ALERT NEWSLETTER – July 2024

Hi everyone & an early Happy 4th of July!

I hope you are staying cool and hydrated as we bake in the heat of Summer.

That time of the year you always look forward to has arrived!

Yes the time for ALERT dues! Yay!!!

To maintain roster records, according to ALERT’s constitution and bylaws, members who have not paid their 2024/2025 dues (which are due on July 2024’s meeting date, per Article IV), will be removed from the roster. After this point, these members may re-apply.

Members who are not current in good standing may be ineligible for Callouts, NWSchat access, officer positions and the right to vote in the monthly meetings.

In special cases/hardship, members may submit a confidential request to be considered by the board. Such a request will be kept ultra-hush-hush, and can be brought to any board member: (Currently Mark Wells, Russell Thomas, Roger Parsons, Johnnie Knobloch & Casey Benefield).

More on dues, including payment address, can be found in the ALERT Bylaws, on the ALERT-Alabama.org website under Join/Documents.

Join ALERT/Documents

The direct link to the application can be found at https://alert-alabama.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/Documents/alertapp.pdf

Existing members who are renewing can also use PayPal option via billrodgers1973@gmail.com

Also, if anyone would rather use Venmo, route it via @William-Rodgers-73

Until next month, everyone stay safe!

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Echoes Of Signals And Strange Squeals In The Night

I love radio. My first memorable exposure to radio, besides Mom listening to Elvis and Patsy Cline on WSGN, WVOK and WBRC, now WAGG, WJOX and WERC, was hearing the weird “tick, tick, tick at the tone eighteen hours forty six minutes Greenwich Mean Time” on my brothers Shortwave radio.

That was in 1963 and I was 5 years old. So, counting this as the start, listening to AM radio and discovering in 1967 that distant signals drifted in at night, which lead to AM DXing, which lead to Shortwave listening, then scanning, then CB radio, then ham radio, then GMRS and other realms, I can claim to have been “radioing” for sixty plus years.

To me having elevator music from CMBQ “Radio Encilclopdia” on 530 kHz in Cuba, oldies from CFZM “Zoomer Radio” in Toronto battling it out with talk shows from KMRG in Tulsa on 740 kHz or endless political blah, blah, blah from WBAP Dallas on 820 kHz, drifting into my radio fascinates me just as much today as it did when I was a teen sitting up all night listening, when I should have been sleeping. Now I can’t get enough sleep. “Youth is wasted on the young”.

Adding that I can talk to Africa using an antenna that looks like my Mom’s clothesline from back in 1968 and let’s just say that the love affair with radio is still strong.

In the course of time, you hear strange things on the radio. Not just meaning strange people either, which if delved into, would result in a 900 page article.

But, weird squeaks & whistles, for instance the squirmy sound that drifts up and down the 10 meter band when the sun is shining, and the band is open.

Some of these are just regular quirks of a band. Not unusual at all, but, first noticed, makes on scratch their head.

The secret of finding or noticing strange signals and things, is eliminating the normal signals and things. And this takes becoming familiar with the band or becoming a “Band Master”. Don’t Google the term. Just trust me, it’s real, or should be anyway.

Anyone can be a Band Master, that person you know who knows where to look when the band opens for strange or exotic signals and locations. And, it doesn’t take long to become one.

First, you pick a range of frequencies. Preferably not so large as to be unmanageable. Then you just listen. You listen regularly at various times as occasion permits and as you listen you note what signals, stations, nets or regions are there regularly, whether it is repeaters on 2 meters, nets on 75 meters, roundtables that gather at various times of the day or on HF recognizing that New England come in on 15 Meters at such and such times.

Within a week, maybe two you will know what to expect, who to expect and get a good sense of the propagation range and direction of signals at various times of the day.

Then you are ready to listen for signals that pop up where there is usually nothing or at times they are normally absent. Or signals that appear on regular frequencies, but not from the usual source.

For instance, did you know that a repeater from Illinois was booming in on the BARC repeater frequency on 146.880 MHz Monday morning on June 24?

