Monday, May 4, 2009

Propagation Alert

This from Radio Cuba's resident Ham Radio / SWL expert... 73 Scott

Special Sporadic E layer openings alert !!!


The Earth's transit right trough the debris left by Halley Comet will very likely enhance the possibilities of highly ionized clouds forming at altitudes between 90 and 150 kilometers during late May 5 , the whole day May 6 and part of May 7.
The "cometary dust origin theory of sporadic E clouds" , may see a great chance
of been confirmed, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, where the number of expected visual meteor sightings will be up to 30 an hour during the peak times on May 6, but , I must add that the chances of enhaced ionization at E layer altitudes are much higher than what can be expected from the optical observations, because small size meteors, are much more likely to create ionized patches that may combine blown by the high altitude ionospheric winds and turn into compact highly ionized clouds capable of returning back to Earth radio waves on frequencies as high as the 2 meters of 144 to 148 megaHertz amateur band.

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