On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:22:53 -0800 (PST), Tim
wrote:

On Nov 30, 8:50*pm, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:
Messing around the lower end of 75 tonight listening to the high speed
traffic nets (yeah - they still exist much to my delight). *Once they
closed down, I moved down the band to 3.520.50 and heard a faint call.
I switched from my 80 dipole to the long wire and got a couple of
extra s units - HS0B - thought I was hearing things. *I was already
tuned up - gave a shout and damn if he didn't hear me. *:)

Must have been long path - there was a lot of fade, but we got the QSO
exchange and quick name exchange before the pile up started. *I tried
listening through the QRM - he was still there, but really faint.

Must have hot spotted.

Interesting anyway - the low bands seem really mediocre. *I handed out
a few Qs today for the CW WW CW - maybe 200 in all - Europe turned on
and off like a freakin light switch. *Same with the JAs which are
normally all over 20 meters around sundown.

Damn global warming.

I blame Canada.

Wow - now I'm hearing all kinds of UAs - band shifted quick.

Hmmm - me thinks it's time to inspect the Beverages. *:)

Tom is SW effected a lot by weather?

Oddly enough, about 20 years ago, there was quite an odd summer storm
that came though, a lot of wind, sudden drop of temp, no tornado's and
no hail, but seemed weird for some reason, and too the north you could
see some really giant cumulus clouds with lightning ****s inside them.
i was driving south and was listening to the FM and i knew the station
I was listening to wasn't familiar but was ok, then came the
commercials and the station call sign. it was coming from Peoria IL.

Actually, quite a bit - in particular on bands above 30 MHz although
weather fronts can affect the HF bands. It's called Atmospheric
Ducting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_ducting

Up here in New England, we get quite a bit of ducting from down south
on really the strong wave fronts where the pressure gradients are high
- your classic Nor'Easter forming in the Carolinas will bring FM radio
stations right up the coast with it.

There is also a phenomenon called Tropospheric Ducting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troposp...pheric_ducting

You probably remember this from back in the days of B&W TV and outdoor
antennas on the roof. You could get stations from some fairly
substantial distances with this one.

One of my best "radio" stories concerns Tropo ducts. When the local
Vollies were upgrading the local 911 dispatch system, some of us used
to volunteer on the over night shift so the night guys could train
with the new system during the day. One night, I got a cell phone
call from the Pomfret tower - the next town over from Woodstock - the
guys boat was sinking and he was off of Plum Island in Long Island
Sound - his VHF ws dead and the only communications he had was a cell
phone. Fortunately, I knew exactly what happened so I called CG New
London and explained how I got the call - that was an interesting
experience as the watch stander didn't get it at first.

Fortunately it all worked out ok for everybody. I hate to think what
might have happened if there wasn't an experienced radio operator on
the 911 desk that night. Cell phones were still pretty rare back
then.

From my location it would ahve been about 260 miles away,and clear as
a bell. that lasted for about a half hr, then the clouds started
shifting and sunbeams peaked though, and the station faded out.

Twilight Zone? Not hardly but odd weather effects on radio waves.

That happen w/short wave too? And if so,a re various bands effected
more than others?

Very much so, but the effects aren't as pronounced on the low or HF
bands are they are on the VHF/UHF bands. As you go higher in
frequency, propogation can be affected by other weather related
issues.

Low band (shortwave) propogation depends a lot on the magnetic flux in
the atmosphere and the Solar Flux which affects Earth's magnetic field
(and the propogation properties of the various layers of the
atmosphere).

http://www.blackcatsystems.com/propa...on_basics.html

http://www.blackcatsystems.com/propa...olar_flux.html

just curious.

It's fun. And of course with decreased solar activity, we get oddball
weather patterns.

Like Global Cooling.

I blame Canada.