Solar Flare?

[majoco]

Complete HF blackout this afternoon (0000z) just getting better now at 0200z. Auckland Aero only just starting to get through and apologising to aircraft for lack of communication - advising them that AKL is listening on all frequencies for traffic. Can't even get a carrier from WWVH or Radio Australia.

Just as I'd been playing around with adding an extension to my HF antenna too! Though it was much worse until I went back to the original and still got nothing - then started looking for busted cable and dodgy joints! Went outside with a portable and - nothing! Check the web for Solar Flares and there's the answer!

 

[ka3jjz]

Spaceweather is reporting that a X5 (pretty strong) flare occurred at 0028 on the 7th (by UT, of course) - between that and 2 CMEs that are/will glance off us in the next few days, propagation is going to be iffy....Mike

 

[ridgescan]

Man it freaked me out earlier-I thought literally that the winds snapped my wire-it made me go to the roof to check. Not even WWV was coming in here in the 2300-0100 utc hours. I checked MW and saw it was the same so I was relieved.

 

[brandon]

Wow!!! Listen to the bands tonight. Aurora making signals warbly like they're talking underwater.

 

[SCPD]

Worst it has been in a long time:

3-day Estimated Planetary Kp-index Monitor

 

[mancow]

I wonder how this will play out for 10 Meters.

 

[ka3jjz]

Go find out on our Amateur Radio forums (hint hint)...Mike

 

[k9rzz]

WHat makes one band lousy, makes another great. Heavy aurora? -> 6 and 2 meter aurora scatter. Also watch for more southern stations popping through on the AM BC band (northern stations get blocked). . Good visual display over here last night: Aurora over Lake Superior, Upper Peninsula of Michigan on Vimeo

Edit: Here's the culprit: SOLAR ACTIVITY UPDATE:X5.4-Class Solar Flare With Video Images(March 7th, 2012).

 

[SCPD]

Haha! Check this image out. This is what a solar storm is all about!

 

[brandon]

Here are some recordings from last night to demo the strange effects.

San Francisco Radio warbly voice and selcal tones on 5 megs aero band.

• http://solarix.org/audio/5547_1.mp3
• http://solarix.org/audio/5547_2.mp3
• http://solarix.org/audio/5574_1.mp3

Here is what MIL-STD-188-110A data sounded like on 4885.
4885_strange.mp3

And here is a clip of WWVH and WWV on 5000kHz
HDSDR_20120307_070533Z_5000kHz_AF.mp3

 

[ridgescan]

yup my radio sounds just like that picture looks WTH?!

 

[SCPD]

Here are some recordings from last night to demo the strange effects.

San Francisco Radio warbly voice and selcal tones on 5 megs aero band.

• http://solarix.org/audio/5547_1.mp3
• http://solarix.org/audio/5547_2.mp3
• http://solarix.org/audio/5574_1.mp3

Here is what MIL-STD-188-110A data sounded like on 4885.
4885_strange.mp3

And here is a clip of WWVH and WWV on 5000kHz
HDSDR_20120307_070533Z_5000kHz_AF.mp3

Heh that's right I forgot about the fluttery effects. No wonder I couldn't decode any ALE last night!

 

[RadioDaze]

Looks like a biggie is coming:
Solar storm headed toward Earth may disrupt power - Yahoo! News

 

[w2xq]

Unfortunately POES is offline for IT upgrades, but pay attention to the skies. NOAA-SWPC is predicting maximum storm conditions for Thu 06-11 UTC (1-5a EST). And look at OVATION Aurora and Space Weather Now. On the latter page, look at the ACE meters (lower left) and play the movie. That AP story http://news.yahoo.com/solar-storm-headed-toward-earth-may-disrupt-power-162508973.html is a good summary. Interesting stuff. More links here: http://w2xq.com/bm-space-wx.html. HTH.

 

[ka3jjz]

There are also several articles on Space.com on this subject

Mike

 

[w2xq]

A few minutes ago (as I write this) we've had a second flare (A=68 k:=2 @0000 UTC, before the flare at 0033) of the day. Earlier about 1922 UTC the first flare (A=24 k=5) was even wiping out 2m and 70cm repeaters more than a few miles from me. Quite a ride. 6-hour GOES X-ray Flux Monitor. A collection of my links here: Space Weather. HTH.

 

[ka3jjz]

Spaceweather was reporting this around 0358 on the 9th; a M6 class. Not quite a X ray flare but enough to cause lots of disturbances; keep an eye on that flux level as well as the A and K indexes. I suspect we're in for a rough few days on HF, not just VHF/UHF...

Remember any VHF/UHF logs should go to the skip/tropo forum....Mike

 

[mfn002]

So THAT'S why I can't pick up anything right now (1139 UTC). WWRB on 5085 and 5890 kHz are COMPLETELY gone (normally very, very strong signals around here) and WTWW on 5755 (also normally very strong) have completely disappeared. Also, WWCR on 4840 and 5935 is completely gone (not even a faint signal). I did hear alot of that "warbling" that was being discussed earlier.

1145 UTC UPDATE: It seems a *few* signals have come back or increased in strength (3185 WWRB and 5025 Radio Rebelde). I'll check back at 1200 UTC to see what's going on here. So far, however, the ones mentioned earlier are still gone.

1200 UTC: I give up...

 

[brandon]

Looks like even more activity...

 

[ridgescan]

1800-1900utc literally the entire spectrum is wiped out except for ONE single station-21630 WHRI out of SC and it's barely making the trip. Worst I've ever seen here.