Major flare and storm activity, K index currently at 8

Site Notices

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Major flare and storm activity, K index currently at 8

Posted: 9/7/2017 11:01:21 PM EDT

If you all hadn't heard, we had the biggest X-class flare of this cycle not too long ago and conditions are getting... interesting.

I'm listening to WWV on 10 MHz right now and I don't think I've ever heard it sound so weird.

Posted: 9/7/2017 11:21:22 PM EDT

[#1]

//turns on rig//.. Hawaii is coming in better than Ft Collins here. Sounds like

it's in a "dreamland" state. Maybe some multipath?

Posted: 9/7/2017 11:26:33 PM EDT

[#2]

Auroral flutter. It was all over 80m earlier.

Posted: 9/7/2017 11:26:34 PM EDT

[#3]

2.5 is nothing but QRM here. 5.00 I hear only Ft. Collins at +20-30db over S9. No "dreaminess"
On 15mhz I only hear Hawaii and she's S7 to 20db over S9. No "dreaminess".

Posted: 9/7/2017 11:28:37 PM EDT

[#4]

Very fluttery. What was weird earlier is that it was clearly an audio-frequency flutter, it sounds like
WWV's signal was being AM modulated at 50-100 Hz, so the clock tones were spread and beating against it.
Super odd.

No suprise I'm hearing the same now, WWVH is way above WWV now. 5MHz is unaffected, the difference in tone
is pretty stark.

Posted: 9/7/2017 11:33:34 PM EDT

[#5]

Quote History

Quoted:
Auroral flutter. It was all over 80m earlier.

View Quote

Yep, tangentially related they're forcasing that the visible aurora could go as low at 30 degrees latitude in the next
few days (!) I'd kill to see it here. I'd warned an ex-GF of mine that's a photographer about five years ago and she
managed to get pics of it just an hour outside of phoenix, but it was just green skyglow.

Posted: 9/7/2017 11:35:21 PM EDT

[#6]

Quote History

Quoted:
Auroral flutter. It was all over 80m earlier.

View Quote

Ahhh.

Remember when WWV was just about the only way we had to get the solar reports?

What was it, 18 minutes after the hour? I recall getting miffed because I'd miss it

doing other things, like changing parameters in the MFJ 1278 trying to decode RTTY.

Posted: 9/7/2017 11:38:00 PM EDT

[#7]

Partly cloudy with a full moon here. Still going to be tough to see any Aurora

Posted: 9/9/2017 12:01:02 AM EDT

[#8]

I had to drive somewhere today and was using the GPS navigator in the car. Several times it looked like GPS signal was lost or my position was off by a quarter mile. The GPS antenna had a clear view of the sky and there were no clouds. This is the first time I noticed this. Do you guy think the solar flare might have caused this?

40 meters propagation was weird yesterday, with a lot of DX stations booming and the noise lever over S5-S7. Usually the noise on the 40 m band is at or below S1 over here. Some stations did sound a bit weird, like with aurora propagation.
No aurora in the sky. I did look several times at night.

The moon was surrounded by some weird haze, probably due to some moisture in the atmosphere.
BTW, watch out for some nice 10m openings in a few days. Check the CW beacons for propagation openings.

Posted: 9/9/2017 12:30:13 AM EDT

[#9]

Quote History

Quoted:
I had to drive somewhere today and was using the GPS navigator in the car. Several times it looked like GPS signal was lost or my position was off by a quarter mile. The GPS antenna had a clear view of the sky and there were no clouds. This is the first time I noticed this. Do you guy think the solar flare might have caused this?

40 meters propagation was weird yesterday, with a lot of DX stations booming and the noise lever over S5-S7. Usually the noise on the 40 m band is at or below S1 over here. Some stations did sound a bit weird, like with aurora propagation.
No aurora in the sky. I did look several times at night.

The moon was surrounded by some weird haze, probably due to some moisture in the atmosphere.
BTW, watch out for some nice 10m openings in a few days. Check the CW beacons for propagation openings.

View Quote

GPS problems are one of the things they warn about during major flares, so it's likely related.

Posted: 9/9/2017 7:21:08 AM EDT

[#10]

About 7pm central the A index was 96. Elmer said he had never seen it that high. I checked 20. at 8pm and was blackout. Only burdies from my neighborhood. Switched to 40m and the band was really busy for short skip.. Really was suprised when i learned that Amateur radio was dependent on the sun..

Have a good one and all be safe

Prosise

Posted: 9/9/2017 10:04:44 AM EDT

[#11]

Been running the SKCC WES for the past hour and scored 23 contacts on 40. Signals are strong but with occasional short-term dropouts of a second or two. Nothing much on 20 yet.

Posted: 9/9/2017 12:32:26 PM EDT

[#12]

The bands are still terrible, but things are getting back to normal...

Attached File

Posted: 9/9/2017 1:58:57 PM EDT

[#13]

This is my fault, of course, since my new 7300 showed up thursday, and miraculously I got wsjt-x to compile on my unsupported system.

Posted: 9/10/2017 12:51:03 AM EDT

[#14]

40 meters was very busy with booming contesting stations. Lots of DX stations as well. I have not tried 20 meters. 10 has been dead. I only heard one beacon from CA.

Posted: 9/10/2017 9:42:55 AM EDT

[#15]

Evolution of Sunspot Region 2673.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0zKxGRZldQ

Evolution of Sunspot 2673 (9/9/2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0zKxGRZldQ

Posted: 9/10/2017 1:00:04 PM EDT

[#16]

Something slammed the bands shut here, I can't even copy WWV on any frequency, but the white noise goes away when
I unplug the antenna.

Talk about crap timing for Irma comms.

ETA: Here's the 30M WSPR map right now. It's 10AM here. I don't think I've ever seen this in my history with WSPR.

Posted: 9/10/2017 2:21:51 PM EDT

[#17]

Not just you. Bands are ass

Posted: 9/10/2017 3:05:23 PM EDT

[#18]

I was out doing some mobile antenna changes and testing this morning. I made a few contacts, then did a test drive to ensure road worthiness. Got back and checked things over three times to try to figure out what came loose or disconnected. As you said, white noise, but bands are decimated. To compound my confusion, I went to http://www.hamqsl.com/solar3.html to see what kind of conditions the bands were in. Took me nearly 5 minutes to figure out his band condition data is not current, showing 9/7 date on data.

Posted: 9/10/2017 3:17:22 PM EDT

[#19]

Here's the D-absorption chart. The red spot was way bigger two hours ago. It's correlating with the WSPR 10M
contacts really well (e.g. stations on the edge of the spot are starting to see other stations.)

The image is from NOAA's radio communications dashboard.

Posted: 9/10/2017 7:50:02 PM EDT

[#20]

Thanks for that dashboard. Bookmarked!

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Major flare and storm activity, K index currently at 8

Outdoors » Ham Radios

Warning

Confirm Action

About AR15.COM

Stay Connected

Newsletter

Contact Us