I hope that you'll all humor some more "newbie" questions. Like many, I monitor
the APRS map to determine the likelihood of enhanced propagation. It doesn't
take long
to figure out that it can be misleading. This morning, most of the Gulf Coast
was covered in "red", along with Central Alabama where I am located. My
receiver told a different story...
Other than W5RCI, in Marks, Mississippi the band was quite. Noisy, but no
signals to speak of.
Then this morning, I got this e-mail from the National Weather Service. I
wonder what type of propagation is their radar seeing? Tropo? Should I get into
the habit of checking their radar looking for these false returns?
73,
Les Rayburn, N1LF
EM63nf
121 Mayfair Park
Maylene, AL 35114
...FALSE ECHOES ON THE RADAR THIS MORNING...
CENTRAL ALABAMA RESIDENTS MAY WANT TO CARRY AN UMBRELLA TODAY...BUT
NO NEED TO GET CONCERNED ABOUT THE MORNING RADAR IMAGERY. AREA
RADARS ARE SUFFERING FROM A PHENOMENON CALLED ANOMALOUS PROPAGATION
OR AP. AP OCCURS FREQUENTLY THIS TIME OF YEAR WHEN AIR WARMS
SIGNIFICANTLY JUST OFF THE SURFACE TRAPPING THE RADAR BEAM...KIND
OF LIKE A MIRROR...REFLECTING THE BEAM BACK DOWN TO THE SURFACE.
IN ESSENCE THE REFLECTIONS SEEN ON RADAR IS THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH
OR AT LEAST FEATURES ON THE SURFACE. THESE FALSE ECHOES SHOULD
QUICKLY DISAPPEAR AS SURFACE TEMPERATURES WARM THIS MORNING. EXPECT
ISOLATED TO SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS TO DEVELOP AFTER 3 PM THIS
AFTERNOON.
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|