WA5IYX
San Antonio, TX
April 17, 1979 2010-2044 z
re: South American Ch A2 F2 reception
-had antenna nw still as CA Ch 2 Es in less than 30 minutes prior
and noticed the weird fade-in of another signal (very poor video
with low contrast, only the outlines of the highest-contrast
items at first); a short time later it looked as though a horizontal
resolution test pattern was being run (i.e., sets of vertical bars
of differeing size and spacing) (it later turned out that it was
multi-path ghosting of the horizontal blanking period, the "side"
frame of the video)
-as the video improved it was realized it was a Latin American
soap opera, still thought to be Es from Mexico at this point the
audio was turned up ... no audio.
-turned antenna s.e. and signal rose (though not as much as expected)
and it finally got thru to me what was going on ... F2 from South
America.
(50-MHz had been exhibiting good F2 backscatter since 1930z or so
and direct F2 signals there had come from a maritime-mobile at
87w 7s as well as Ecuador and Colombia, but things there didn't
look that super - like the March 8, 1970 magnetic storm that last
brought in any Ch 2 F2 (that time with audio but 4 or 5 stations))
-Ch 2 signal had very slow fading but the multi-path ghosting and
smearing made the many high contrast Spanish words that showed up
on video impossible to read; guess MUF into 57-58 MHz range but
never even a trace of audio
-around 2040z a definite fade trend set-in with the signal literally
dissolving around 2044z
-all the while this information was being announced on 28.885 MHz
to see if anyone else was getting this, but apparently the information
fell largely on unappreciative ears
-best analogy to the ghosting here is what is noticed with local
UHF Ch 41 when the antenna is moved away enabling many multi-path
signals to appear
-the TV is normally not run during the F2 periods as the 40-45 MHz
unshielded i.f. radiates badly into my nearby SX-62, so perhaps
other instances of this may have been missed recently (if not for
the earlier Es the set would never had been on at that time).
73, Pat
WA5IYX
-p.s., obviously I'd like to hear about others who noticed this
event (or similar ones at other times)
Page created: December 3, 1998
Last modified: January 25, 2002