[Amps] 10dB and propagation

[R.Measures]

On Feb 7, 2005, at 9:01 AM, Colin Lamb wrote:

> Is the HAARP station available for contests?

chortle
>
> Colin, K7FM
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Tope <W4EF at dellroy.com>
> Sent: Feb 7, 2005 8:50 AM
> To: K3BU at aol.com, amps at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [Amps] 10dB and propagation
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <K3BU at aol.com>
>
>> Call me old wife, but we have noticed that after the major contest, 
>> bands
>> seem to be "conditioned" to propagate better for a while, about half 
>> an
> hour
>> after the bedlam stops. I had numerous skeds with OK2RZ on 40m right 
>> after
> the
>> contest and our signals would take a dive after about 1/2 hour. While 
>> at
> other,
>> non-contest times, at the same time we did not see that effect.
>> If you consider really thousands of kWs and high gain antennas during 
>> the
>> contests, in view of now knowing about ionospheric heating (HAARP), I
> would not
>> completely dismiss the effect. There might be even selective "heat 
>> your
> own
>> frequency" effect.
>
> FWIW, here are the HAARP antenna specifications:
>
> http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/ant4.html
>
> Maximum gain is 20dB at 3 MHz increasing to 30dB at
> 10 MHz. The array consists of 180 elements crossed dipole
> elements each with  two 10KW sources (3.6 MW total RF
> power). That corresponds to 3.6 Gigawatts EIRP at 10 MHz
> (equivalent to 36,000 plywood boxes at 3 MHz  and
> 360,000 plywood boxes at 10 MHz).  Elsewhere they
> state that maximum power density achieved in the
> ionosphere is on the order of 3 microwatts/cm^2. That is
> roughly equivalent to 30mW/meter^2 or about 30,000 times
> what I estimated for Rich's plywood box setup. Despite all
> this juice, they state the following:
>
> http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/tech.html
>
> "The intensity of the HF signal in the ionosphere
> is less than 3 microwatts per cm2, tens of thousands
> of times less than the Sun's natural electromagnetic
> radiation reaching the earth and hundreds of times less
> than even the normal random variations in intensity of
> the Sun's natural ultraviolet (UV) energy which creates
> the ionosphere. The small effects that are produced,
> however, can be observed with the sensitive scientific
> instruments installed at the HAARP facility and these
> observations can provide new information about the
> dynamics of plasmas and new insight into the processes
> of solar-terrestrial interactions."
>
> 73 de Mike, W4EF..................................
>
>
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>

Richard L. Measures, AG6K, 805.386.3734.  www.somis.org