Hi everyone --
As some of you know, a special data collection project to help study
160m propagation was prepared for the 3Y0X trip.
The 160m propagation project team has now modified this tool for
your use during the Kerguelen DXpedition.
Please read through the following material, register your station at
the website www.dxmap.com, and submit reception reports during the
Kerguelen 160m operation.
Please help get the word out, so that an adequate number of reports
are entered into the database.
Thanks for your assistance!
73,
-- Eric K3NA
-- Brian N9ADG
-- Alex VE3NEA
-- Walt W5ALT
====================
1 3Y0X 160m Propagation Project
This project intends to:
· Improve understanding of 160m DX propagation.
· Provide more information to DXers attempting to work major DXpeditions
about current 160m conditions.
Participants use a website (www.dxmap.com) to report, as frequently as
desired, the strength of 160m signals and the best antenna for
reception. The date/time of any claimed QSO may also be reported.
The website stores these reports in a permanent database. Real-time maps
and animated map sequences, updated automatically by the website, show
graylines and all current reports.
The database, together with the expedition's 160m log and audio
archives, will be used for more detailed analysis of openings after the
Dxpedition. We expect to present the results both in technical
publications and in presentations at appropriate conferences and hamfests.
2 Project background
Rodrigues Island 3B9C
During the Five Star DX Association’s Rodrigues Island 3B9C DXpedition
in 2004 March, Mike Devereaux G3SED, Don Field G3XTT and Eric Scace K3NA
experienced many unusual 160m openings to North America. Some of these
openings were recorded. After the expedition, Eric K3NA examined some of
these North American openings in more detail. His analysis, first
presented at the 160m dinner during the Dayton Hamvention in 2004 April,
included animated sequences of maps showing the grayline (sunset and
astronomical) and locations of stations worked on a minute-by-minute
basis. Among the phenomenae illustrated were:
· Clusters of small geographic area (“hot spots’) within which many
consecutive QSOs were made.
· Alignment of multiple hot spots in narrow ranges of great circle
bearing from Rodrigues, sometimes with separations suggesting E-layer hops.
· Isolated contacts in locations unlikely to be served by conventional
great circle routes, implying skewed propagation.
· Audio recordings indicative of strong ducting in the E-F trough.
Anecdotal reports from North American 160m operators included
descriptions of nights when relatively short periods of very strong
signals occurred. These enhancements did not necessarily occur at the
operator’s local sunset terminator.
However, it was realized that many unusual propagation events may have
gone unrecorded because (a) no stations in that location were attempting
to work 3B9C (especially later in the course of the month-long
expedition); (b) no systematic effort was made by operators to log the
strength of received signals from 3B9C. The lack of data also meant that
intriguing hypotheses for unusual propagation could only remain speculative.
Subsequent conversations between 160m operators at Dayton, HamCOM
(Arlington TX) and W9DXCC (Chicago) during the summer of 2004 suggested
that a better picture of 160m propagation to a major DXpedition could be
developed if regular reception reports were collected.
Peter 1st Island 3Y0X
The planned 2005 DXpedition to Peter 1st Island included many
experienced 160m operators and a serious full-time effort on the band
was expected. As one of the 3Y0X operators, Eric K3NA asked for
assistance to create a website supporting a detailed study of 160m
propagation during the expedition. The following key contributors
stepped forward:
· Alex Shovkoplyas VE3NEA, author of the DXAtlas mapping software. Alex
developed specialized implementations used to generate the maps on the
website.
· Brian Moran N9ADG, who created the website software and database.
· Walt Fair W5ALT, whose company ComPort Computing provides and supports
the server.
Kerguelen
Although 3Y0X did not make it on the air, the website is ready to
collect data on 160m operations for other DXpeditions. The Kerguelen
operation begins shortly (we hope!).
