Topband: aurora

[Robert Brown]

Bob,

Sad to say, a small shift in QRG within the band will not help get you
through.  The absorption depends on the QRG and the electron-neutral
collision frequency in the absorbing region and that spread is far greater
than the difference in operating frequencies that you are talking about.

So the best you can do is log the magnetic activity, stay on top of the
current trends and try to avoid times of magnetic/auroral activity.  But
there is still hope at the ionization is not distributed as densely as the
NASA maps show.  That sort of thing is a statistical distribution and has
to be continuous in a mathematical sense.  If you look at aurora, you see
the gaps in the striated, rayed forms during the more active periods.  So
RF can sneak through, "uber, unter oder zwischen" as they say in German.
Failing that, you will fall prey to both absorption and transverse
skewing.  So you pays your money and takes your chances.  But if you can
hear them, go for it!

73,

Bob, NM7M



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