Ionospheric Propagation Maps

Submitted by kg7hq on Tue, 01/01/2013 - 13:59

The below maps focus specifically on HF propagation. Understanding that there are additional opportunities in the upper bands as well, I'm providing a couple of links to off-site resources to assist on your propagation queries. These maps are not allowed to be recreated on external websites.

V/UHF Propagation Real Time Maps for 10 Meters(28MHz) and above.

Troposhperic Ducting Forcast for VHF/UHF Radio and TV.

PSKReporter, Display Reception Reports

A feature of the ionosphere is its ability to reflect radio waves. However, only radio waves within a certain frequency range will be reflected and this range varies with a number of factors. The most widely used instrument for ionospheric measurement is the ionosonde. The ionosonde is essentially a high frequency radar which sends short pulses of radio energy into the ionosphere. If the radio frequency is not too high, the pulses are reflected back to earth.

The ionosonde records the time delay between transmission and reception of the pulses. By varying the frequency of the pulses (typically 1-22MHz), a record is obtained of the time delay at different frequencies. This record is referred to as an ionogram.

The highest (see note) frequency which the ionosphere will reflect vertically is called foF2. These foF2 measurements from various sites can be used to create a map of foF2. The data used to produce the map of the USA region are from USAF observing sites and obtained from Space Environment Centre, Boulder Colorado.

The above map can be used as a guide to NVIS ionospheric frequency support and is updated at approximately 40 minutes past the hour.

The geomagnetic field splits a radio wave in the ionosphere into two separate components, termed the ordinary(o) and extraordinary(x) waves. It is the o-wave which is routinely scaled from ionograms.

The data presented in this page are experimental, and are derived from the automated interpretation of regional ionograms.

Current and predicted communications conditions

* Red - high frequencies (HF) are unavailable (>22 MHz)
* Yellow - lowest usable frequency (LUF) and maximum usable frequency (MUF) range is 15-22 MHz
* Green - LUF-MUF range is 8-15 MHz
* Blue - LUF-MUF range is 3-8 MHz

If a communication link is not working at these frequencies, there is a higher probability of malfunctioning equipment and/or jamming as a cause for outage.

Map provided from http://sol.spacenvironment.net/