3 How to participate
Any 160m operator, including medium-wave SWL DXers, is encouraged to
participate in the project. Sophisticated antennas are not required! The
project contains two main parts:
· Web site for reporting reception of 3Y0X signals throughout the
DXpedition.
· Request for audio recordings of 3Y0X signals.
Let’s discuss the audio recordings first.
3.1 Audio recordings of 3Y0X
If possible, please record your reception of the expedition's 160m
signals whenever the band is open! We anticipate that some insights to
160 m propagation may be revealed by comparing simultaneous recordings
made at various points around the world.
After the end of the DXpedition, please mail a CD or DVD with your
recordings to:
Eric Scace K3NA
13 Harvard St #3
Charlestown MA 02129 USA
Please use either WAV or MPEG3 format on the CD/DVD.
You do not need to submit audio recordings in order to participate in
the web site reception report program.
3.2 Website Registration
First, register your participation on the website http://www.dxmap.com.
The registration web pages ask for information about you and your station:
Bring up the home page www.dxmap.com, and click on "Kerguelen!" on the
upper left. On the next screen, click on "Click here to Register".
Registration
· A registration callsign and password. If you are a SWL operator with
no callsign, enter your name or some other unique identifier in the
callsign field. The use of a call/password logon is intended to help
reduce erroneous data entry.
Station location and contact information
· Your station’s latitude and longitude. Please provide a precise
location so that your reports can be properly located on the maps.
· Your email address, so that we may contact you later if necessary to
clarify any reports.
Antenna information
The last part of station registration is the description of 160m
antennas that you use for receiving or transceiving. Give each antenna a
short name in the NAME field; this will be used to identify the antenna
in reports.
Your station may have just one antenna for 160m. That’s OK! Please
enter a description of that antenna.
If your station has multiple antennas, or antennas with switachable
patterns, please follow these guidelines when completing the antenna
information form.
· For omnidirectional antennas such as a vertical or dipole , leave the
DIRECTIONAL checkbox empty. You should add a short technical
description; e.g., “Gladiator vertical” or “dipole at 25 meters”.
· For antenna systems with switchable patterns, such as 4-square arrays,
please enter each pattern as a separate antenna. For example, a 4-square
with patterns of NE, SE, SW and NW would be described as four antennas:
“NE 4-sq”, “SE 4-sq”, “SW 4-sq” and “NW 4-sq”. Use the heading fields to
describe the range of azimuths over which, compared to the other
patterns, you believe each pattern hears best. For example, enter a
start heading for 350° and end heading of 80° if you think the NE
pattern of the 4-square hears better than the NW or SE patterns in this
azimuth range. Remember to check the DIRECTIONAL and FIXED boxes.
· Beverage receiving antennas should be individually entered in a
similar way to the 4-square example above. Describe the azimuth range
over which you think each beverage hears best, compared to other similar
antennas at your station.
· For rotatable antennas, such as a rotatable receiving loop with sharp
nulls or a 160m Yagi (!), check the DIRECTIONAL box but uncheck the
FIXED box. When submitting a report with this antenna, you will be able
to enter a heading for the report.
If you make a mistake, just use the DELETE button to remove the
erroneous description and enter a new description.
When finished, click BACK TO MAIN PAGE. You may update your antenna
description at any time.
3.3 Viewing maps & submitting reports
Enter your callsign (or other user name) and password to enter the
website’s reporting facility.
You will see buttons below the map. Make sure the left fields say
"Reported station - FT2005_X" for the Kerguelen operation. If it does
not, click the button "Change station to FT2005_X".
In the lower right corner you may choose a map projection. You MUST
click the "Change Map View" button to put your new choice into effect.
The choices are:
US: shows most of North American. Reception reports during the last
10 minutes are displayed on the map, along with the current gray line.
The size of the circle indicates relative signal strength over local
noise. The maps updates every minute.
US-A: a 10-minute animation, with reception reports added at the
appropriate times and a moving gray line. Reception reports persist for
about 10 minutes on the animated maps. You need some bandwidth to keep
up with the updates (a new set of maps once per minute).
