TopBand: "Baker, Donn B" <Donn.Baker@UNISYS.com>: Sunspots & Propagation

[km1h @ juno.com]

Some more interesting stuff from the VHF group that may be of interest to
Topbanders. 
The more I get involved with VHF, the more info I find that also pertains
to 160M. I wonder how many others here also are involved in serious VHF
weak signal work?
Do you notice a correlation in some events with 160?

73  Carl   KM1H


--------- Begin forwarded message ----------
From: "Baker, Donn B" <Donn.Baker@UNISYS.com>
To: "'vhf-submissions, W6YX'" <vhf@w6yx.stanford.edu>
Cc: "'W3ZZ, Zimmermann, Gene'" <ezimmerm@erols.com>
Subject: Sunspots & Propagation
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 08:50:31 -0700
Message-ID:
<713DD8A9DF64D0118A7100A02461EE2E97A883@exchang1.rsvl.unisys.com>

Gene,
Good memory... J.H. Nelson did, indeed, run RCA Propagation studies for
many years.  73 Publications printed "The Propagation Wizard's Handbook"
in 1978.  FASCINATING reading.  

Your memory regarding right angles is also good.  90 degree angles seem
to be the "most" effective, but then 180 is the "2nd harmonic" of 90
degrees.  The critical angles all seem to be related to 90 degrees and
the harmonics of 90 degrees; i.e., 45, 67.5, 135, 270, etc.  

The real kicker is which planet is located at which angle... this would
indicate (to me, anyway) that there is a gravitational component to the
sunspots !!  Somewhat surprisingly, Mercury has more influence than, say
Jupiter despite the enormous difference in masses, but even the outer
planets contribute.  

If you're at all interested, you should get a hold of 73 Publications
and see if Wayne still has copies.  It would make for interesting read
sometime when the bands are dead.

I became interested in Nelson's methods while looking at drought in the
(northern) Great Plains.  There is a moderate correlation between the
frequency of drought and the sunspot cycle.  There is a *very good*
correlation between the frequency of drought and every *other* sunspot
minimum.  I was looking to see if the drought could be predicted by
planetary alignment ("The Astrology of Drought").  I never found
anything, but that could easily have been my model.

73  Donn
WA2VOI/0  EN35ja
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--------- End forwarded message ----------

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