Solar Radio Interference
 

Recent Solar activity is presently creating propagation issues in the HF Radio Bands and good communications is a bit of a challenge.

This started me thinking these Solar issues must have popped up from time to time during World War Two. Has anyone ever run across Regimental Histories, or Signals Records where comments were logged about delays due to bad radio communications?

David

Google provides a bit of info on this. Try "sunspot cycle 17 WW2". There is the story of east coast US being able to receive Rommel's North African tank communications but have seen no hard evidence.

Solar cycle 17 peaked in 1938 and had bottomed out by 1944. There were flares though that did have strong effects. https://eos.org/features/the-geomagn...september-1941

There are reports of the wireless intercept station near Winterpeg receiving both German & Japanese sigs.

Check BBC, CBC, ABC archives
 

Hi David

You might want to check the archives and some of the technical forums related to BBC, CBC, ABC. Over the years I have dug into particularly the BBC archives online and found a lot of information of interest to me. One comment I would make is if you find something of interest save the whole page, take a screenshot etc. saving links to stuff in the archives is an often futile exercise and the links may not work several years later.

As to listening to shortwave out of Africa in the United States my parents had a Multi Band Radio in the living room which included Shortwave and they told stories of listening to broadcast on a fairly regular basis. (I wasn't born until 1948) My father work for the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC on various types of Radar and Radio equipment. My first radio as a kid was a Military Aircraft Radio multi band. I can remember listening to shortwave from all over the world.

Bruce the link to the article is a great one some interesting reading. Was there a major solar flare cycle that coincided mid 50s Geophysical Year. I remember my dad talking about it and taking us out to see the Aurora Borealis one very cold night we drove over to the Chesapeake Bay to get away from the city lights.

Cheers Phil

Something sticks in my mind that during Gulf War 1, just when the sneakies needed to speak to the mothership(s), the solar flares disrupted their comms. Several teams got into trouble with shepherds and other locals and couldn't get extracted.

[QUOTE=Phil Waterman;244871rom all over the world.
Bruce the link to the article is a great one some interesting reading. Was there a major solar flare cycle that coincided mid 50s Geophysical Year. I remember my dad talking about it and taking us out to see the Aurora Borealis one very cold night we drove over to the Chesapeake Bay to get away from the city lights.
Cheers Phil[/QUOTE]

Hi Phil, Yes, solar activity was strong as the IGY of 1957 was chosen because it was the peak of Cycle 19. For those unfamiliar with solar activity, sun spots and coronal mass ejections can greatly disturb the ionosphere for radio propagation.

I recall the peak of cycle 20 was when I got my first CB set. I could "hear" :) stations from the Yukon down to southern California.

Solar Disruptions MV
 

Looks like a topic for a new book that is truly out of this World. Searching the direct term ""Solar cycles 1939 - 1945"" may send us to the Library of Congress who are also interested in our Sun.


I wonder if our SIG guys would have records....interesting. A comparison of the solar effects from the 40's to today's equipment could be good for a few pages. I wonder what we've learned?

The topic has legs that will span the centuries and I'd hope has molded the plans of current electrical engineers globally. See what I did there. The Carrington event.....
https://science.nasa.gov/science-new...arringtonflare

Here is one story on WW11.

https://eos.org/features/the-geomagn...september-1941

"""""Seventy-five years ago, on 18–19 September 1941, the Earth experienced a great magnetic storm, one of the most intense ever recorded. It arrived at a poignant moment in history, when radio and electrical technology was emerging as a central part of daily life and when much of the world was embroiled in World War II, which the United States had not yet officially entered."""""

Trying to understand how it all works is still a little magical so some of this info starts me nodding up and down instead of across.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1694701/

"""""The relationships of solar activity on the ionosphere and radio communications may be roughly classified as follows: (1) There are occasional solar flares or outbursts of ultraviolet light which instantaneously produce radio fade-outs of short duration. (2) Occasionally solar streams of particles sweep across the earth's orbit producing magnetic storms and auroral displays. The associated ionospheric disturbances may seriously affect radio communication for several days although the effects are more pronounced in polar regions. (3) The general change of solar ionizing wave radiation in the course of the sunspot cycle governs the average intensity of ionization in the ionosphere. This trend is an important factor governing selection of operating frequencies for radio communication.""""

It's a little off topic but we may be able to use some of these links to look back at the 40's.
Here are a few links that get real interesting when the sun starts talking.

An over-all glimpse at the sun with daily reports, Near Earth Object monitoring and a ton of references/ links for all your Sunny needs.

http://spaceweather.com/

NOAA has a pretty cool site with a 'dashboard' of links to watch many aspects of the sun. The links at the bottom of this page will keep a kid busy for days.

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities...er-enthusiasts

There was another link to the USAF Wing KP index so we should do a little digging to see what kind of solar research unit existed within the Airforce.

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/wing-kp

One more fun one where you can set different filters, times, colors...fun for kids.

https://helioviewer.org/

Cool topic, thanks for the distraction!

I'm adding this one from our University of Alberta because it's the colorful part of our sun's activity. We can now get text alerts when the Aurora is humming over Alberta.

http://www.aurorawatch.ca/

Hi Dave

Lots of little threads to follow next time I'm not out in the shop.

The whole topic of solar interference is one that the average Joe or Jill could give a hoot about until the next really big flare occurs and there smart phone gets real dumb real quick.

Cheers Phil

Personal military experience with FM skip
 

In the late 70s my militia training included a crew commanders' course run on weekends in Longue Pointe (ie Montreal) and Camp Farnham. We had M38A1s with RT524 radios and PRC77 manpacks. The spectrum managers had given us a couple of frequencies for the exercise.

At one point out on the trace, we were hearing another English speaking net doing something similar to our training. The North/South axis would have located them in the US southeast states. The fun began when one of our callsigns called a 'lateral left clear', and the other net reacted. Their control immediately announced 'not us, that was the other guys'. Our two exercises were cross-talking on skip. It didn't last long, but while it was happening it was fun.

Among the other things I remember from that exercise, was men talking in their sleep doing voice procedure with each other. I remember feeling hot and gritty, and feeling very dependant on our crews and vehicles. We were living the example of forward recce with just ourselves to rely on. I also remember the fear of rolling over or having an accident with no roll-bars or protection. Windburnt faces and chapped lips, bleary eyes and dusty hair. The nostalgia of youth. All that and about $27 a day pay.