[IRCA] SPORADIC SPACE-SHUTTLE SKIP, ROUND TWO?

[Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>]

Please be alert for a repeat of the extraordinary daytime MW DX opening Glenn Hauser in OK observed in the few hours following the landing of the last space shuttle mission April 20, which brought in night-like reception of stations in the 500-800 mile range from Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota. 

The lower SW tropical bands could also be affected, but be difficult to detect due to the paucity of daytime signals in North America, especially broadcasters. Hams on 160 and 80 meters should certainly try for unusual contacts.

This coincided with the path of passage of the STS thru the ionosphere across North America from Vancouver to Cape Cañaveral, so we theorized that the orbiter had caused some long-lingering ionization (or perhaps more likely, disrupted the normal daytime effect of the D layer absorbing MW signals). 

You may want to have a look at what I heard on April 20, under USA in
http://www.w4uvh.net/dxld1016.txt

We don`t yet know what path Atlantis will take into Florida this time (or even whether it will have to land in CA or NM due to weather in which case the time or even day would be different), but the mission TV schedule if all is nominal according to the NASA website as of May 25 shows in UT for the final day of the mission, Wednesday May 26 starting with orbit number: 
http://www.nasa.gov/tvschedule/pdf/tvsked_revj.pdf

183 ATLANTIS DEORBIT PREPARATIONS BEGIN       07:40
184 PAYLOAD BAY DOOR CLOSING                  09:05
186 ATLANTIS DEORBIT BURN                     11:45
187 MILA C-BAND RADAR ACQUISITION OF ATLANTIS 12:35
187 KSC LANDING                               12:48

Even if ionospheric passage occur at night, the effect could still linger many hours into the daytime. It will certainly be daytime by landing on the above schedule. Once deorbiting is Go, the path into KSC will become evident. Keep an eye on:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

If you are within say, 250-750 miles of the path during the following daytime hours, look for MW DX on normally open frequencies. Should this happen again, it will be strong evidence to confirm my theory. If not, I would dearly like to know what could have caused it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Latest Space Shuttle News 

STS-132 Crew Prepares for Landing
Tue, 25 May 2010 06:47:07 PM UTC-0100

Tuesday the space shuttle crew participated in interviews and prepared for its return to Earth. The first landing opportunity for Atlantis is Wednesday at 8:48 a.m. EDT at Kennedy Space Center.

Wednesday weather forecasts for Kennedy Space Center were generally favorable, though there was a chance of showers within 30 miles of the runway (via gh, DXLD)

Please feel free to repost this to other groups where it may be of interest. And would anyone making some positive observations please report them to me directly, wghauser @ yahoo.com


      

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