RE:DX

["PETER GEORGE, N1GGP" <PGEORGE@WELLESLEY.EDU>]

     I, too, have witnessed this weird phenomina of strong reception from
AM stations from the south and virtually NOTHING from the north.  The
reason this happens is due to strong aurora activity.  When solar flares
occur, this burst of energy comes toward the earth with enormous velocity.
There have been signs of the sun beginning to "wake up" from the solar
minimum over the past solar cycle (every 11 years or so).  You will see
reception on the shortwave bands begin to increase, while the AM skip
reception will begin to slack off somewhat.  It is totally normal.  I
recall on March 13, 1987 a major solar flare caused havoc to the power
grid in Quebec and left a good amount of the Province in the dark. 
Meanwhile people in the southern lattitudes were seeing the Northern Lights
for the first time in decades.  The AM and SW bands were a ghost town, I
MEAN "Tombstone" !!!  The AM band did not show any sign of skip for over
4 days.  What did come in was from the southern states.  That too was
highly attenuated.  Forget SW, it was dead for over a week.  BUT, the
FM band was ALIVE that night....I got KLSE-FM from Rochester, Minnesota
and got a QSL taboot.  A LOT of CBC French on the mono and stereo networks
were coming in loud and clear.  The Aurora was so bright that you could
be in the middle of the city and and still see it.  
     When Canadian AM signals fade out and southern stations come in from
Cuba (tick, tick, tick......), Bonaire, Jamaica and so on....chances are
the solar flare that occured that day or the day before was the culprit.
Weather and temperature can play a role in this matter, but on a very
limited scale.

73 de N1GGP
- -Pete-

********************************************************************************
Peter Q. George, N1GGP                  *  "Scanning the bands since 1967 !" 
P.O. Box 1183                           *                  +
Randolph, Massachusetts 02368-1183      *                  |
USA                                     *      73         +|+    de N1GGP
PGEORGE@wellesley.edu                   *                +\|/+
XERB@bigfoot.com                        *               + \|/ +
********************************************************************************

------------------------------