Overnight WSPR Diary, 13-14/01/2018

Disturbed geomagnetic conditions to Kp=6.

Kiruna magnetogram thus:

Last DX spot heard was WA8KNE, 23:16UT at -27 from 5W.

Only G0 station until:

N4IP at 00:26UT at -25dB from 10W    Also heard at same time by EI2GN, the only other completely night side station to do so (unable to present map as N4IP had started picking up lots of stations in my morning period before writing this).

AA7FV also at 00:26UT, -22dB from 2W
No other full-dark side station heard him overnight:

VE3LTI at 00:42UT, -24dB from 2W.  Again, I was the only dark side station to hear him all night:

DL6NL at 01:10, 01:14UT, -19 from 50mW.  Also only heard here overnight (The LY spot is into early dawn propagation):

Only G0 until:

PH0TRA and PD4VCC both at 02:04UT (-29dB from 0.5W, -28dB from 0.2W), and both also only heard here overnight:

PH0TRA had no earlier night time spots.

PD4VCC had no earlier night time spots.

Statistical aurora at 02:00UT, just before the Dutch spots (it started to collapse rapidly at 02:05UT)

 
OH5XO at 02:24UT, -29dB from 0.5W.  Heard intermittently a few times by one LY, one DL and one DH station.

Only G0 until very early dawn time propagation

Statistical aurora, superficially quiet at 00:25UT, when N4IP and AA7FV heard:

But then, by 00:50UT, 8 minutes after the VE3 spot, a big change:

N0NHJ.

Operating from Antarctica, this has been an interesting spot in its own right recently.

Again, I heard N0NHJ in a consecutive series of spots when only PY2GN was hearing him from anywhere on the planet.   This changed a little while later, when EA8BFK, who always has very good hearing, picked him up later:

No earlier spots (to 13:10UT the previous day)

Comment:

The geomagnetic field was highly disturbed and showed large, rapid fluctuations.  As a result, it's quite difficult to tease out one thing from the other.

The US spots seem to be related to the early, onset phase of a very large negative change in the X component, with the other components showing significant positive increases.

The Dutch spots were very transient, and occurred when the field had recovered for a brief period, and was in the early phase of another large negative swing in the X component.

UPDATE:

I had a surprise email from Steve Nichols, G0YKA, famous in RSGB circles for publishing books on radio propagation.  It was enquiring as to the possible mode of propagation for his signal in Norfolk reaching me in Anglesey - a very small distance in a daytime HF context.

Anyhow, Steve took an interest in my recent work, and one of his plots from VOACAP came up with something even Steve was surprised about - a pretty reliable circuit that is potentially available all night long, from Anglesey to Antarctica at 14MHz:

Steve thinks that this is not related to geomagnetism because the N0 station is not in the north.  But I am not so sure at all.  A magnet is a dipole - and I am much more inclined to think there is a field circulation or some other magnetic relationship at play here.  There is also the fact that this circuit to N0 can't just be available to my station - it must cover a much larger area and so other stations, too.