[IRCA] 160 meter propagation notes

["Bob Foxworth" <rfoxwor1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As some of you may know there is a major league ham
radio expedition underway from St. Brandon island, northeast of
Mauritius (some atlases show these islands as Cargados
Carajos) in the Indian Ocean.

Their web site www.3b7c.com today shows the following notes
(the web site operators in England get reports back by satphone):

"160 meters SSB at the start of each hour worked reasonably well
(freq is 1821 kHz) until Sept 17/2300z. At this point signals on CW
became so weak, relative to QRN, that SSB ops were impractical.
Many stations in Europe (and later, North America) were audible
calling, but not strong enough for a long enough time to make
a [contact]. Every 5 - 10 minutes a few stations would get 15 to
30 seconds of signal enhancement, just enough to get a call[sign]
and exchange reports. But many times we would hear a call, or
part of a call, and not hear any further response. A few stations
experienced signal enhancements several times but were unable
to copy us well enough to complete the [contact] despite multiple
calls".

On 80 meters they are finding an opening to WCNA in the 1700-1900z
period with different propagation paths noted when comparing the 3500
kc CW range to the 3800 SSB range. The 160 meter SSB signal
was heard in Zone 3 around 1800Z.

Click "latest news" on the website home page. These 160m CX
sound just like what we have on MW with signals bubbling atop
and then fading back out, but that is just on one hop. So the
fade mechanism for these multi-hop paths seems basically
similar.

Interesting.

- Bob


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