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Did anyone catch the bizarre atmospheric/ionospheric? conditions this morning??

K

kinphoenix2

Last night/early AM (4:15 local- 11:15 UTC) I was doing my nightly MW dxing. On or around 11:16UTC, suddenly all locals suddenly silenced. What happened..???! Thinking my radio went on the fritz or the antenna, I re-seated connexions, switched radios. I thought our local AM 550 xmitter went down as we were having some rain lately here in Phoenix. Welp, ALL locals were *gone*. There was a seconds long period of "radio silence" followed by a furious dx "storm"! I was hitting stations on every single 100 khz, hets from all over God knows where. The expanded band had stations from 1610, 1620, 30,40 and all the way up to 1700. I heard KPHY from Moreno Valley (first time ever for me) and Canada(?) some voices on 530 that I could not ID - too poor, but there was something there. I hear Canada is the only station on 530?

1610khz, our Sky Harbor airport TIS was booming, usually it's non-existent more than a mile or so outside the airport. DX heaven!! Seems everything below 4MHZ was a DX party.

Wow! I love it when these bizarre conditions pop up. Unfortunately it being so late/early in the AM I could not keep my eyes open for much longer, although I really, really wanted to. Not often I experience these bonus times.

Anyone else hear this happen? I'm a very late night listener as my usual is shortwave listening, noticed the higher bands weren't so hot, but boy the LFs!! Caught Voice of the People under DPRK jamming too on 4450 and 4557 very well. CHU on 3330 was great. Lots of utility stations on the lowers came in beautifully. Usually it's hit or miss, but last night was amazing. What an odd conditions! Locals disappeared, and dx was awesome!

Wish I had some VLF antennas or BOGs to utilize such a great night. Oh well..
 
530 could be Cuba (Radio Enciclopedia). It reaches Eastern California a lot at night, so you should have it too.

-crainbebo
 
Thankx Crain, yes- must be Cuba as much much more likely. Was unaware of a Cuban on that freq. Hope those conditions repeat again soon, that was bizarre.
 
I was DXing last night from around 0330z to 0400z (7:30-8:00 p.m. local), and it was like nuclear winter DX conditions. Locals only.

The only regular regional DX stations that came in were some Californians (KGO-810; KFI-640 -- w/ reduced signal; KFAX-1100; KTRB-860 w/ reduced signal; KFIG-940 w/ weak signal, etc.) and a couple out of Canada.

A lot of closer stations were missing in action: KGA-1510; KONA-610, KTRA-610 Medford; KBND-1110; KOAC-550; KPOJ-620; and CBR-1010, for example). CKMX-1060, Calgary, usually pounds in. It was extremely weak.

However, CKYL-610, from Peace River, AB, was in with decent signals the half hour or so I was DXing. Weird.

I've noticed weaker than usual DX conditions on the AM band the past few nights, with higher noise levels.
 
boombox said:
I was DXing last night from around 0330z to 0400z (7:30-8:00 p.m. local), and it was like nuclear winter DX conditions. Locals only.

The only regular regional DX stations that came in were some Californians (KGO-810; KFI-640 -- w/ reduced signal; KFAX-1100; KTRB-860 w/ reduced signal; KFIG-940 w/ weak signal, etc.) and a couple out of Canada.

A lot of closer stations were missing in action: KGA-1510; KONA-610, KTRA-610 Medford; KBND-1110; KOAC-550; KPOJ-620; and CBR-1010, for example). CKMX-1060, Calgary, usually pounds in. It was extremely weak.

However, CKYL-610, from Peace River, AB, was in with decent signals the half hour or so I was DXing. Weird.

I've noticed weaker than usual DX conditions on the AM band the past few nights, with higher noise levels.
Click to expand...

Aurora is in the air! I had KSCO-1080 Santa Cruz, CA for a new log last night. Really like this type of propagation. Everything fades out and you have the chance for some rare California stations, especially graveyarders. I logged KSMX-1240 Santa Maria, CA at 878 miles on a GY channel during an aurora opening in March! Earlier this season, I had KJOP-1240 Lemoore, CA echoing with KNRY-1240 Monterrey.

-crainbebo
 
At my QTH the auroral conditions just sort of wiped out everything. It was like a bad summer evening. Spring 2012 I was able to take advantage of the auroral conditions and logged Mexico City once on 1500 khz. This time I just didn't hear much DX aside from the bigger California blasters.

Of course, last Spring I was able to DX more late night / early morning hours. Perhaps that's the difference.

And what I don't get is why CKYL-610 was coming in so well. It wasn't strong, but it was fairly steady, even heard the "YL Country" IDs in the clear. It's way up there in Peace River, pretty far north (56 degrees North).
 
As posted in another thread, I'm in St. Petersburg Beach, FL for a couple of weeks. Last two nights, signals from the north have been largely MIA. Exception, for some reason, has been WCBS...which has been strong enough to overtake the Cuban 880. Another "oddity".... I had KMOX and KWKH for the first time during my ten days (so far) here.

Go figure!
 
Unless things have changed recently KWKH apparently is still operating with STA power (12.5kW ND nights). The last extension of the STA was filed in November and is set to expire in May.
 
I'm not really sure about KWKH. Given that they haven't been particularly common at home in Northern Illinois as they had been. Which, basically means things were similar to what they were before the STA. That led me to believe they were back up to their normal authorization. Of course, I defer to those more knowledgeable about this than me.

In any case, their pre-dawn signal here this morning in the Tampa Bay area was pretty weak.
 
I've heard KWKH in the Chicago area within the past couple of weeks with a decent signal.
 
audioguy said:
I've heard KWKH in the Chicago area within the past couple of weeks with a decent signal.
Click to expand...

Then they may still be on STA, after all, and I've just been missing them. Whatever, I think 12.5kw would still be enough to make the hop from Shreveport to Tampa bay on rather frequent basis.
 
This afternoon while driving in Springfield, TN, just north of Nashville, I was trying to find a pirate FM I picked up the other day. I got a strong signal but the music was all wrong. I was getting WCIL-FM out of Carbondale, Illinois, about 180 miles away. The weather today is very unseasonably warm, near 70, and there's a bad storm system to the southwest heading this way.
 
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