CHU 7,850 AM 20/S-9 at 0433 utc?!

[John Poet]

Getting CHU here in Lansing MI on 7.850 kHz
at 0433 UTC

The interesting part is that it's peaking 20 over S-9 at this late hour,
when it's usually barely audible, or without audio by this time.

Usually heard well until about 2 hours after local darkness when it goes long.

What's up with that?

[ChrisSmolinski]

I've noticed good reception on 43 meters overnight as well. I'd have to find plots for that time period, but my guess is that the foF2 value was high enough to support short skip (essentially NVIS). Solar activity has been a little higher lately, which could account for that.