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Monday Morning DX

DavidEduardo said:
I thought those were remote pickup (RPU) channels?
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Narrow undistorted FM on my ten-meter FM-only rig, and with uninterrupted music programming.

I drove for several years with those rigs,
working repeaters from around North America and the Caribbean.
My favorite part of the hobby was talking to people too far for groundwave
but much too close for direct skywave.
I remember working a station until my rig freaked out from being totally overloaded.
The other guy had been running a lot of power on the input frequency
and had just passed me in the opposite direction on the expressway.

Question: You folks are talking about auroral propagation,
but you are also talking about AM radio DX.
I thought that auroral is a mode for much higher frequencies such as VHF and UHF.
Does auroral propagation reach down to the mediumwave band
or am I confusing two unrelated parts of this thread?
 
"Auroral" reaches into MW in that it often blanks out stations from northerly latitudes and, if the skip is just right, it's possible to hear stations to the south of you.
I've never heard the 10 meter remote pickups; I'm familiar with TV stations that carry the on-air audio on a VHF channel for reporters in the field to hear cues.
 
I've seen Auroral conditions wipe out AM BCB signals followed by a strong recovery of signals several times over a few hours, followed by a visual Auroral display. When it's wiped out, you hear signals originally from the South like WWL. Then the recovery would start at the top, and less usual stations like WWKB off the back of their array, probably really reflecting off the side of the KB array and back down the band. Then look up to see the pretty colors. When it reaches a critical ionization level, the RF reflecting layer appears to be associated with the visible shimmering curtains. I've read amateur periodicals that say that the signal is apparently coming from the North, and that's where you turn the antenna to get the best signal.
 
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Schroedingers Cat said:
I've seen Auroral conditions wipe out AM BCB signals followed by a strong recovery of signals several times over a few hours, followed by a visual Auroral display. When it's wiped out, you hear signals originally from the South like WWL. Then the recovery would start at the top, and less usual stations like WWKB off the back of their array, probably really reflecting off the side of the KB array and back down the band. Then look up to see the pretty colors. When it reaches a critical ionization level, the RF reflecting layer appears to be associated with the visible shimmering curtains. I've read amateur periodicals that say that the signal is apparently coming from the North, and that's where you turn the antenna to get the best signal.
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I experienced some of the most amazing auroral effeccts from my QTH 20 miles north of Traverse City, MI. When your could see the auroral display looking over towards Charlevoix, it was nearly a guarantee that WLS, WBBM, WMAQ, WGR, WCCO, and the big Canadian clears would be totally absent, with ones farther south like WHAS, KMOX week or gone and only minimal signals from WSM and WSB and no New York, Philly or Boston stations. Lots of Cuba, of course. WWL good. KWKF with its little 500 watts on 1600 from Key West sounding nearly local and a wide band of the deep south putting in signals.

Even with the band as crowded as it is now, I think that the effects would be the same today. I never got to experience early Spring or late Fall auroras, as the house did not have heat other than the fireplaces but that would have been fun during the real DX season with lower noise.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Even with the band as crowded as it is now, I think that the effects would be the same today. I never got to experience early Spring or late Fall auroras, as the house did not have heat other than the fireplaces but that would have been fun during the real DX season with lower noise.
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Lisa Kelly reported little or no nighttime skywave on the ice roads of Northern Alaska. Perhaps auroras completely blank the AM dial the further North you get.
 
cyberdad said:
Impressive list, David. I'm especially intrigued with the Hawaiians. KIKI, of course. But KHVH at 5kw isn't exactly chopped liver. KZOO (1210) was 1kw in the mid-60s, and I remember them as having a better signal in the city (Honolulu) than some of their more powerful peers. Most, if not all, of their programming was in Japanese....which I believe is still the case.

Sidebar question: Did you ever hear YVLL. 670 from Venezuela? I used to hear them all the time on 31 meters shortwave.
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I remember living in Hawaii back in the 1980s DX'ing the Mainland. The farthest I ever got was WOAI in San Antonio.
 
I missed the heyday of Monday morning sign-offs. I remember WOWO signing off at 1:06am on Monday mornings, nothing really heard under them and WHAM was right next door. I'm enjoying the thread though.
 
I can't remember, did WQXR (WQEW, WFME) used to sign off at 12:07 AM every day or just on Monday Morning? Anyway, I heard KPMC (now KNZR) Bakersfield,CA one morning back in the 1970s. Off to find my old copy of WRTH...
 
gr8oldies said:
I missed the heyday of Monday morning sign-offs. I remember WOWO signing off at 1:06am on Monday mornings, nothing really heard under them and WHAM was right next door. I'm enjoying the thread though.
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I know when I visited St. Marys as a kid, when WOWO was at the full 50K, one could null WHAM slop by turning the receiver. Here in Columbus, where WOWO's skywave wasn't always the strongest, I remember WHAM slop could sometimes totally blot out WOWO.
 
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