If you did, and if you knew how to go to VFO or change your radio’s subtone from 88.5 Hz, (the Birmingham repeater’s tone) to 107.2 Hz, you probably could have been talking to folk on the Chicago 88 repeater.

The 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands are open far more regularly than most people realize. Especially from dawn extending to midday. That’s why it’s a good idea to not just program a radio and never venture from those preprogrammed frequencies, but, explore! Go to VFO and explore the band. You never know what you may find. From distant repeaters, long distance stations on simplex to the Zombie Liberation Army Nerf Gun Squad bootlegging on Baofengs, you never know what strange things you may find.

What is the strangest thing I’ve encountered?

Many years ago, in the mid 1980’s, there was a slow speed CW Traffic Net, the Alabama Emergency Net Delta, that met nightly at 5:30 local time on 3.725 MHz.

One fall night the Net Control Station began the net, and we thought something was wrong with his radio, because as he sent the CW characters there was still a signal to be heard that filled in the spaces between the dits and the dahs.

There was a fault that occasionally occur with transmitters where the transmitter will not fully cut off between CW elements, “backwave” if I remember the term correctly, and this is what we thought was happening.

But, then we noticed that the same thing was happening to every station checking in.

In those days we were using older analog equipment, and many times the frequencies were tuned by ear, rather than by dial, everyone was sending manually, and some transmitters had some quirks. So everyone sounded just a little different and distinct.

We heard a mirror image of each stations individual frequency, cadence of sending and if a transmitter was a little chirpy (due to a voltage regulator getting ready to kick the bucket) the image chirped right along. Sometimes it was so loud that it was hard to copy anyone.

We finished the net and the next night everything was back to normal, and it never happened again.

Some of those CW operators had been CW operators had been radio operators in the Navy during World War II (and could copy CW at 40 – 55 WPM be ear). They had never heard anything like this happening. In the years since, Google has not been my friend, in explaining this matter.

Signals can do strange things.

There is a Long Delay Echo which, if conditions are absolutely perfect, you can hear yourself at the end of a transmission 1/7 second after you unkey. In this case the signal has bounced off the ionosphere and the Earth repeated and has completely circled the Earth.

Sometimes a signal can have a metallic sounding “stutter” as it is being received via both the long path and short path simultaneously.

Sometime Medium Wave and Short Wave signals can fade and strengthen, sometimes slowly disappearing into the night, only to reappear a few minutes later stronger than before, or on VHF or UHF, flutter rapidly like a slow drum roll, as signals are arriving at the antenna from different points and a different phases, cancelling each other out and then reinforcing each other.

Signals can flutter bouncing off an aurora on the upper HF bands and 6 meters, sounding like you are violently shaking your head back and forth as you speak.

But none of these apply in this case.

One person on social media explained it to me that “under certain conditions an electromagnetic wave in the ionosphere is coupled into a slow-moving electromechanical wave for a distance, then de-couples into the electromagnet wave.”

It sounds reasonable. Especially since I have no clue what he is talking about. So, why not?

I don’t know.

If we had not been on the air regularly we would have not known whether this was something strange or just a regular occurrence. But, since we haunted that frequency and band, we knew something was afoot.

You have a window to a realm, an unseen world at your fingertips. Familiar, yet unfamiliar. Understood, but is it really understood?

This realm is waiting for your interest and exploration.

So, turn off Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the Young & Restless and turn on that dust covered radio and do some exploring!

Whether it’s peeking between the repeaters or plowing through the static on HF, you never know what you may find.

Oh, did I mention it’s fun?

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Mark’s Almanac

Originally called “Quintilis”, the fifth Roman month, Quintilis was renamed “July” in 44 BC in honor of Julius Caesar.
July is miserably hot, as land temperatures reach their peaks in late July through early August – the Dog Days of Summer.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11.

