10 May 2024 Aurora

 I was browsing about the news sites when I came across this on the RTÉ.ie pages:-

US authorities have issued the first Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch alert in almost 20 years as a powerful solar storm will hit Earth, with one enthusiast saying there's a "good chance" of seeing the Northern Lights in Ireland.

It is unusual for general news sites to carry anything which might be of any interest to radio amateurs or sky watchers. So this had to be something important. Further information could be found at VE3EN's Solarham had it not changed from Solarham.net to Solarham.com, which threw me off the track for a while - thanks to Mike GM3PPE for putting me right there. Anyway there were several big CMEs on the way towards Earth, and in a configuration which suggested that faster ones behind would merge with slower ones in front and produce a stronger effect here. And so it proved.

GM4PMK magnetometer on 10 May 2024

As usual click the image to enlarge if necessary.

I worked 22 stations during the aurora over the 24 hours after the first arrival of the particle stream. 21 were on 50MHz and one on 70MHz. All of them were on Q65 as I could not even attempt to use the microphone due to having the cold and 'flu. This activity covered 10 DXCC and 20 squares, with my best DX being to OE5OLL in JN68 at 1352km. I probably could have done more if I had been feeling better. I also spent some time between midnight and 02:00 local time out in the garden looking at the visual aurora.

50MHz auroral contacts at GM4FVM on 10 and 11 May 2024

All of these contacts were truly auroral with no tone audible, even the fairly close contact with Mike GM3PPE which is only 31km direct but a lot further via aurora. During the time I also had some very useful contacts with Dave, G0ODA on 432MHz and Gordon GM4OAS/M on 2m FM, but no aurora involved there! Having said that, there were reports of auroral contacts on 432MHz, so this was a very powerful event. I did not have 144MHz available at the time and it never even occurred to me to look at 70cm. Possibly a lifetime only chance missed there, but CW was beyond me at that stage.

One unusual feature was a fairly widespread Auroral Es opening across the Atlantic on 50MHz. I listened for about 30 minutes while others worked across the pond but nothing from there was heard here. I have often experienced Auroral Es during smaller openings, but I have never known of a trans Atlantic event.

The one Au contact I had on 70MHz was with G4BRK in IO91 (bringing the total square count to 21). This was my first Au contact on 4m using Q65. I was calling using the Q65-15C variant but Neil and I both noted how wide the signal was. Although many of us started out using Q65-15C during this event, most ended using 30C as it uses less bandwidth. I can see downsides to both approaches so some thought needs to be given as to which one we should use in future. Usually, decisions like this are made in amateur radio by somebody picking something and everybody following, whether that is right or wrong (like using 30 second periods for 2m MSK144 in Europe).

Anyway, this aurora brought a lot of activity much further South than we usually get, and it must have created new DX records for a lot of amateurs. It may well be a new Au DX record for me too. I must look it up.

I shall leave you with some photos I took of the visual aurora as seen from GM4FVM.

73 Jim

GM4FVM