Sporadic-E propagation, characterized by the occurrence of temporary enhancements in the density of the E layer of the Earth’s ionosphere, is the subject of two discussions this week as part of HamSCI’s ongoing speaker series regarding scientific topics of relevance to the amateur radio community. Chris Deacon G4IFX and Joe Dzekevich K1YOW will discuss this subject on Thursday, 1 August 2024 at 4PM EDT (2000 UTC) via Zoom. The program is open to all with a question-and-answer session to follow. The link can be found here, or on the hamsci.org/get-involved page (look for the HamSCIENCE telecon link): https://scranton.zoom.us/j/286316405?pwd=QWdwMlFPbDlYeXg5ZDg1dmYzeFdCUT09 Meeting ID: 286 316 405 Passcode: hamsci Deacon’s 2023 thesis, Radio Propagation through Sporadic-E, earned him a PhD from the University of Bath, England. His research included three reception campaigns, in the summers of 2016, 2017 and 2018, where he used a software defined radio to analyze VHF radio signals originating from southern Europe, as received in the UK. Chris was the co-author of a 2021 paper in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, entitled Rapid and Accurate Measurement of Polarization and Fading of Weak VHF Signals Obliquely Reflected From Sporadic-E Layers. Chris will be speaking on his past research and noting outstanding questions about the weird nature of Es propagation. Dzekevich is a retired Reliability Engineering Fellow who has worked for Bell Telephone Labs, Digital Equipment Corporation, Chipcom/3Com and Raytheon. He has always been interested in radio propagation, starting back in 1965 where he subscribed to the CRPL (Central Radio Prediction Lab) Ionospheric Predictions, where one used monthly CRPL prediction maps to chart predicted E-Layer and F-Layer radio paths. He has written for both CQ and QST Magazines on the subject of sporadic E propagation, and he was an invited tutorial speaker at the 2021 HamSCI Workshop, presenting his talk Amateur Radio Observations and The Science of Midlatitude Sporadic E. Joe will be sharing his many years of insights on sporadic E, hopefully inspiring more of us to operate the amateur VHF bands, experiencing sporadic E for ourselves. HamSCI serves as a means for fostering collaboration between professional researchers and amateur radio operators. It assists in developing and maintaining standards and agreements between all people and organizations involved. Its goals are to advance scientific research and understanding through amateur radio activities, encourage the development of new technologies to support this research and provide educational opportunities for the amateur community and the public. For more information about HamSCI, and to join our mailing list, please visit the HamSCI website. For those unable to attend in person, check back on the HamSCI website shortly following the discussion. In other HamSCI news, Rob Robinett, AI6VN, with Paul Elliot, WB6CXC, have been recognized for their fundamental work and influence on radio science by the Software Defined Radio Academy (SRDA) at Ham Radio 2024 in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Elliott is the designer of the WSPRSonde, a simultaneous 8-channel WSPR/FST4w beacon transmitting system (turnislandsystems.com). Robinette is the developer of WSPRDaemon, a robust decoding and reporting system for the WSPR and FST4w digital modes (wsprdaemon.org).
Whenever I see interesting topics on the HamSCI telecon schedule, I become sad looking at the time: 2000 UTC, which is 1.3o am local time! If it had corresponded to the grey line propagation time between US and VU, we could have easily attended from the other side of the globe. Of course, there may not be many who are attending from this side and that is why it is kept at beyond midnight for us regularly!
Over the decades I've noticed a correlation between strong weather fronts in the midwest, many producing tornadic activity, and Es propagation. I understand that correlation is not causation, but there have been numerous observations of this by me over the past 5 decades.
It will be nice if you can correlate your log of Es propagation QSOs with the tornadic activity, something like a chart or so. It will be great Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation at a personal level. 73
The observations were never logged unfortunately. The first time I noted it was around 1980 or so. And maybe a half dozen since then. Not enough to provide a solid data set.
As the Es season is over, please document the next season and post it if possible. You could add the current anecdotal information along with it. Together it will become significant. May be others seeing this post from Mid West could also contribute. Your current information can be hypothesis forming. 73
