OT: Propagation

[Don Rasmussen]

Hi All,
The bands are opening for the Fall, and I'd like to know what paths are open at any given moment, using a web based resource.

If I checked right now I might find that 15 meters is open between Africa and North America, and that 20m is open between Hawaii (or Japan) and the West Coast of USA.

I have the W6EL program that makes a pretty good MUF frequency map. But that is just a projection based on solar flux.

www.eham.net has some DX spotting too, wondering what may be better.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance - Don.
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[Julian, G4ILO]

Don Rasmussen wrote

Hi All,
The bands are opening for the Fall, and I'd like to know what paths are open at any given moment, using a web based resource.

If I checked right now I might find that 15 meters is open between Africa and North America, and that 20m is open between Hawaii (or Japan) and the West Coast of USA.

I have the W6EL program that makes a pretty good MUF frequency map. But that is just a projection based on solar flux.

www.eham.net has some DX spotting too, wondering what may be better.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance - Don.

Whatever happened to just turning the radio on and listening. :)

Having been foolish enough to write and make freely available a program (VOAProp) that displays graphical maps of predicted propagation based on VOACAP, I have become aware that a lot of hams think you can predict propagation as accurately as the weather given a couple of solar indices. It just ain't that easy. If you happened to subscribe to RadCom, then in this month's issue you would have found an excellent article  describing exotic propagation modes that even the best propagation models cannot predict.

So there is really no substitute to turning the radio on and listening. If you really can't be bothered to do that, then looking at what is being spotted on the DX Cluster by spotters near your location may give you an idea of who is actually working what at any given time.

An interesting variation on that is the Reverse Beacon Project http://skimmer.dxwatch.com/ which plots stations heard by people using the CW Skimmer software, however there are far too few users (and Skimmer is prone to mis-copy calls) for it to be very useful at the moment.

[Joe Planisky]

Speaking of beacons, does anyone know anything about what seem to be  
beacons that appeared in the CW portions of 40m, 30m, 20m, and 15m  
last week?  Well, I first heard them last week, don't know when they  
might have first appeared.  Maybe they've been there forever and I  
just never noticed.

They were like slow cw dashes, 1 second on and one second off, there  
was never any ID.  I copied them Sept. 14 around 1900Z on

7037.84
10121.67
14029.90
21021.90

I don't think it was local as there was QSB and they faded out in the  
evening, 15m first through 40m last.

I don't hear them now, although there is something on 14029.9 that  
sounds like someone repeatedly tuning up with varying power.

Just curious.

73
--
Joe KB8AP


On Sep 26, 2008, at 3:28 PM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:

> The best "real time" system I know of that shows actual conditions  
> is the
> Northern California DX Foundation/IARU beacon system:
>
> http://www.ncdxf.org/beacons.html
>
> Ron AC7AC
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> Hi All,
> The bands are opening for the Fall, and I'd like to know what paths  
> are open
> at any given moment, using a web based resource.

> [snip]

>
> Anyone have any suggestions?
>
> Thanks in advance - Don.

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[Trevor Smithers]

Perhaps setting up a WSPR beacon might be of interest.
Have a look at  http://wsprnet.org/drupal/

Headline:
The Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Network is a group of amateur radio operators
using K1JT's MEPT_JT digital mode to probe radio frequency propagation conditions
using very low power (QRP/QRPp) transmissions. The software is open source, and the
data collected are available to the public through this site

73 to all
Trevor  G0KTN
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[Trevor Smithers]

>The NCDSF/IARU beacons have been doing just that for years on 20 through 10
>meters with transmission from up to 18 countries on a single time-shared
>frequency in each band.
Absolutely agree - wonderful resource and one that I have been using for many years.

WSPR however extends the propagation research toolbox further in not only covering
bands from 2m to 160 and below but also gives the individual station instant feedback
(in the database or world map plot) of where the signal is being heard using very weak
signal detection techniques. As of today there are nearly 1.5 million spots in the
database, 6000 of which were in the last 24hrs.

73 to all
Trevor  G0KTN

 
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[Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy]

Julian, G4ILO wrote on Friday, September 26, 2008 11:28 PM

> Whatever happened to just turning the radio on and listening. :)

Agreed, but also trying a few CQs on a "dead" band! If everybody just
listened a band would sound to be "dead" :-)

The IARU beacons imho are very useful indicators but are not always heard
even if a band is open because of very selective skip, seemingly a
characteristic of chordal propagation. To cite an example 15m has frequently
been open  to PY and CE from here in our late afternoons during the past
couple of years, with strong signals both ways, while the CS3, LU and OA
beacons which are located roughly in the same direction are not heard.

73,
Geoff
GM4ESD



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