CLE236 Results

courtesy: https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

It seems that for the CLE236 listeners in western North America, my worst fears came true. The week preceding last weekend's listening event had seen great MF propagation and quiet geomagnetic conditions.




On Friday evening, shortly after the start, a geomagnetic storm commenced, with K-levels reaching 5-7 at various stations ... pretty much sounding the death knell once again. It seems more than coincidental that almost every CLE in the past few years has seen horrific geomagnetic conditions in lock-step with our scheduled monthly events!

Since there were no active regions on the Sun at the time, I suspect, as mentioned in my last blog, that we were victimized by a sudden spurt from the same coronal hole that whacked us last month, as it lined-up once again on its monthly reappearance. Arriving on Friday evening as sunset approached, the effects seemed to spare the rest of North America (and Europe), as western listeners were the only ones reporting poor propagation. As well, lightning noise, often abating by this time of the year, created havoc for many listeners ... even those with good propagation.

I can only hope that next month's event will see a major improvement in noise levels as well as in propagation quality. Hopefully, that pesky coronal hole will have closed itself by then!

On top of the above mentioned challenges, CLE236's frequency range was smack on top of my local pest, AP-378, whose antenna is less than one mile from my own antennas. Having an S9 +60db signal in the middle of the narrow CLE range does make for challenging listening. My 10' x 20' loop knocked AP's signal down about 25db, allowing me to hear the following signals, some only barely.

22 05:00  371     YK         Yakima, WA, USA

22 07:00  371     GW        Kuujjuarapik, QC, CAN

22 10:00  372     ZPA       Prince Albert, SK, CAN

22 06:00  372    YCO       Coppermine, NU, CAN

22 08:00  373    MF         Table Rock, OR, USA

22 11:00  374     EX          Kelowna, BC, CAN

23 11:30  374     EE          Forada, MN, USA

22 11:00  375     FS          Fort Simpson, NT, CAN

22 12:00  375     CP         Casper, WY, USA

24 08:00  376   YAG       Fort Frances, ON, CAN

22 07:00  376    K2         Olds-Didsbury, AB, CAN

23 06:00  378    OT         North Bend, OR, USA

22 06:00  378    AP         Mayne Island, BC, CAN

23 11:30  379     OW        Owatonna, MN, USA

23 11:30  379     DL          Duluth, MN, USA

23 05:00  380   GC         Gillette, WY, USA

24 06:00  380   BBD      Brady, TX, USA

22 07:00  382   YPW      Powell River, BC, CAN

24 13:00  382    JNR       Unalakleet, ALS

22 13:30  382     AW        Marysville, WA, USA

22 07:00  383    PI           Pocatello, ID, USA

22 07:00  383    CNP       Chappell, NE, USA

 
See you in CLE237.