IARU-ora 2012

Old Sol burped late last week.  At 0400 local time on Saturday the 14th, I strapped myself in for a bumpy ride in the IARU HF contest while I waited for the coronal mass ejection to hit, which was estimated to strike in the late morning.   

Best rate was about 1.5-2 hours into the contest with 130-150 Q's per hour.  The rest was mostly S&P once the CME hit.  Painful, indeed, but very interesting.  Even though Kp > 5 and aurora > 7, it was still possible to work stations.  

I have this theory:  When the aurora is active, we northerners all know we can usually only work those inside the aurora oval.  When the aurora level is so high, the oval pushes outward to lower latitudes.  (Hence, our friends in the south saw some nice lights last night.)  The larger the oval, the more stations enveloped.  The "box", so to speak, has more folks inside to work, at least on the higher bands.

The real-time geomagnetic field activity, which is reflected in the Kp, was fluctuating pretty wildly.  Higher = more absorption between here and there.  While it fluctuated, the door would open and then shut every few minutes. You maximize your chances of finding a station in rapid S&P.  It will pop up and then be gone in a few minutes. You can keep a 45-60 Q/hour going even under the worst conditions by keeping one hand on the dial and the other on the keyboard.  Those stuck in RUN will suffer mightily.

Our friends in the Lower 48 apparently enjoyed some fine Northern Lights.  Of course, it is still too light in the sky to see stars or aurora in Fairbanks.  In another few weeks, that will be different.  

(Almost) All Quiet on the Northern Front

This past week brought a C-class x-ray flare, and the sun sent a coronal mass ejection hurtling toward earth.  The HF prognosis for the first week of August was poor, indeed.  There would be a "solar tsunami" arriving around August 3rd, according to one local headline, while worldwide there were predictions of fantastic auroral displays.  The six-meter gang at the mid-latitudes must have been drooling with anticipation, but HF radio operators inferred a dismal time on the bands.  The HAARP riometer looked grim.  Kp was at 5 and headed upward, plus the aurora scale was pegged at 9.

I would have written off the radio and cleaned the cameras to prepare for the northern lights had it been a week or two later.  The skies at night are still too light to see aurora at 65 North, though.  Instead, I fired up the rig to see what, if anything, I could hear during the onslaught.

I chose to explore 20m around 0200Z, and I heard W1AW with code practice almost ESP-weak.  No other CW signals were audible.  I switched to the 85-foot C3 pointed to Europe, and I noticed  a surprising number of apparently European PSK31 signals.  Although the signals were moderately strong, I could see on the waterfall an unsettling dance of flutter and Doppler.  DM780 could just make out a few prefixes and other tantalizing details.  PSK31 on trans-polar paths is notoriously susceptible to corruption.  I switched to the North American C3 and could begin to see (and decode) several US stations, but copy was still rough. With the Kp index so high, I had little hope of them being able to hear me.  Years of experience have taught me that much.

I quickly scanned the higher bands up through six meters.  I was surprised to hear some weak but readable ZL/VK SSB on 17 meters, but otherwise, they were dead.  Back on 20, I watched the digital waterfall display and saw slightly improving conditions towards the States.  Two very clean PSK signals appeared, which turned out to belong to a VK and a 3D2, both 90-95% readable.  The north-south route was less impacted by the ionospheric turbulence overhead, and I believe grayline enhancement helped things along.  (A short time later I had a nice chat with Aisea 3D2AA and proved the reasonably good path was two-way.)

The signal ID function in DM780 then reported an Olivia 500/16 signal just up the band.  I could barely discern the smeared, faint tones on the waterfall, but I tuned up and changed modes to see what I could monitor.  Lo and behold, it was Peter VE7NBQ having a ragchew with a W5.  Peter had told me of the impressive performance of Olivia earlier in the week, and now I am convinced. As the tones faded from view on my screen, characters continued to print a clean QSO. Olivia's forward error correction makes it far superior to PSK31, and perhaps even CW under some circumstances.  I will have to explore more.