Real time HF propegation tool

noway2

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A couple of months ago, at the W4UA meeting they had a presentation on HF. At the time I didn't yet have an HF radio, but the presenter used an HF propegation tool that I thought was impressive: http://www.bandconditions.com/index.htm

The website is rather simple and it shows bar graphs indicating the current, real time, propagation conditions for the different bands. It is designed to automatically refresh in your browser (and with up to date data) every 30 seconds, making it very much real time.

From the instructions page:
This standard is based on a 1 watt transmitter connected via RG-8X coax to a halfwave dipole 25 feet high with the major lobe facing East/West. A band condition that provides a minimum of a 3 hop circuit i.e. 3 reflections, 3 landings and 3 skipzones is assigned a value of 100. This is just a minimum as band openings often provide much better propagation but these conditions are not indicated past the 100 scale. All Scales are adjusted to the individual propagation characterstics of each band. The BQI values are the same across all bands.

USAGE GUIDE

100 = Best for 1 Watt or less QRP, QRPp, QRPe - Band wide open

70 -100 = Reliable SSB QSO's 100 Watts or less - Any ANT

51 - 69 = SSB requires AMP - Best DX for ANTs with main lobes 30 to 60 degrees from horizon

36 - 50 = SSB requires AMP - Best DX for ANTs with main lobes 0 to 30 degrees from horizon

19 - 35 = NVIS type ANTS work best here - Typically single hop circuits - Regional QSO's only

0 - 18 = Groundwave ONLY - typically 25 to 35 miles - Vertical ANTs work best here
 
Harris makes an "adaptive controller" that is used at both the transmitter and receive stations. You input multiple frequencies and it chooses the best one based on the available baud rate.
Pretty cool.
 
I have used this site for about a year and it is quite helpful both for amateur and SWL. It went down a few months back over server issues with the owners provider but he did eventually get it running again. The only real problem I have with the site is mine really and that's that you find yourself seeing 20 meters at 15% and don't bother because it sux but if you take a pass through (or check your SDR) it has some decent signals in it. All in all, an excellent resource.
 
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