Thursday 17 January 2019

HC6PE - WSPR during Kp=5 event.

Some pretty good geomagnetic conditions last night, with Kp reaching 5:

Image: NOAA/SWPC.
Image: IRF/Kiruna.
Unfortunately, my friend Raul, LU8DPV and I had agreed to terminate the experiment we ran over the past few days.  Raul seems to have noticed the disturbance, as he transmitted for a short time around 22:30UT.  In fact, whilst the WSPR database does not show I heard Raul, my WSJT-X record shows that I heard him twice, at 22:36 (-15dB) and 22:46 (-10dB).  With no further transmissions, we can reach no conclusions at all.

Put simply, we need much more WSPR activity in Latin America!

I was able to follow HC6PE, who is a very regular WSPR operator.  This is how his spots looked:

The disturbance in the field brings HC6PE to an early close, just before 17:00UT.  But he then reappears at 21:24UT at -28dB, climbing rapidly by 21:32UT to -16dB, dropping again by 22:44UT to -19dB, and then finally dropping off into the noise after 22:54UT, where he was not heard again during the night.

This strong and very sharp peak seems to coincide very nicely with a rapid recovery from a southerly swing that continues into a sharp northerly spike, most closely aligned with the magentometer at Leirvogur, Iceland (the green line ending at 'lrv'):

Image: Tromso Geophysical Laboratory.

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