Boy, I sure remember lots of black outs back in the mid to late sixties when
I first got on the air.  One hit one summer right in the middle of field
day.  I was operating 20 sideband at the time and the signals all began to
wink out as they grew smaller and smaller in signal strength until the band
was stone dead.  About 30 minutes later, a few weak signals could be heard
and within another 10 or 15 minutes, signals were good enough to continue
working for the contest.  I have also seen aurora flutter, or what some call
Arctic flutter, or polar flutter, as low as the 80 meter band when a coronal
mass ejection hit the planet and lit up the Aurora.  I worked a friend of
mine on 80 CW that night about 9 PM.  Even his local signal had the Aurora
flutter to it.  I tuned the entire 80 and 75 meter bands that night and
literally every signal had the flutter from the bottom to the top of the
band.  I also was on air a few times back in the sixties when black outs hit
during the day and we would be working each other during the summer months
as friends from the school for the blind.  The band was fade pretty rapidly
and sometimes then from 30 minutes to more than a couple of hours would go
by before the band would come back on.  During those flares in the late
sixties, I also witnessed the weirdest band reversal I have ever seen.  I
have worked long path on 20 meters and 40 meters and heard it on 80 but
never had a good enough antenna to work long path on 80 meters.  If you have
a good antenna it is really fun to work on both 40 and 20 meters.  Very few
times in my life did I hear a whole band reversed, however, until one day
around 68 or 69 I believe it was.  My friend a mile away worked almost
nothing but 15 meters.  It was about 11 o'clock in the morning as I recall.
The phone rings and Ron says, Are you listening on 15 meters?  No, I said.
Here, he said, listen to this, and he snapped on his phone patch and began
tuning around.  How you like that, He said, when he had turned the patch
off.  I'll be right on the air, I said and hung up.  20 over S 9 Japanese
signals were coming over Europe.  It seemed, no matter which way you pointed
your beam, it made no difference.  Everything seemed to be coming in full
strength regardless where the beam was pointing.  I have heard these during
the long path times of the seasons and once and awhile with a signal south
pole signal coming over the north pole, or even the other way around, but it
wasn't a whole band gone crazy like that day on 15 meters.

Phil.
K0NX