Slight magnetic disturbance, big changes.

Interesting to see VK3QN (fixed long path 12-element array) being received at 14MHz in a very different manner and timing to recent quiet field conditions.  Blue (13) is received signal on 13th October 2020, and orange (19) is received signal on 19th October 2020:

Oddly, the 19th October signal that comes in well ahead of the long path period is stronger than the long path period itself.  This is the first time I've seen this happen, but two-peak morning enhancements are not unusual, although by no means are they seen consistently.

The Kiruna magnetogram shows how little the field was disturbed overnight in order to produce the difference in received signal from VK3QN:

VK3QN 14MHz long path (130 degrees) array.  Image(C) VK3QN, with permission.

 

 

UPDATE:

With early signs of the field becoming disturbed, but with the Kp only reaching a maximum of ~3, the received 14MHz signal from VK3QN took another change in pattern, with no spots during the overnight period, and an extraordinarily sharp and brief rise during the daily long path period (long horizontal lines are periods of non-reception; dots show actual spots):

14MHz received signal from VK3QN, 2020 October 19-20.

'Metallic Bursts' at 24MHz.

The long-running debate about what 'metallic bursts' heard during summer on 50MHz could be took an interesting change of direction this morning.

The 24MHz band was right at the very edge of opening, where only one signal, OZ3BAM, was being heard at a fairly consistent level with my 3-ele beam pointed at 090 degrees. 

Other signals weakly coming in and out of reception seemed, for the most part, to be backscatter signals from EI and G stations, where they were sometimes decoded, but often not.

This is a brief recording of two FT8 cycles, where the first is a fairly steady level (the background hum is due to a lower-than-ideal input into HRD's recorder), and the second clearly has the bursts:

Mesospheric · 24MHz_Es_bursts

So the propagation appears to have been weak Es, with the structure lying to the east of me.  The propagation also seems to have been almost purely one-way, as I made many CQ calls, with no replies, and also that there were only a couple of reports via PSKreporter - although that doesn't always pick everything up, and can sometimes be delayed by several minutes in what it reports.

A large number of 'metallic bursts' were heard during a few minutes of listening.  This is not the case on other days, so the explanation that some angrily insist lies simply in meteor reflections, cannot reasonably be correct.  If it were, we would hear these 'pings' every day.

My idea has always been that these bursts are the result of transient propagation permitted by localised, rapidly-changing reflective structures in Es or Es-like patches.  I think this morning's experience only adds some credibility to that idea.

 

VK on 12m

The last time I made a QSO on 12m with Australia was on February 1st this year.  Since then, nothing.

Sadly, a two-way QSO remains elusive, but I did get a reasonable reception of a VK signal this morning, one of only two signals coming in at the time - the other being 3B8CW.

Website of the Year

Amongst the good work going on in the ham radio community, VK7JJ's efforts, in tandem with WSPRDaemon.org, in producing a fast and reliable WSPR database service really stand out from the crowd.

 

The WSPRnet service has always been reasonably good, and costs nothing to use.  But as traffic volumes have increased, WSPRnet has shown occasional long site failures.  Slow response times and 'not available' messages are almost daily occurrences.

WSPRDaemon offers us an alternative to the frustrations of WSPRnet's hang-ups. Give it a go!

Quiet conditions - a baseline analysis

The geomagnetic field has been extremely quiet over several days now, but things are set to change shortly.

Extremely quiet conditions.  Image: TGO.

 At the moment, the forecast is for a G1 - G2 storm commencing around October 20th, but with the potential to last for a couple of days.

I've made good use of the quiet prelude to this forthcoming disturbed period.  First, here is my baseline received 14MHz spots distance plot for October 12, showing how the 20m band dies in the overnight period:

Next, I've looked at my 14MHz reception of VK3QN and VK3MO.  Despite the near-total uniformity of the geomagnetic conditions over the days in question, there are still quite significant differences in the detail of how these two related stations (they are husband and wife callsigns!) are received:

Received SNR(14MHz), on 12, 13 and 14 October 2020.

We'll see what interesting things happen during the coming days!

UK Regulator's New Boss

As though OFCOM, the UK telecommunications regulator, were not enough of a laughing stock, the organisation is to be headed - if Boris Johnson has his way - by former - and highly controversial - Daily Mail editor, Paul Dacre.

 

Dacre's most recent shame was to encourage public hatred of the judiciary - who had done nothing but apply law to the Government's extremely long suspension of Parliament during the Brexit process, and found it unlawful.  Dacre ran the now infamous and appalling headline in his paper, which he eventually resigned from.

Almost as bad is the fact that Dacre has been a long-standing and aggressive critic of OFCOM, repeatedly calling for its demise.  Now, no doubt enticed with a very good pay packet, Dacre could now run the body he hitherto so despised.  At least one national newspaper has called this "a joke".

None of this, of course, bodes well for either OFCOM or those who are subject to and depend upon it, including amateur radio service users.

The Power of Portable

Pretty impressed with being one of only three stations - (and the strongest by 5dB) outside the US being heard by AI6VN/KH6 this evening, just before sunset here.  Output was 1W into a £20 Ampro 14MHz stick antenna on the car, located on a beach, non-ideally for the KH6 path, on the east coast of Anglesey: