South Pacific opening last night?

[Toomas Losin]

Trans-Pacific propagation may be opening up after a few weeks of poor conditions. Although, there was a CME event overnight which may have stirred up the ionosphere again.

I often hear a carrier on 1098 kHz earlier than sunset in the Orient but before last night it hadn't developed audio. From that behaviour Net wisdom suggests it is from the Marshall Islands. Last night the signal was stronger than normal so I recorded it.

Over a one-hour period beginning near 0830 UTC (0030 PST) I heard choral music fading in and out on 1098. Once there was a voice speaking in a language that did not sound oriental but was too weak to be sure. Near the top of the hour English news faded in with an AU or NZ accent with a report of the Tokyo tunnel collapse. It faded out after two minutes before any ID was heard.

This hour of good propagation was approximately when the CME event was happening. So, did that impact cause the good propagation or did it result in the total silence after about 0930 when I heard only splatter from local stations until sunrise? Or was it responsible for both? Propagation is wonderfully frustrating!

[skyvalleyradio]

Toomas - you answered your own observations in your last sentence. When there is a coronal event or active sunspot activity, there is indeed a "spike" in propagation enhancement before the ionosphere 'crashes'. Its much more prevalent and noticeable at the high-end of F-layer propagation MUF's - mostly observed on the 6 meters ham band (50.1 mHz). At MW and 160 meters ham band frequencies, the enhancement is for a much shorter duration before the crash and eventual auroral propagation on these frequencies. However, this explanation is an over-simplification and there are many complexities to this phenomenon. I got to experience my first 'opening' to Europe on 6 meters as a result of one of these events back in the early 90's. There was a massive sunspot flare on the sun's surface about 3pm one winter afternoon here. Shortly after, the polar propagation path opened and I worked Sweden & Norway around 5 pm, with surprisingly strong CW signals. Around 7pm that night, the ionosphere crashed and by 9pm I was working CW contacts via aurora on 6 meters to various province's and states regionally. If indeed you nailed 1098 kHz from the Marshall Islands...that's a nice catch!!

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

Greetings Everyone,
Congratulations again Toomas for interesting dx conditions to the South Pacific. Your observations about distant dx is always interesting to me. Like Sky Valley I too congratulate you if you did indeed hear the Marshall Islands!!!! That is a great dx catch. In my years of dxing the AM Band from Greater Vancouver, North Surrey and Langley I would say my best South Pacific Catches would have been several Hawaiin stations like KORL 650 and KIKI 830. I also heard KAIM 870. Besides those I did actually hear New Zealand about 662 khz. or something like that, it was way back in the late 1970s and I don't have my BC Log with me in Ontario but I got quite excited hearing that one. I think that was the only New Zealand AM I ever heard from North Surrey or Greater Vancouver to date. However I did hear one or two Japan AMs and that high power AM from Pyongang, North Korea on 655 KHz. way back in the 70s and early 80s. I*m more of a domestic dxer but enjoy some foreign AM as well.

