Question about the Geomagnetic Storm Watch issued for Thanksgiving and Friday

[niceguy71]

Hi Guys

I'm going to be doing a CB range test this Friday 11-29-2024 with wx2watch ...mostly just to see how his CB is working..... he is traveling almost 80 miles! and two hours each way!!! ....but if he has the time, we can do a range test and see how his system works ( plugged into the cigarette lighter I don't expect much ) so today I turned on my computer and the top story was this

Where to see Northern Lights on Thanksgiving, Black Friday as Geomagnetic Storm Watch issued for holiday.​

so I started reading it and it said this

According to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), a coronal mass ejection – an eruption of solar material – was seen leaving the Sun on Monday.

it's supposed to be hitting us on Thanksgiving and Friday... the day of the test....

any thoughts how this will affect out test???

by the way I have seen the Northern Lights in my area the last couple weeks ( very beautiful ) ..... so I think they are talking in my area.

Thank you.

Where to see Northern Lights on Thanksgiving, Black Friday as Geomagnetic Storm Watch issued for holiday

Displays of Northern Lights are possible on Thanksgiving and Black Friday for the northern U.S. after NOAA's space weather forecasters say charged particles from the Sun will create geomagnetic storm conditions.

www.yahoo.com

 

[Chris155]

We saw the lights here in MD a little while back. If I remember right skip was knocked down for a day or so afterwards, locals were still there but maybe a higher noise floor.

 

[Varmonter]

So 80 mi is to far for local and to close for skip..so other than noise floor I don't think it should effect your test..

 

[prcguy]

I think the CME will kill off most skip in the CB band and will give you a nice low floor for good ground wave propagation. What route will your friend be taking? If my remote is working I can monitor from the Tewksbury area,

 

[niceguy71]

I think the CME will kill off most skip in the CB band and will give you a nice low floor for good ground wave propagation. What route will your friend be taking? If my remote is working I can monitor from the Tewksbury area,

he is leaving Andover and going to Plymouth using 93 South..... going 9 miles from your location... this might be awesome!... if his system is only getting a mile or two you might save him a ton of traveling... he is going to leave at 4:00 pm ( I thought that would be the best time as the skip may start dying out... by the time he gets to my house then to the Texas Road House for super and a beer ( probably be an hour in the Road House, they always have a wafting line) so he will be driving back at 7:00 PM or later... and conditions should be excellent by then....

 

[nd5y]

Aurora Dashboard (Experimental) | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center

www.swpc.noaa.gov

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

 

[KB4MSZ]

Yep, looks pretty dead.

 

[niceguy71]

Yep, looks pretty dead.

View attachment 173597

yikes.... I better go back out and see.... at 8:30 AM eastern time I went out to my radio to see how it was... and I heard a few people on 37 LSB ... maybe not as many as normal but a few... and it was early so I thought maybe less people on at 8:30..... I called out and got Scotland on the first try... and very clearly.... so I figured it was working good???? I'll go check again... thank you

 

[prcguy]

he is leaving Andover and going to Plymouth using 93 South..... going 9 miles from your location... this might be awesome!... if his system is only getting a mile or two you might save him a ton of traveling... he is going to leave at 4:00 pm ( I thought that would be the best time as the skip may start dying out... by the time he gets to my house then to the Texas Road House for super and a beer ( probably be an hour in the Road House, they always have a wafting line) so he will be driving back at 7:00 PM or later... and conditions should be excellent by then....

Update, I made contact with niceguy71s friend as he was mobile on the way back to Andover, he was coming in S9+ and sounded great on his Anytone 5555N II. I was in So Cal using a remote radio in MA. BTW the noise floor for me was great, S zero most of the time which is perfect for this type of range testing.

 

[wx2watch]

Update, I made contact with niceguy71s friend as he was mobile on the way back to Andover, he was coming in S9+ and sounded great on his Anytone 5555N II. I was in So Cal using a remote radio in MA. BTW the noise floor for me was great, S zero most of the time which is perfect for this type of range testing.

The range testing went well - After the sun finally set, (or did the CME mess clear itself?)

Your help was greatly appreciated.

FYI, the distance from prcguy's antenna to my intercept point on the return trip at I-93 and I-495 was 12 miles.

 

[niceguy71]

The range testing went well - After the sun finally set, (or did the CME mess clear itself?)

Your help was greatly appreciated.

FYI, the distance from prcguy's antenna to my intercept point on the return trip at I-93 and I-495 was 12 miles.

What I can remember of the range test from myself and wx2watch I did film it and had planned to do a YouTube video….. but it was mostly a staticky mess and not worth even watching…. At least the first part of the test on the way to the Texas Road house at 5:50 pm



Tonight was supposed to be terrible conditions from the solar storm on Monday and I think it was.

I could not hear wx2watch until he was about 17 miles away on SIDE BAND and it was pretty broken up…. We had a high noise floor of between 6 to 7 at all times and someone always skipping on top of wx2watch.

When he got about 11 miles away on Side band we were able to have a decent conversation.

We switched to channel 8… on AM at this time and could have a conversation but it was pretty scratchy.

At 9 miles I was able to talk to him with my base on AM but it was not loud or clear at all….

