Extremely unusual AM DXing conditions Saturday (12/8/18) afternoon

I've been dx-ing for 4 decades. I've never EVER experienced what I heard yesterday afternoon. (Saturday, 12/8/2018) I'm just curious if anyone else here heard the same thing.

I was listening to my SPARC SHD-TX2 radio on the FM band to listen to a new HD channel. Keep in mind, this is a handheld battery powered radio with whatever built-in AM antenna it has inside it. No ground and no special antenna was attached. Around 3:15pm, I decided to tune to the AM side to see what I could hear.

I noticed some stations coming in on frequencies I didn't normally hear anyone on in the daytime. When I paused to listen and started to look them up, I was extremely surprised. I was listening from Plano, Texas and heard the following stations - in the daytime:

1670 - WOZN Madison, Wisconsin - seriously couldn't believe it til I looked it up and heard an ID.
1430 - KTBZ Tulsa, Oklahoma
1370 - KJCE Austin, Texas
1250 - KZDC San Antonio, Texas
1200 - WOAI San Antonio, Texas - With another radio and a big antenna, I can usually hear this in the daytime faintly, but this was booming in like a local even though there's a 50KW on 1190 in Dallas that was on the air.
1120 - KMOX Saint Louis, Missouri - more on this in a bit
1110 - KFAB Omaha, Nebraska - there's a local on 1110 (KVTT) and I could hear Rush Limbaugh in the background. I nulled out the local and KFAB was rock solid and loud.
1100 - KDRY Alamo Heights, Texas
980 - KMBZ Kansas City, Missouri
950 - KPRC Houston, Texas
940 - WYLD New Orlean, Louisiana - when I turned the radio facing southeast
940 - KPSZ Des Moines, Iowa - when I turned the radio facing northeast
890 - WLS Chicago, Illinois - when I nulled out KTXV Mabank, Texas - which is only about 60 miles from here
880 - KRVN Lexington, Nebraska
870 - WWL New Orleans, Louisiana - when I nulled out KFJZ in Fort Worth
860 - KKOW Pittsburgh, Kansas
840 - WHAS Louisville, Kentucky
830 - I heard someone, but never could ID it. It was playing christmas music.
810 - WHB Kansas City, Missouri
700 - there's a local on 700 (KHSE) that I couldn't null out, but I could hear something in the background. There's a chance it was either WLW Cincinnati or KSEV Houston. I just couldn't quite tell.
680 - KFEQ Saint Joseph, Missouri

I'm sure could have logged something on almost every frequency, I just had other things to do yesterday afternoon.
Last night around 10:30pm I tuned in just to see if I noticed anything unusual about the atmospherics and I definitely did.
On 1120, I was able to null out KMOX and I heard KTXW from Manor, Texas near Austin. It sounded quite strong. It's listed as only having 155 watts at night. I've never heard it before.

So what caused this unusual AM DXing opportunity? We had rain yesterday. There was a big cold front with a winter storm to the north. And that would seem to provide some of the reason for this. What I was baffled by was the fact I was getting so many stations from south of here too.

Anyone got an explanation?

Your daytime DXing is not unusual in December. With the days being short and the low angle of the sun, skywave comes through much earlier in the afternoon.

Usually, there is a minimum usable frequency of sorts below which there is little or no skywave.The skywave gradually decreases to where it is about the same as the groundwave, and they fade in and out, much further away than the normal fading area at Night. It's in the range of 700 usually from my experience where the minimum usually is. Your approach of starting at the top of the band and working down is the best one IMHO. While WDTW 1310 Dearborn was off the air before being rebuilt, CIWW Ottawa was coming in at high solar noon here in SE Michigan during the weeks around the Winter Solstice. I usually hear the X Banders off and on most of the time. One morning in the early days of the X Band, I heard KDIA Vallejo, CA on 1640. Usually I will try the X Band, but I usually don't spend a lot of time on them. I'll go for WWRL 1600 New York, then WJFK 1580 Morningside, then WFME 1560 New York. I look for CHIN 1540 Toronto, WCKY 1530, WLAC 1510, CHKT 1430, and so on. Since WDTW signed back on, I have only heard CIWW Ottawa in the background on 1310.

These responses are interesting. I would just say that while having the band open up in the afternoon, or remain open all day, may be somewhat common in the fall and winter in the midwest - per your experience, I have never observed this phenomenon in Texas until Saturday. In years past I have certainly noticed some early openings in the latter part of the afternoon (4pm or so), but usually only by hearing a big station or two (WWL in particular) from the east, where it is later in the day. This was daytime skip from the east, north, northeast, south, southeast and (to some extent) the southwest. I didn't notice anything that was particularly to the west or northwest. (though I admit I didn't get the chance to really listen for KOA Denver on 850 which usually comes in easily at night)

Schroedinger is right, the X band was the thing that caught my attention first and it's where I started my band scan. Hearing a station on 1670 from Madison, Wisconsin loud and clear at 3:15 in the afternoon in Plano, Texas was unique - as in I'd never had a catch like that before. I'd never heard that station before, even at night. That's when I realized something odd was happening and started to carefully listen to each frequency and try to sort out which stations I was hearing, never assuming it was something fairly close by. (like Oklahoma, other parts of Texas or Louisiana)

What was also a huge surprise to me was that I was doing all of this on a hand-held battery-powered radio with whatever dinky little AM antenna is build inside. Normally when I've done serious DXing it's with a Hallicrafters and a good ground with a long antenna or even a GE Superradio. Even a car radio with a good tuned RF circuit is better. This was just a very unusual event for Plano, Texas. I'm glad I got to hear it and it certainly makes me want to keep listening this winter to see if it happens again.

