The earlier very quiet geomagnetic field has produced some amazing propagation on the AM Broadcast Band for west coast DXers. Where local blowtorches don't splatter the band, the past few nights have produced audible signals from several European countries while the mornings are filled with Asians and signals from Alaska ... yes, on the AM Broadcast Band!
The morning of October 11th was particularly good here, with 9 different stations in Alaska heard. Listen and see if you can hear the identification at the top of the hour (7 AM my time):
780
KNOM Nome https://qsl.net/ve7sl/knom.mp3
670 KDLG Dillingham https://qsl.net/ve7sl/kdlg.mp3
700
KBYR Anchorage https://qsl.net/ve7sl/kbyr.mp3
680
KBRW Barrow https://qsl.net/ve7sl/kbrw.mp3
890
KBBI Homer https://qsl.net/ve7sl/kbbi.mp3
This is a short clip from HLAZ, Far East Broadcasting Company, with their 'Radio Liangyou' program in Japanese. HLAZ is located in Jeju, South Korea. They will also respond to reception reports with a nice card ... sadly a growing rarity with AM broadcasters nowadays.
These were received using my Perseus SDR and 10' x 20' active loop pointed to the NW.
Hopefully these nice conditions will continue for some time but on the other hand, I'd like to see the Sun ramp-up its sunspot production as fast as it can, which would likely put a damper on these quiet conditions. (post edit: and that's exactly what happened!)
An interesting antenna that may help overcome their noise issues is described by KK5JY on his website here.
It looks simple enough to deploy and try to see if it overcomes your local noise issues. Those with underground utilities however, may find that it makes the noise worse.
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| courtesy: kk5jy.net |
1 comment:
Since I have some acreage, I tried a much larger on-the-ground loop in the hopes of having a lower noise antenna for LF-MF. Unfortunately,the large loop was inferior in performance compared to my active antenna dedicated to that portion of spectrum. Of course, as always, "Your mileage may vary".
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