Here in Ontario I was very pleased this morning as I finally heard 500 watt (only about 60 watts overnight and past sunset to just before sunrise) WHVW 950 in Hyde Park, New York. I was not even using the loop antenna just one of my trusty old 70s Radio Shack TRF 655 portables here (I have 4 altogether plus one which I have out in Langley) I was amazed at how well they came fading in at about 5 AM to 6 AM Eastern Time, still quite dark here. WHVW 950 has one of the most unique formats of any commercial AM radio stations in the USA. They play a eclectic format of very old country, blues, rock etc. some of it from 78 RPM records!!!! The station is owned by Pirate Joe Ferraro who used to have pirate stations on AM and FM growing up in Yonkers, New York as a teenager. He is quite a guy along with his friend Alan Weiner who owns WBCQ Shortwave and several stations in Maine. Anyway WHVW 950 is very difficult to hear at night or even at sunrise skip because just across the lake from Cobourg is 950 Rochester with Sports Talk and 5000 watts. As well quite a few other stations from different directions on 950 including WIBX 950 (5000 watts) from the Utica, New York area and in the same direction as WHVW almost. HOwever little WHVW came fading in above WIBX quite a few times with definite ID and mentioning playing original 78 RPM songs on the air! I also got what seemed to be classical music overnight from CFAM 950 Altona, Manitoba between 4 AM and 5 AM Eastern Time. NO definite ID this time from CFAM but I am sure it was them. By the way on 960 I was trying for the new Mississauga, Ontario local newstalker CKNT but its not testing or on-air yet! I did get two new dx catches on 960 AM this morning too. One was quite strong with Coast to Coast till about 5 AM then local news weather etc. it was WFIR 960 serving the Roanoke Valley, Virginia, I think they are 5000 watts. Also coming in from the east on 960 was a Connecticut station with NewsTalk and Coast to Coast earlier. That one I believe was from Willimantic, Connecticut, I think calls are WELE or WELI. Anyway both new for me here. I have tried for WHVW many times before on 950 when I was here in 2001 and also this time with no luck till this morning Dec. 3rd, 2012. Also tried for them in 200l on several trips east to Kingston and Belleville Ontario dxing at sunset with no luck there either. So very pleased to finally hear them in the Cobourg area with closer 5KW AMs from New York State.

Anyway wish you all the best of luck dxing etc... Also Sky Valley take care and the very best of broadcasting to you and with your upcoming health issues. I hope it all works out great for you!!!

73s, Eldon

[Jack Bennest]

Darn - attracted by another bogus headline.

South Pacific is considered to be one of the greatest Broadway musicals. The musical opened in 1949 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950. Several of its songs, including "Bali Ha'i", "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair", "Some Enchanted Evening", "Happy Talk", "Younger Than Springtime" and "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy", have become popular standards.

[skyvalleyradio]

sorry to disappoint you Jack! However, I DID hear that 'Oklahoma' is coming to Oliver for a two week run, so you might want to pick up tickets early...

[Toomas Losin]

Sorry about the subject line. This is a great lesson in how one field's jargon can mean something totally different out of that context. I didn't think of it at the time, and even this culturally-deprived DXer has heard of "South Pacific".

Yesterday I did an experiment to see if the carrier on 1098 could be the Marshall Islands. At around Vancouver sunset I began recording 1099 on lower sideband to get a 1 kHz tone whenever the carrier on 1098 would fade up. I got a surprise because the first few hours had a very weak tone which finally faded out completely, then silence for two hours, and then a weak tone began which became very much stronger an hour later as sunset passed over the Marshall Islands.

The fade out time of that first tone is consistent with sunrise in Iran or Saudi Arabia; there are a few stations on 1098 near the greyline at that time on that side of the world, so it's guesswork. That tone was so weak that I didn't hear it, only audacity's spectrum display told me it was there.

I heard choral music again last night and an unintelligible voice but the signal wasn't as strong or fading in as frequently as it did Saturday evening.

I also tested my loop antenna inside and it did not hear the presumed Marshall Island carrier at all. I didn't hang it out a window to see if that would help — I'll wait for dry weather.

[Toomas Losin]

When there is a coronal event or active sunspot activity, there is indeed a "spike" in propagation enhancement before the ionosphere 'crashes'.

The sun has been quiet for a few days and the nightly reception on 1098 has not featured strong signals from anything. I've heard brief spells of Chinese many times (but no ID) and choral music a couple of times but none of it strongly. The carrier from the Marshall Islands shows up every night though.

I wonder if reception from the South Pacific is naturally such that one needs events like a CME, an X-Ray flare, or anything that stirs up the ionosphere, in order to make it propagate here.

KICY has been in at least two nights now; Level Island weather audible and intelligible on 529 kHz as well. Last night I was hearing trans-Pacific carriers that I hadn't heard in a while but nothing special happened on 1098. The sun is still quiet, wonder what'll happen tonight.

[Jack Bennest]

I heard choral music again last night and an unintelligible voice

Choral music you say - Oklahoma or South Pacific?

All in fun of course

[Toomas Losin]

Sometimes I wonder if I need a radio to hear choral music or voices.