The Romans on the other hand said that the Dog Days ran from July 24 through August 24, or, alternatively, from July 23 through August 23, coinciding with the Sun and the Dog Star Sirius rising at the same time & their combined heat supposedly adding to the summer misery.

As you endure this heat, remember to drink lots of fluids, hug the shade & avoid the afternoon sun.

Also please resist the temptation to take Fido for a walk during the heat of the day. Remember that the “official” temperature readings are taken 6 feet above ground level. It’s much, much hotter on the ground where Fido & Puss must walk with bare paws, where it could easily be 150 degrees.

Before taking Muttley for a walk, place your hand on the pavement and see how hot it is. If it’s miserable to you, it will be miserable to him also. Just walk him in the morning or wait until the sun is setting and it cools off to a tolerable level and try to stick to grassy areas. Then go have a good time together.

The last week of July is usually the hottest week of the year. Tropical conditions are dominant, with conditions similar to that of the Amazon Valley.

This is the time to test the “Brown Grass Theory”. According to this theory, if the grass remains green the temperature will probably not reach 100, but, if the grass turns brown, get set for triple digits. This is a local Birmingham rule, which the Old Timers at the Birmingham NWS, such as Frank Makosky and J.B Elliott used for years.

In July the least rainfall falls in the Northern Hemisphere.

Tornado activity drops sharply, with a 47% decrease nationwide. July has an average of 103 tornadoes.

Hurricane activity increases, but major hurricanes are not yet frequent. By months end, one hurricane will have occurred. Seven percent of a year’s hurricane total occurs in July.

July Tropical Cyclone Breeding Grounds

Long track hurricanes are possible, forming off the African coast and crossing the Atlantic, either to threaten the US East Coast, then eventually veering off towards Bermuda. Or in the case of “Low Latitude” storms, cross the Atlantic, strike the Leeward Islands; enter the Caribbean and then striking the Yucatan, or the Western or Northern Gulf coast.

From 1851 to 2023 there have been 130 Tropical Storms and 62 Hurricanes, 29 of which made landfall in the United States.

Among notable storms are 2005’s Hurricane Emily, the only Category 5 storm to form in July, reaching 160 MPH and striking Mexico.

Hurricane Bertha, a 125 MPH storm holds the record for the longest lifespan for a July hurricane, churning for 17 days.

Days grow shorter as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon decreases from 79.6 degrees at the beginning of the month to 74.7 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight decreases from 14 hours 20 minutes on July 1 to 13 hours 49 minutes on July 31.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

July 1 Sunrise 5:41 AM Sunset 8:01 PM
July 15 Sunrise 5:48 AM Sunset 7:58 PM
July 31 Sunrise 5:59 AM Sunset 7:48 PM

Looking skyward, the Sun, magnitude -26.7 is in Gemini.

At the first of the month Mercury, magnitude -1.2 in Gemini, The Twins, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

He will emerge into the evening sky on July 4th, becoming visible at 8:25 PM, 9° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness.

He will then sink towards the horizon, setting 1 hour and 17 minutes after the Sun at 9:17 PM.

He will reach his highest altitude above the Western horizon on July 13, reaching a low 10° above the horizon.

He will then fade from view, lost once again on the glow of the Sun, on July 15

He will reach her farthest distance from the Sun, or “aphelion” on July 27.

Venus, magnitude -3.9 in Gemini, The Twins, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

She will reach her closest distance from the Sun, or “perihelion” on July 10.

Earth, magnitude -4.0 as viewed from the Sun, is in the constellation Capricorn, The Sea Goat.

Earth will reach her farthest distance from the Sun or Aphelion on July 5 at 12:16 AM CDT or 5:16
UTC, when the distance from the Sun’s center to Earth’s center will be 94,510,539 miles from our home star, as she and the Moon wobble through space, the Moon tugging on the Earth like an unruly pup on a leash.

Mars, magnitude +0.9, with his Moons Phobos and Deimos are in Aries, The Ram,

At the first of the month, he rises at 2:15 AM CDT, 3 hours and 23 minutes before the Sun and reaches an altitude of 32° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:58 AM CDT.