This is my normal test Route… I like to send 4 watt radios out to the Texas Road House and see how they do….. but wx2watch with his 60 watts was not doing too well…. But again the conditions were terrible.

I then took my pick-up (Mobile) to meet him at the Texas Road House

He could not hear me leaving my house at 9 miles…..

At 7 miles we could hear each other ( I was still in the forest around my area) again scratchy and not loud.

At 6 miles we were able to talk clearly… but just barely….

From 5 miles out we we’re like we had a telephone. Very loud and clear. Worst my truck has ever done.

As I got to the parking lot of the Texas Road House I saw a blinking blue light under a CB Antenna… and from a pretty good distance! Not sure that is a good selling feature of the Stryker SAR-10…. Good thing wx2watch wasn’t trying to hide

I hooked up my Rig Expert to his antenna it was 1.2 at channel 1 and 1.42 on channel 40 … PERFECT!

I saw no place to mount that antenna in his truck…. That will take some serious figuring.

We had supper for an hour and the conditions GREATLY improved

We left the Road house after 8PM him going towards his home and me going towards mine.

using Channel 8 on AM and we were able to hear each other very well…. The noise floor was now only 1 to 3.

We talked between 6 to 8 miles and I lost him once I entered my forest area again…. I was hoping to talk to him on AM until I got home… but I was 2.5 miles away from home and I had no idea how far he had gotten…. Once I got off the highway he was gone…. I tried to get him on 33 LSB but he was still trying to get me on AM…. So once home I called him on the Cell phone and we got on 33 LSB…. What great conditions we were able to converse on SSB with no problems… 15 plus miles so we switched back to AM.

We went 18.50 miles and were able to have a conversation on CB AM… my truck once got out to 20 miles and it was so terrible there would be no way to have a conversation….. but tonight we had a conversation at 18 miles….. I thought that was fantastic!!!!....

wx2watch’s 5555 N II puts out 60 watts … so 18 miles with the extra power I’m sure helped….. that 5555 N II is one heck of a radio.



We then switched to 33 LSB again and again we could have a conversation …. We talked to about 25 miles …I could still CLEARLY hear wx2watch… but he could not hear me clear enough to have a conversation??

I thought with my big base station 50 foot tall Antron 99 using a QT-60 turned to max power ( 60 watts ) he would hear me….. but I don’t think his receive was good enough…. I was also on the phone with wx2watch and told him to keep trying… I was able to hear him past our 30 mile check point and very clearly…… I had made check points for the ride… up to 30 miles as I didn’t think we would get past the 30 mile mark

Check points like when you go by Exit 26 it’s 20 miles and when you go by exit 11B your 29.62 miles from my base station….. he must have gone a good 5 minutes past the last check point of 29.62 miles.

…. So how much further I was able to hear him will be sadly unknown….. but over 30 miles from a mobile with 5555 N II to my base station is all anyone could ask for.



I let him go and e-mailed PRCGUY and told him he was on his way….. guess they were able to talk too..

So we got one of the newer mobile set-ups confirmed WORKING.



Thanks for a fun night wx2watch and PRCGUY.

And wx2watch thanks for the steak dinner!

 

[K6GBW]

Another example that power isn’t the end all be all of radio. At 27 MHz it’s mostly conditions and antennas. Nice report!

 

[prcguy]

The range testing went well - After the sun finally set, (or did the CME mess clear itself?)

Your help was greatly appreciated.

FYI, the distance from prcguy's antenna to my intercept point on the return trip at I-93 and I-495 was 12 miles.

Your signal ranged from a little over S9 down to about S7 then I think you got blocked by a 150ft hill right up against my remote antenna and disappeared. I believe you were S9 when we first made contact and that would be very good for 12mi. That was fun, I haven't used the remote radio in months.

 

[Chris155]

Very cool testing. You guys had great set of “real world” variables to work with. I’d say everyone’s equipment is working quite well.

That high noise floor is hard to overcome. Even with nrc it affects range greatly in my experience. I have constant s5-7 at my shop 24/7 from neighboring businesses.

Thanks for sharing all the details.

 

[slowmover]

FWIW, I’ve rarely exceeded those distances while mobile. It really is the antenna given a quality export radio. Mobile-to-Mobile, or Mobile-to-Base.

— Where M-to-B figures with both radios being themselves adequate and antennas close to ideal (good, basically) then it came to DSP in the audio. Him-without-first-lost-out.


Son sent along this image while booking along in a 747-8F early Friday morning above Edmonton, AB. I asked, were those the UFO ILS Approach Beacons?” Naw, more like 160-miles of highway signage”.


.

 

[wx2watch]

Your signal ranged from a little over S9 down to about S7 then I think you got blocked by a 150ft hill right up against my remote antenna and disappeared. I believe you were S9 when we first made contact and that would be very good for 12mi. That was fun, I haven't used the remote radio in months.

OOPs, I believe I should have said I-93 and I-95 (NOT I-93 and I-495). The 12 mile range is still valid....

 

[KB4MSZ]

It's still dead, both 25 channels above and below 40.

 

[robertwbob]

cool test no matter what. hills trees etc yes i like how it was done

 

[KB4MSZ]

And another desolate wasteland of activity. Yep, this weekend has been a total flop for upper HF.

This is Billy, signing off.

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