[600MRG] NTX operating redux from St. Patrick's day solar storm 2015

[John Langridge]

Late yesterday afternoon (2200z) saw numerous early wspr pings  from midwest stations.  This seems to generally be North/South propagation and the path to XND which had existed for most of the day was now gone.  Other statons noted similar N/S path behavior (XKA --> W0RPK) and numbers were erratic from cycle to cycle.

We typically see numerous pings during the approach to local sunset but that was not the case last night.  Groundwave paths were typical but longer haul skywave paths were hit or miss with reports down near the wspr detetction limit (early WA3TTS spots).  At one point I noted that XXM and XSH/15 were being heard by Pat/6 but my signal, being close, we not heard.  About 20 minutes later, Pat began reporting my signal.  Similarly, ken, SWLK9EN61, reported some time earlier that XXM had disappeared but he was still hearing me.  So that was interesting to me...

ABout 15 minutes after dark, condx began to open up and the E-W path began to show some results.  K8RZ, near Atlanta, who has had good success at submitting reports during the day through the winter was finally hearing and reporting the signal.  Additionally the path to W0RPK and N3CXV began to report.

As the evening wore on, some numbers were down a few db but there were plenty of single digit S/N numbers through the night and looking at the data and the wspr map, the overnight really did not look much different than any other night.  The path the KH6 was there at much reduced freequency and S/N.  This was also the case with XGP and XKA.   No KL7.. Sorry Laurence.. 


I switched TX cycle from 50% to 30% around 0700z so I was unable to track the qsb as effectively as I would have liked but seems like CW QSO's with a few guys would be possible and JT9 or other digital modes would have worked.

We are getting into a wet and stormy pattern over the next 10 days so I will do my best to be QRV.  My grabber will be up and down as a result.

73!

John KB5NJD / WG2XIQ