At midmonth he rises at 1:52 AM CDT, 3 hours and 53 minutes before the Sun, reaching an altitude of 38° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:06 AM CDT.

By months end he rises at 1:27 AM CDT, reaching an altitude of 46° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:19 AM CDT.

Dwarf Planet Ceres, magnitude 7.5, is in Sagittarius, The Archer.

Jupiter, magnitude –2.0, and his 95 moons and (invisible from Earth) ring, is in Taurus, The Bull, is a predawn object.

At the first of the month, he rises at 3:29 AM CDT, 2 hours and 9 minutes before the Sun, and reaches an altitude of 21° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:20 AM CDT.

By midmonth he rises at 2:47 AM CDT, 3 hours and 0 minutes before the Sun and reaches an altitude of 31° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:28 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at 1:54 CDT, and reaches an altitude of 44° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:39 AM CDT.

Saturn, magnitude +0.9, and his 146 moons and extensive debris ring system, is in Aquarius, The Water Bearer, and is an early morning object.

At the first of the month, he becomes visible at 11:43 PM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 49° above the southern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:59 AM CDT.

By midmonth he becomes visible at 11:47 PM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 50° above the southern horizon at 4:43 AM CDT, before fading into the twilight at 5:08 AM CDT.

On July 24 Saturn sit next to the Moon. If you were in Asia, he would be seen skimming just above the Lunar disk.

At months end, he becomes visible at 10:43 PM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 49° above the southern horizon at 3:29 AM CDT before fading into the twilight at 5:21 AM CDT.

Uranus, magnitude +5.8, and his 27 moons and ring, in Taurus, The Bull, is reemerging into the predawn sky.

Near the first of the month, he rises at 2:36 AM CDT, 3 hours and 3 minutes before the Sun, and reaches an altitude of 21° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:28 AM CDT.

By midmonth he rises at 1:50 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 32° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:36 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at 12:49 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 48° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:50 AM CDT.

Neptune, magnitude 7.8, and his 14 moons and ring, is in Pisces, The Fish,

At the first of the month, he rises at 12:08 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 47° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:27 AM CDT.

By midmonth he rises at 11:13 PM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 54° above the southern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:46 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at Midnight, and reaches an altitude of 21° above the eastern horizon at 4:09 AM CDT, before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:50 AM CDT.

If one looks at the times given for the rising of Saturn and Uranus through the month: 11:43 PM, 11:47 PM and 10:43 PM for Saturn and 12:08 AM ,11:23 PM and Midnight for Neptune, one might think there is a typographical error. This is not the case.

Saturn and Neptune have entered a period called “retrograde motion”, where they stop their usual eastward movement through the constellations, and start moving westward instead. This apparent reversal of direction is a phenomenon that all the of the outer planets periodically undergo, a few months before they reach opposition, or the point exactly opposite from the Sun.

This retrograde motion is caused by the Earth’s own motion around the Sun. As the Earth circles the Sun, our view or perspective changes, and this causes the apparent positions of objects to move from side to side in the sky during a one year period. This nodding motion is super imposed on the planet’s long-term eastward motion through the constellations, causing them to appear to be moving backwards in their orbits.

A terrestrial example would be passing a car on the highway. Both are moving forward, but the car you are passing looks as if it were going backwards as you look at it through the side window.
This motion was known to ancient observers, and it troubled them to no end, as they could not reconcile this motion with their models which had the planets moving in uniform circular orbits around the Earth, since they believed that the Earth was the center of the solar system.

Saturn entered retrograde motion on June 29, will reach opposition on September 8 and will end retrograde motion on November 15, 2024

Neptune enters retrograde motion on July 2, will reach opposition on September 20 and will end retrograde motion on December 7, 2024.

Dwarf Planet Pluto, with his five moons shines at a dim +14.4 in Capricorn, The Sea Goat.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, her ring and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of +17.4 in Bootes, The Herdsman.

