Sunday, October 23, 2011

Another DX Test - Another Blackout

Although propagation hasn't been outstanding, it has at least opened up for trans-polar signals the past week or so. But it's a rather weird coincidence that most times a DX test is announced, the conditions will go rock bottom.

As they are today, during WGBW-1590's test going until 0700 UTC. Not even a faint trace of a signal. Even the near-24/7 companion KBRW-680 is gone.

The reason is that the proton flux began to rise yesterday, almost to the level of a proton event. Increased proton flux levels will always kill propagation in polar regions.

I hope they will set up a new test sometime, though.

2 comments:

Hans said...

Yup. I noticed that conditions disappeared and the MW-band went completely silent at around 06 UTC this morning. Between 03 and 06 a bunch of South Americans, mostly Brazil. Still, I managed to log 22 NA's and one HI between 09:00 and 13:00 yesterday, on my little "mini-pedition" to Cape Skagen on Vardøya. Nothing fancy, though, but I'm happy with that anyway.

Anonymous said...

Plus WWKB-1520 seemed to be off....

Markku Jussila. Karperö, Finland