[600MRG] G8 Storm

[John Langridge]

One additional comment that I completely left out related to the state of the band last night here:


XJM and I had a CW Q around 0130.  As stated earlier, the band was extremely quiet and there was some QSB here but due to quiet condx, it really wasnt a problem.  At 0300z, XJM was calling CQ on DominoEX5 so I responded and we did some tests dropping power each time.  We finally hit a point where XJM's power was sufficiently low that the RX fading to the point of loss of sync was cycling between me and XQC, a path of about 40 miles...  That was kinda cool to observe.  Not really related to the solar storm but more information on the state of the band prior to the SID.

73!

XIQ



________________________________
 From: John Langridge <jlangridge at sbcglobal.net>
To: "600mrg at w7ekb.com" <600mrg at w7ekb.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2015 2:04 PM
Subject: Re: [600MRG] G8 Storm
 

Interestingly enough last night was really situation normal on 630m in spite of the SID in the late evening.  Noise was almost non-existent and I even enjoyed a WSPR ping with Laurence in KL7 around 0638z.  TA was rampant for the east coast crowd during the early evening but when it was done, it was done.

Today has been quite typical for a late winter day - daytime path to the midwest has been intact as shown in persistent pings from KC0BMF.  The last report from XJM was at 1654z so we are starting to ween off of the longer haul daytime stuff.  The path to XND was strong through 1800z here and would have been an easy JT9 Q...

So we will see what tonight brings...

73!

John XIQ



________________________________
From: Paul Signorelli <w0rw1 at msn.com>
To: "600mrg at w7ekb.com" <600mrg at w7ekb.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2015 1:55 PM
Subject: [600MRG] G8 Storm


From Paul, NA5N..via Paul  w0rw
We're currently in the strongest geomagnetic storm this solar cycle, and it 
has been a long duration storm, starting late last night.  The planetary K 
index has been Kp=8 for the past six hours for a severe geomagnetic storm 
(maximum is Kp=9). 

Info at: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ 

NOAA's description: 

Power systems: Possible widespread voltage control problems and some 
protective systems will mistakenly trip out key assets from the grid.
Spacecraft operations: May experience surface charging and tracking 
problems, corrections may be needed for orientation problems.
Other systems: Induced pipeline currents affect preventive measures, HF 
radio propagation sporadic, satellite navigation degraded for hours, 
low-frequency radio navigation disrupted, and aurora has been seen as low as 
Alabama and northern California (typically 45° geomagnetic lat.). 

The lower HF bands are no doubt very noisy ... although, most QRPers aren't 
using 40 and 80M right now anyway. 

Here at work, the ionosphere is very unsettled, causing fast changing phase 
delays on signals coming through our atmosphere and GPS signals. 

This is not the end of the world, nor is HF propagation on the higher bands 
effected much.  Just a bunch of noise on the lower frequencies, perhaps 
continuing into this evening, and if it persists, maybe some northern lights 
seen in the northern US states. 


72, Paul NA5N
                          
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