I am in agreement with all points that Bob NM7M and I covered in our
previous email posts concerning 160 meter propagation. However I did err
partially by stating that energetic protons are the main source of our
visible aurora. Actually as Bob stated energetic electrons are the prime
source, with energetic protons a secondary source.
The bottom line is that as you can confuse and daze the masses with to
much technical jargon in the form of very
long explanations. Basically most 160 operators just want and need a
precursory explanation and understanding of propagation and many big time
160 DXers have 200-300 countries with little care for 160 propagation.
My main point was to watch for solar flares and attendant polar cap
absorption and polar blackouts as a good indicator of 160 meter high
latitude path absorption. It manifests itself in a 10 mev or higher proton
level as can be seen at the following NOAA website:
http://sec.noaa.gov/rt_plots/pro_3d.html .
73,
Thomas Giella, KN4LF
Plant City, FL
Grid Square- EL88wx
CQ Zone 5
ITU Zone 8
Email: kn4lf@tampabay.rr.com
KN4LF 160 Meter Amateur Radio Resources And More:
http://www.kn4lf.com
Florida Meteorological & Climatic Institute:
http://64.176.157.9/sub/fmci.htm
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