Saturday, May 26, 2012

KD8BIG; Storm Chaser

I was going to work DX today but I ended up wiring up my Ford Expedition to install a couple of rigs & other electronics.
Hi-Q-6/160 RT/MC-3-H antenna was also ordered.
Thinking of making it a Storm Chase Vehicle.
Stay tune for pictures and more info. 

Digifest 2012

This is a friendly reminder to those who love exotic digital modes and/or still don’t have nice RigExpert Antenna Analyzer :-).
The Annual Digifest will be held as usual on the 1st  full weekend of June (2012 dates are June 2nd  and 3rd ).
This is going to be Digifest’s 5th year and its popularity is growing with last year’s received LOGs number of more than 200.
Peculiarity of this Contest is the great variety of different categories of the participants in 5 digital modes: RTTY 75, BPSK 63, MFSK 16, HELLSCHREIBER, OLIVIA
and the most fair points calculation based on the distance between the stations.
The Contest consists of 3 convenient periods (8 hours each) during the weekend.
To add more adrenalin into this competition a special feature will be offered to those who like competing in real time – online results will be presented on a server.
And, of course, a lot of real nice prizes, mostly RigExpert AA-230 and AA-30 Antenna Analyzers and RigExpert USB Interfaces. All prizes sponsored by RigExpert Ukraine Ltd.
Since the number of the participants is relatively small and the most populated competing area is Europe, the “far away” stations from NA, SA, Africa, Asia and Australia are at great advantage.
From the last years’ experience those stations were the most prize winners. Considering this and also to support growing participation from Europe,
the sponsors “double” the prizes – i.e. separate main prizes are now available both for Europe and for the “rest of the World”.
But wait, that’s not all! For those of you who won’t be able to win “main prize” in respected category, there will be a lot of  small gifts, like T-shirts and paper awards.
All the prizes will be mailed to participants’ home addresses.
The results are usually available just 2 weeks after the end of the Contest,
So, lets just meet on the 1st weekend of  June and have fun!
Complete rules can be found at http://www.mixw.net/misc/DigiFest/index.html
and  http://www.rigexpert.com/index?s=main&f=digifest end http://ut7fp.kiev.ua

My Stamp Collecting Blog

Counter Added January 1, 2011

free counters

HOW TO READ PROPAGATION NUMBERS

The A index [ LOW is GOOD ]

  • 1 to 6 is BEST
  • 7 to 9 is OK
  • 11 or more is BAD

Represents the overall geomagnetic condition of the ionosphere ("Ap" if averaged from the Kp-Index) (an average of the eight 3-hour K-Indices) ('A' referring to amplitude) over a given 24 hour period, ranging (linearly) typically from 1-100 but theoretically up to 400.

A lower A-Index generally suggests better propagation on the 10, 12, 15, 17, & 20 Meter Bands; a low & steady Ap-Index generally suggest good propagation on the 30, 40, 60, 80, & 160 Meter Bands.

SFI index [ HIGH is GOOD ]

  • 70 NOT GOOD
  • 80 GOOD
  • 90 BETTER
  • 100+ BEST

The measure of total radio emissions from the sun at 10.7cm (2800 MHz), on a scale of 60 (no sunspots) to 300, generally corresponding to the sunspot level, but being too low in energy to cause ionization, not related to the ionization level of the Ionosphere.

Higher Solar Flux generally suggests better propagation on the 10, 12, 15, 17, & 20 Meter Bands; Solar Flux rarely affects the 30, 40, 60, 80, & 160 Meter Bands.

K index [ LOW is GOOD ]

  • 0 or 1 is BEST
  • 2 is OK
  • 3 or more is BAD
  • 5 is VERY VERY BAD

The overall geomagnetic condition of the ionosphere ("Kp" if averaged over the planet) over the past 3 hours, measured by 13 magnetometers between 46 & 63 degrees of latitude, and ranging quasi-logarithmically from 0-9. Designed to detect solar particle radiation by its magnetic effect. A higher K-index generally means worse HF conditions.

A lower K-Index generally suggests better propagation on the 10, 12, 15, 17, & 20 Meter Bands; a low & steady Kp-Index generally suggest good propagation on the 30, 40, 60, 80, & 160 Meter Bands.

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