AmateurRadio.com

courtesy: http://www.solarham.net/

Propagation for last weekend's CLE activity was much better than anticipated. I had resigned myself to a weekend of poor propagation after reading gloomy reports of an impending coronal hole stream about to disturb the geomagnetic field once again. The image on the left came with storm warning alerts beginning on the 23rd, the first night of the CLE.

As I usually do, I retuned my inverted - 'L' close to the CLE frequency range and set up my Perseus SDR to make overnight recordings every hour.



I capture two-minute files on the hour and during the best propagation times (usually from midnight to dawn), every half hour as well. The next day I review the files, tuning through the band to see what has been captured overnight. As you might imagine, this can take some time but it allows me to take advantage of any propagation peaks that I might have missed had I been listening in real time for just an hour or two. It also allows me to get a good night's sleep!

Conditions were noisy, on all three nights, with lightning activity over the western states ... but for the most part had cleared up nicely after midnight. The last night (Sunday) saw the best overall propagation, even with a K index of 2. A very nice, but short-lived opening towards the east, brought an additional 18 more catches that had not been heard on the first two evenings, along with some nice NDB signals from Ontario.

23 07:30 198.0    DIW     Dixon, NC, USA
23 07:00 200.0    YJ         Victoria, BC, CAN
23 07:00 200.0    UAB     Anahim Lake, BC, CAN
23 07:00 200.0    5M        Sparwood, BC, CAN
23 07:00 201.0    ZWN    Winnipeg, MB, CAN
25 09:30 201.0    YKX      Kirkland Lake, ON, CAN
25 09:00 201.0    GL         La Grande Riviere, QC, CAN
23 10:00 203.0    ZKI       Kitimat, BC, CAN
23 10:00 203.0    YBL       Campbell River, BC, CAN
25 11:30 203.0    TCY       Tracy, CA, USA
25 09:30 203.0    AB         Aberdeen, SD, USA
23 10:00 204.0    ZQR       Regina, SK, CAN
23 10:00 205.0    COR       Corcoran, CA, USA
25 09:00 206.0    XBE        Bearskin Lake, ON, CAN
24 12:00 206.0    SOW      Show Low, AZ, USA
25 09:00 206.0    IIB          Independence, IA, USA
23 10:00 206.0    EF          Castlegar, BC, CAN
24 05:00 207.0    YNE       Norway House, MB, CAN
23 04:00 207.0    PY          Fort Chipewyan, AB, CAN
25 07:30 208.0    YSK       Sanikiluaq, NU, CAN
25 10:00 209.0    ITR        Burlington, CO, USA
23 07:00 209.0    IB          Atikokan, ON, CAN
23 12:00 209.0    CYT      Yakataga, ALS
23 06:00 211.0    HDG      Gooding, ID, USA
23 06:00 212.0    YGX       Gillam, MB, CAN
25 09:00 212.0    MPZ       Mount Pleasant, IA, USA
23 12:00 212.0    CGL        Juneau, ALS
23 06:00 214.0    LU          Abbotsford, BC, CAN
23 10:00 215.0    ZAB       Edmonton (Intl Apt), AB, CAN
25 09:00 215.0    AT         Watertown, SD, USA
25 08:30 216.0    YFA       Fort Albany, ON, CAN
23 07:30 216.0    GRF        Fort Lewis, WA, USA
23 07:30 216.0    CLB        Wilmington, NC, USA
23 12:00 217.0    EC           Enoch, UT, USA
24 07:30 218.0    RL           Red Lake, ON, CAN
23 12:00 218.0    PR          Prince Rupert, BC, CAN
23 07:00 219.0    ZRS        Regina, SK, CAN
23 07:00 221.0    QU         Grande Prairie, AB, CAN
23 07:00 221.0    9A          Hanna, AB, CAN
23 07:00 222.0    WY         Wrigley, NT, CAN
25 09:00 223.0    YYW       Armstrong, ON, CAN
23 07:00 223.0    YKA        Kamloops, BC, CAN
23 12:00 223.0    AFE         Kake Apt, ALS
25 09:00 224.0    MO          Moosonee, ON, CAN
23 07:30 224.0    DN          Dauphin, MB, CAN
23 07:00 225.0    X5           Vegreville, AB, CAN
23 12:00 225.0    LWG       Corvallis, OR, USA
25 09:00 227.0    YAC        Cat Lake, ON, CAN
25 11:00 227.0    MHM      Minchumina, ALS
23 07:30 227.0    CG           Castlegar, BC, CAN
23 07:30 227.0    9X           Brooks, AB, CAN
23 12:00 229.0    AKW      Klawock, ALS
23 09:30 230.0    YD           Smithers, BC, CAN
23 09:30 230.0    VG           Vermilion, AB, CAN
23 09:30 230.0    BI            Bismarck, ND, USA
25 09:00 233.0    QN          Nakina, ON, CAN
23 07:30 233.0    OKS        Oshkosh, NE, USA
23 09:00 233.0    BR          Brandon, MB, CAN
23 12:00 233.0    ALJ        Hinchinbrook Island, ALS
24 07:00 236.0    ZHT       Winnipeg IAP, MB, CAN
23 07:00 236.0    YZA       Ashcroft, BC, CAN
25 09:30 236.0    JB           Whitehorse, YT, CAN
24 07:30 236.0    FOR        Forsyth, MT, USA
23 10:00 238.0    MPA       Nampa, ID, USA
23 05:00 239.0    OJ           High Level, AB, CAN
25 10:30 239.0    BBB        Benson, MN, USA

courtesy: https://www.google.ca/maps/

One of the signals I did not expect to hear at this time of the year was MHM, Minchumina, Alaska, on 227kHz. This one is only heard once or twice per season, and propagation to Alaska has to be much better than normal for MHM to be heard.


Hopefully you can jump in for next month's CLE activity. The CLE 206 listening results for all North American listeners and those outside of Europe can be found here.