosphere, which is already extremely cold.
At the same time, if weather affected ground conditions, one would think that rainy weather would make a difference, and I can tell you it doesn't.
Speaking just for myself, I've found that the main effect of cold weather months on AM reception is the occasional appearance of daytime skywave. This has more to do with shorter hours of daylight and weaker sun angle than with ground level ambient temperatures. The only other positive effect that I can see from lower temperatures is the absence of thunderstorms. This cuts down on atmospheric noise, which helps reception. But as far as I can tell, the lower air temperatures....as well as snowpack....don't significantly enhance propagation in and of themselves.
I don't think weather has any effect on AM reception as it does with FM.
The only exception would be static from lightning.
When I was growing up, I used to think hot summer days had something to do with E-Skip reception because there seemed to be a correlation but then I later learned exactly what causes E-Skip and that correlation doesn't always mean causation.
The only exception would be static from lightning.
When I was growing up, I used to think hot summer days had something to do with E-Skip reception because there seemed to be a correlation but then I later learned exactly what causes E-Skip and that correlation doesn't always mean causation.
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