weekend conditions

[wa1ion@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Mark Connelly )]

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Auroral disappointment ?  (Mark Connelly, WA1ION - 13 APR 1997)

The expected auroral upheaval didn't really seem to happen here.
Upper midwest domestics, such as WJR-760, WTAM-1100, and 
WOWO-1190, were reduced some during the earlier part of the
evening, but they were not thoroughly eliminated (as during
a "serious" aurora).  What was noticed was a slight overall 
reduction in long-skip signals (not unusual in the spring).  
European signals heard over the weekend were mostly from Spain.  
>From Africa, Morocco and Algeria were the dominant countries.  
Northern Europe (UK, Norway, and Germany for example) stations 
were weakened, compared to earlier in the week (8 APR), but 
were not totally blanked.  South Americans still seemed mediocre 
and southern Africa was pretty much absent.  Long-distance TA's 
were still available: not only was usual "blaster" 1521 good at 
0300 UTC on 12 APR, bits of the parallel 1440 Saudi Arabian 
were also noted.  On a rainy Saturday afternoon, I drove home 
from Cape Cod via Scituate, MA.  On the seaside drive, I stopped 
briefly at the boatyard on the corner of Jericho Road and Hatherly 
Road (near the former WRUL/WNYW/WYFR shortwave site).  A car 
radio check showed Mauritania-1349 hetting CKAD-1350 at a very 
early (almost 1.5 hours pre-sunset) 2155 UTC.  Other big-gun hets 
such as Libya-1251, Spain-1107, and Morocco-1044 popped up soon 
after.  UK/German signals were weak by comparison.  A strong 
1422 het was probably Algeria rather than Germany, judging by 
conditions.  Back at home on 13 APR at 2352, VOA Kuwait - 1548 
was very strong.  About the same time, 1566 was really interesting: 
bits of Indian-sounding music blended with Switzerland at times 
(but not enough to constitute ID material).

It will be interesting to see what the Cape Hatteras DXpedition
crew heard.  I'd suspect that the Spaniards and Moroccans were
in at piledriver levels: it's the rarer stuff that will be of
greater interest.  My "parallel effort report" covering logs
from Rowley, Harwich, and Billerica (MA) from 8 to 14 APR will
be issued soon.

Best of DX / 73 to all ... Mark