Martin,

The compressed air effect you describe for CW also happens with SSB.  I 
played the sound for a sighted friend and he told me that the lights have a 
similar visual effect.

Steve

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Martin McCormick" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 10:36
Subject: Re: CME report


> With all the CME's spewing stuff at Earth, another thing to
> listen for is Auroral propagation. It is rare in the middle to
> Southern United States, but it does sometimes happen. I have
> only heard it once in my life and you sure know it when you hear
> it.
>
> Oklahoma reaches up to about the 37TH degree of latitude
> which makes us part of the Southern planes or maybe you could
> call us the extreme Northern part of the South, but we don't get
> much Aurora.
>
> Nonetheless, we got a dandy of an Aurora sometime in
> November in the early nineties. People who were outside around 9
> in the evening saw the glow which some mistook for either a
> large fire lighting up the sky towards the Northwest or the
> lights of a large city off in the distance.
>
> What we heard was skip on 6 and 2 meters but it's not
> like any Sporadic E you ever heard. The distance is kind of like
> Sporadic E, but the signals have a strange buzz on them due to
> the physics of what is happening in the ionosphere.
>
> I never heard any SSB that night on 2 meters, but I
> don't think you could have used SSB very well anyway. I did hear
> 8's, 9's and 0's which is a lot like what you can hear during
> Sporadic E openings. The CW sounded like someone was sending
> Morse with compressed air or steam. There was no note as such.
> This would have also messed up RTTY and PSK31 and any other
> electronic data formats that need accurate frequency or phase
> information to work. I think that CW was probably about the only
> thing that would have worked.
>
> It only lasted a few minutes with the signals fading in
> and out and finally just not coming back so when something like
> this happens, you need to be ready as it comes and goes within
> minutes.
>
> It is really interesting when it happens so if you hear
> there might be Aurora around and you have a receiver capable of
> SSB and CW, start tuning and be patient and you may get to hear
> Auroral buzz.
>
> Those who live in the far North, Canada or Northern
> Europe get to hear the buzz a lot more often.
>
> Martin WB5AGZ
>