Just sounds like you ran into a day with good daytime DX conditions. It can happen.

I don't know much about a SPARC radio but if that 'dinky' antenna is fairly thick, like 8-9mm thick, it can pull in more stations than a longer loopstick that is a lot thinner.

The Sony SRF-59 and ICF-38 have short loopsticks, but they are thick and high quality, and it is part of why the radios work so well.

With a current sunset of 4:55pm CST at my location, I now start to receive some DX signals as early 3:00pm daily, essentially the start of critical hours. DX activity during critical hours can be fun because most stations are still on daytime power and patterns...

Bob

I've had DX start as early as 3pm for me here in southern WY and at that point, my farthest DX Catch pre sunset is about 800 miles in central Saskatchewan.

A few years ago I received the 1560 out of Houston in Manistee, MI around 8:30am (unsure of the time of year)

Try Daytime Skywave beginning around Solar Noon. Remember its 4 minutes per degree of Longitude from the reference. For example, the reference for EST is 75 degrees and I am at around 83. 83-75=8 8 X 4=32. Solar Noon for my location is about 12:32 PM. If you are East, say 74 degrees, it would be -1 X 4=-4. 11:56 AM. Other Reference Longitudes are 90 CST, 105 MST, and 120 PST.

3:00 PM is a good time to start, but you will miss the really unusual Solar Noon DX up to 3:00 PM.

Start with the X Band. If their are strong non local signals, move down from the top of the band and work your way down. Try Listen Live to help ID the over the air signals.

If you have strong DAs and relatively high power >=5 kW, particularly if it's maximum is in your direction, they will be perennials (or pests depending on your Point of View) of Daytime Skywave. Good example is WJFK (WPGC) 1580. Up near the Mackinac Bridge/Straits Area, the GW=SW around Solar Noon, and the signals alternately cancel and reinforce on high ERP signals like WFDF 910 and WWJ 950. Usually, but not always, there is very little skywave from WJR 760 by Solar Noon, so you usually get a SW break for a while. The Daytime Skywave at the Middle to the Top of the Band is nearly always there in December though.

Good stuff, SC. Thanks for sharing.

'"Tis the season" for sure. One daytime example here is 1490. Usually it's a two way contest with WGEZ (Beloit, WI) getting the better of WPNA (West Suburban Chicago). For the past week or so it's been WGEZ on top with multiple weak signals underneath. All day long.

KBRE 1660 Merced CA is a pretty constant upper band "afternoon delight" up here in the Seattle area during the winter months. As is 1530 KFBK Sacramento now that 1520 KKXA Snohomish WA has dropped IBOC.

Those two, and KFSG-1690, are common on winter days. I also hear KCVR-1570 Lodi on occasion, and KNRO-1670 Redding.

crainbebo said:

Those two, and KFSG-1690, are common on winter days. I also hear KCVR-1570 Lodi on occasion, and KNRO-1670 Redding.

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I'ts been KQMS and news talk for 2 1/2 years. KNRO was the calls under the sports format that moved to 1400

Just after 9:30AM on December 15th and still many out-of-area signals on AM booming in. KSL is S9+ putting IBOC on 1170 at this hour, over 2 hours after sunrise. 540 CBK is in, over 750 miles to the east. I think 1100 with a financial talk program is KNZZ. Just IDed 1260 KNBL Idaho Falls // stream, with Adult Hits, Phil Collins "Sussudio."

Same thing here in Charleston. You an get 1530 Cincinnati as early as 3 or 3:30pm during December. Also WSB and WBT are in with listenable signals pretty early in the afternoon. I’ve heard KMOX as late as 9:30am in December. That was a few years ago.

At radioman148 and Schroedinger:

I'm no electrical guy or physicist. So thanks for the background as to the 'why' part. I'd heard these conditions kick in around as early as 1:30p PM, from a few stations that were 300-400 miles away. Never knew why.
The same anomaly here in NE Pennsylvania I've encountered as well -- both at home and while driving in the car.

I can't wait for the morning of December 21, for if and when Auroral conditions decide to coincide with the brief daylight
propagation. Nothing will come in on the AM dial at all, hi

crainbebo said:

Just after 9:30AM on December 15th and still many out-of-area signals on AM booming in. KSL is S9+ putting IBOC on 1170 at this hour, over 2 hours after sunrise. 540 CBK is in, over 750 miles to the east. I think 1100 with a financial talk program is KNZZ. Just IDed 1260 KNBL Idaho Falls // stream, with Adult Hits, Phil Collins "Sussudio."

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If it was after sunrise, 1100 could possibly have been KFNX AM 1100 from Phoenix, Arizona since they have a 50,000 watt day-time signal that gets out there pretty well. They air a talk radio format and occasionally have financial shows on.