In the post below, the sentence
"The PropView component will also generate graphical propagation forecasts
using the VOACAP or ICEPAC engines, and use the beacon network to calibrate
these forecasts."
should have been
"The PropView component will also generate graphical propagation forecasts
using the VOACAP or ICEPAC engines; you can use the beacon network to
calibrate these forecasts."
Automatically calibrating propagation forecasts based on actual beacon
signal strength is not yet available...
73,
Dave, AA6YQ
-----Original Message-----
From: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com [mailto:digitalra...@yahoogroups.com]on
Behalf Of Dave AA6YQ
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 10:00 PM
To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [digitalradio] Throught of a Digital Propagation Tool
The is a worldwide network of 18 beacons operated by the Northern California
DX Foundation and the International Amateur Radio Union on 5 HF bands from
20m through 10m:
<http://www.ncdxf.org/beacons.html>
At the moment, the beacons in Russia and Sri Lanka are down due to hardware
problems; repairs are underway.
Each beacon transmits for 10 seconds, giving its callsign in CW followed by
four dashes: the first at 100 watts, the second at 10 watts, the third at 1
watt, and the fourth at 100 milliwatts:
<<http://www.ncdxf.org/beacon/beaconschedule.html>
By monitoring a beacon frequency for 3 minutes, you can assess actual
propagation from your QTH on that band. Alternatively, you can construct a
beacon schedule to quickly determine what bands are open to a particular
area of the world from your QTH. Syncing your PC's time-of-day clock with an
internet-accessible time service is recommended.
The freeware DXLab Suite's PropView component lets you specify a set of
beacons you wish to monitor and will direct the Commander component to QSY
your transceiver to monitor them. You can select beacons individually, by
band, or by bearing (octant) from your QTH. The PropView component will also
generate graphical propagation forecasts using the VOACAP or ICEPAC engines,
and use the beacon network to calibrate these forecasts. See
<http://www.dxlabsuite.com/propview/>
A list of other tools that can be used to monitor NCDXF/IARU beacons is
provided in
<http://www.ncdxf.org/beacon/beaconprograms.html>
You can also assess propagation by using DXLab's WinWarbler component's
broadband decoder to generate a "stations heard" list for all PSK31
transmissions heard on a particular band:
<http://www.dxlabsuite.com/winwarbler/Heard.jpg>
This approach depends on stations being QRV, which is not always the case
when a band opening is underway.
73,
Dave, AA6YQ
-----Original Message-----
From: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com [mailto:digitalra...@yahoogroups.com]on
Behalf Of Gmail - Kevin, Natalia, Stacey & Rochelle
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 4:05 PM
To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [digitalradio] Throught of a Digital Propagation Tool
Hi All,
Just having a brain spark (not so many now-a-days)
With all the new digital modes being devopled upto this date and the way
some work; I was wondering if there could be some of propagation tool here?
Thought would be some form of automation on spot frequecies on the different
bands that cold record/monitor the propergation between continents.
Of course this would require stations to dedicate their radio to this, but
it could only be when the radio was not in operator use.
I can remember quite a few years ago a ham friend who was a Amtor/Packet
Sysop (using a PK-232) and he mentioned the band switching would allow him
to get a good propagation view. But it was limited as it was setup for
specific remote stations, he was not transferring to Asia or Europe, his hop
was Austrailia and a couple of West Coast stations.
It would require the software to control the scanning and switching of bands
on the radio. Most radios that have scan functions, once switched to TX will
not satrt scanning again.
Thought would be to have the software scan each band at (say) 3 min
intervals within a 30 min period, this would allow for slight differences in
computer clocks. And then TX and monitor for 5 mins, recording any
propergation traffic. Now I might be well off the mark here, just throwing
something into the air for thoughts.
Then the cycle woud start again.
The data could then be uploaded to a central (online) monitoring database.
The software could be configured to ignor certain calls for a band as this
would swamp the reports. (I don't want to know ZL's (or even VK's) are being
heard on 80 or 40mtrs, but I would like to know and report if Europe, Asia
or the Americas are.
Here is how I would see it
mm - Band
00 - 160Mtrs
03 - 80Mtrs
06 - 40Mtrs
09 - 30Mtrs
12 - 20Mtrs
15 - 17Mtrs
18 - 15Mtrs
21 - 13Mtrs
24 - 10Mtrs
27 - 6Mtrs (Most new radios have this now)
And then back to the top of the 30 min cycle again.
I don't know what mode would be the best but I was thinking digital PSK31,
but there could be a better digital mode.
Anyway just some thoughts I had floating around and thought I would put it
out there. I might be totally off the mark, but hey got to put things out
there to think about.
Thanks for Listening.
Kevin, ZL1KFM.