EU, JA, VKZL, World, and Asia: Non-animated maps like the US map
just described. The world map is centered on Kerguelen.
EU-A, JA-A, VKZL-A, World-A and Asia-A: Animated maps.
More details on all the maps are described below.
On the left side of the screen you may enter signal reports as often as
you wish. For each report:
· Choose the antenna which currently provides the best signal. If you
have a choice of directional antennas or patterns, we can use this
information to detect skew path conditions.
· If you can not hear the DXpedition right now, that’s important
information! Uncheck the box "Check if station audible" and click the
REPORT button.
· If you can hear the DXpedition, then submit a signal strength report.
Very important: Enter the signal strength as S-units above the current
local noise level on the antenna you have selected for this report. For
example, if the local noise level is S-4 right now, and the DX is S-6,
you would report 2 S-UNITS ABOVE NOISE.
· Click the CHECK IF FIRST TIME HEARD box if you have been listening for
a while with no signals heard, and just now the DXpedition’s signal has
become audible.
· Note: We plan to add a JUST WORKED HIM! check box for you to mark at
the time you successfully complete a QSO.
When you have submitted your report, a THANK YOU message will appear
with a summary of the report. After a moment, the thank you message
disappears and a new, empty report form appears. You will see your
report soon on the appropriate maps.
Your recent reports, along with those from other stations are summarized
in the bottom left corner.
3.4 Explanation of map features
Animated and non-animated maps
The website provides two families of maps. Animated maps display a
10-minute sequence, ending at the current minute, which loops repeatedly
on your screen. The animation requires loading a Java applet into your
computer. The sequence updates automatically every few minutes. You may
click the REFRESH button to update the sequence at any time. To magnify
a region of the map, click the ZOOM button, place your mouse pointer at
the center of the area to be zoomed, and left-click.
The other family of maps display just a single map showing all the
report in the previous GMT minute. About once a minute this map updates
itself automatically.
The world map shows an equi-distant azimuthal (great circle) chart
centered on the DXpedition. The other choices provide close-ups of
specific regions where we anticipate a higher density of reports.
Every map includes a time-stamp in the upper left corner, indicating the
GMT date and time when the map was created. The gray lines are correct
for the indicated time. Signal reports may lag the indicated time by 1-2
minutes due to various delays in storing and processing reports. For
example, your report submitted at 10:43:50z may first appear on a map
generated at 10:44:20z or perhaps 10:45:20z.
Gray lines
Each map shows the sunlight and dark sectors of the earth. Within
the dark sector, the twilight region is bounded by the point of
sunrise/sunset on the surface of the earth on one side, and the point of
astronomical sunrise/sunset on the other side. Astronomical
sunrise/sunset is located 18° behind sunrise/sunset on the surface, and
corresponds to the point where the sun no longer illuminates the
atmosphere; i.e., all ionospheric layers are in darkness.
Reports
Each map displays signal reports as a dot or circle. Larger circles
correspond to stronger signals, compared to local noise.
The color of the dot has this meaning:
· Green dot: this report was made during the GMT minute indicated by the
time-stamp. Your report made at 0343z will appear green on a map with
the 0343z time-stamp.
· Blue dot: this report was made during the 9 minutes preceding the
time-stamp.
Each map includes reports for the 10-minute period ending at the
time-stamped moment. If a station submits multiple reports during the
10-minute window, only the most recent report is displayed.
Note 1: We intend to add a “+” mark at locations which report that
the DXpedition can not be heard.
Note 2: We intend to add a distinct color to indicate stations which
just worked 3Y0X, or worked 3Y0X within the last 9-minutes.
Note 3: If time permits, we will use pie-shaped wedges to indicate
the range of azimuths for the antenna used in the report.
3.5 Bugs
Please report problems to Brian N9ADG via brianmo at yahoo dot com.
— END —
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