Amateur Radio Station OH6BGQTH: Vaasa, Finland63 05 N, 21 35 E This page is dedicated to high-frequency propagation and prediction. If you would like to comment or suggest a link, please address your email to [email protected]. | |
| My Current Projects | |
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> VOACAP Quick Guide. This is a brief, a work in progress, guide to using VOACAP (Point-to-Point High-Frequency Ionospheric Communications Analysis and Prediction Program). Also included is a selection of articles concentrating on some specific issues with VOACAP. > Daily sunrise and sunset calculations for DXCC countries. Also Ionospheric Grayline calculations. | |
| HF Prediction Software | |
| HF radio waves propagate from a transmitter to a receiver via the ionosphere. There is only a handful of free high-quality prediction software available on the web. The NTIA/ITS package includes three prediction programs, VOACAP, ICEPAC and REC533.
> High Frequency Propagation Models (from NTIA/ITS). The home of VOACAP. > HamCAP by Alex Shovkoplyas VE3NEA. This is a free HF propagation prediction tool for Amateur Radio, based on the VOACAP prediction engine. Integrates seamlessly with DX Atlas and IonoProbe.
> MultiProp - Using MultiNEC with VOACAP. See how your particular antenna, or any of several built-in antennas, will perform under varying ionospheric conditions. Results may be shown on area coverage maps, point-to-point 24 hour time plots, or point-to-point "distance along the route" plots. Multiple maps and plots may be created and then played back as an animation. Includes a simplified interface to the VOACAP program that gets you "into" propagation modeling with just a few mouse clicks. > Signal-to-Noise Predictions Using VOACAP. A User's Guide, by George Lane. A definite must for all users of VOACAP. See also: Personal Opinions about the Past, Present and Future of IONCAP (by G Lane), PropMan 2000 (a commercial program incorporating VOACAP features), ACE-HF, WinCAP Wizard 3 | |
| Antennas | |
| Antennas are a most essential part of an HF communication channel. If you wish to be able to understand better how antennas behave, take a look at the following links. The NEC-Win is quite unique in its capability of saving antenna patterns in a format that can be understood by VOACAP.
> Antennas (by L. B. Cebik, W4RNL) > NEC-Win Antenna Software > EZNEC Antenna Software (by W7EL) | |
| Monthly Smoothed & Effective Sunspot Indices | |
| The sunspot index, along with the antenna model, is one of the most important user-defined parameters in HF prediction programs. Therefore it is essential to have access to these indices, preferably daily.
There are different types of sunspot indices such as real-time, daily, monthly and monthly smoothed. For instance, VOACAP, intended for use in long-term HF predictions, assumes the monthly smoothed sunspot number, not, for instance, the real-time sunspot number. For forecasts for a specific day, you may need an effective, real-time sunspot number - and a program known to support such forecasts. > Provisional Monthly and Monthly Smoothed Sunspot Numbers (from SIDC, Belgium) > Sunspot Index Graphics (from SIDC, Belgium) > Predicted Monthly Sunspot Numbers (from National Geophysical Data Center) > IPS Observed and Predicted T Indices See also: Current Ionospheric Conditions (IPS), Effective Sunspot-Number Indices (NWRA) | |
| Solar & Ionospheric Info | |
| Below are some interesting links to services that can help you in keeping in touch with current solar and ionospheric data such as A, K and aurora indices.
> HF Propagation (by NW7US) > European Region Real Time Ionospheric Map (IPS) > Digisonde Data at Troms�, Norway (see: Time Series Plots) > Near-Real-Time MUF Map > Space Weather | |
Copyright � 2004 Jari Perki�m�ki, OH6BG |
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