I've been chatting with a group of friends (we're all regionally close by) on
160 - up around 1963 and 1992). They claim that signals are "down" for the
last
few days, and that the "band is just not very good."
I've been looking at the Kp index for the last few days. The numbers have been
generally low. Ap is consistantly low. Solar flares only impact DAYLIGHT D-
layer absorption, and should not hinder anything at night. So while there've
been a few flares (some at M-class level) over the last few days, I would not
expect 160 meter signals degraded by D-layer influence. I also do not think
that the E-Layer has a lot of ionization by the late hours in darkness (like,
10
PM local time and forward).
So, my theory is that the band is actually rather GOOD right now. I think that
the E-layer is not very dense, and D-layer density is nil. So signals on 160
are making it up to the F-layer and propagating further away than "normal."
Am I right? Is there a lot of long-path DX going on? How are conditions, from
your location?
73 de Tomas, NW7US // AAR0JA
--
: Propagation Editor, CQ/PopComm Magazines - Member, USArmy MARS :
: http://prop.hfradio.org : Brinnon, Washington 122.93W 47.67N :
: A creator of solutions : http://accessnow.com : Perl Rules! :
: 10x56526 - FISTS 7055 - FISTS NW 57 - http://hfradio.org/barsc :
: A.R.Lighthouse Society 144 -- CW, SSB, RTTY, AMTOR, DX-Hunting :
|