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon S/2015 (136472) 1, nicknamed MK1 by the discovery team, shines faintly at magnitude +17.2 in Coma Berenices.

Dwarf Planet 136199 Eris and her moon Dysnomia, originally referred to as Xena and Gabrielle, is barely visible in the most powerful telescopes at magnitude +18.7 in Cetus the Sea Monster.

At least six additional bodies with the preliminary criteria for identifying dwarf planets, and though not “officially” declared as such, are generally called dwarf planets by astronomers as well.

90482 Orcus, and his moon Vanth shines at magnitude 19.2 between Hydra and Sextans, The Sextant.

50000 Quaoar, and his moon Waywot shines at magnitude +18.7 in Scutum, The Shield.

90377 Sedna, the coldest, and at one time, the most distant known place in the Solar System, glows faintly at magnitude +20.8 in Taurus, The Bull.

225088 Gonggong, originally nicknamed Snow White by the discovery team, and his moon Xiangli glows dimly at +21.5 magnitude in Aquarius, The Water Bearer.

2014 UZ224 nicknamed “DeeDee” for “Distant Dwarf” is 8.5 billion miles from the Sun, at magnitude +23.1 in Eridanus, The River.

120347 Salacia, and her moon Actaea glows at magnitude 20.7 in Andromeda, The Chained Woman. Salacia is considered a “borderline” Dwarf Planet. Some astronomers saying she “most certainly is a Dwarf Planet”, while others disagreeing based on her size, saying she is too small to have compressed into a fully solid body, to have been resurfaced, or to have collapsed into “hydrostatic equilibrium”, that is to assume spherical shape like a planet.

This dark world lies beyond the orbit of Neptune, orbiting 4,164,420,166 miles from the Sun.

Currently the most distant observable known object in the Solar System, Asteroid 2018 AG37, nicknamed “FarFarOut”, which is 12,392,647,939 miles or 18 hours, 28 minutes and 46 seconds from Earth, glows at a barely detectable +25.5 magnitude in Lynx.

The most distant man-made object, and the most distant known object in the Solar System Voyager 1, still operating after 46 years, 8 months and 22 days is 15,161,125,747 miles, or in Light Time, 22 hours, 36 minutes and 27 Seconds from Earth as of 5:17 PM, June 23, 2024, sailing 38,027 miles per hour through Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer.

There are 1,351,401 known asteroids as of June 23, 2024, per NASA.

5671 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of June 11, 2024 per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

New Moon will occur at 5:59 PM CDT or 22:59 UTC on July 5. The Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere.

The moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on July 12, when she will be 252,457 miles from Earth.

First Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Western side illuminated, will occur July 13 at 5:49 PM or 22:49 UTC.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

July’s Full Moon occurs July 21 at 5:19 AM CDT or 10:19 UTC, when the Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be fully illuminated.

July’s Full Moon is called “Buck Moon” in Native American folklore. This moon gets its name because the male buck deer begin to grow their new antlers at this time of year. It has also been called “Full Thunder Moon” & “Hay Moon”.

During a Full Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -12.7.

Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur July 27 at 9:54 PM CDT or 2:54 UTC on July 28.

During the Quarter Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

The moon will be at Perigee or its closest approach to Earth on July 23, when she will be 226,747 miles from Earth.

Though it won’t peak until the night and morning of August 12 & 13, the Perseid Meteor Shower begins July 17, and lasts until August 24. This shower, associated with comet Swift-Tuttle will peak at 60 meteors per hour in August.

The Delta-Aquariad Meteor shower peaks on the night of July 28th into the morning of the 29th.
This shower annually occurs from July 12 through August 23 is made up of debris from Comet Marsden Kracht and produces a ZHR or Zenith Hourly Rate of 20 meteors per hour.

The second quarter moon will block many of the fainter meteors this year. But if you are patient, you should still be able to catch a few good ones.

Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Aquarius, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

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This month’s meeting will be on July 9 at 7PM at the National Weather Service Forecast Office at the Shelby County Airport,

Hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
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