PDF《www.voacap.com/planner.html》

www.

voacap.com/planner.html VOACAP Propagation Planner Planning Tool for Contesters and DXers Jari Perki?m?ki OH6BG

21 October

2012 VOACAP Propagation Planner Page

1 Preface Preparing and planning for any worldwide contest or DX expedition (or hunting a DX) require a thorough analysis of propagation predictions. The propagation predictions help you, so to speak, get a good grasp of the playing field, i.e. where to play and when. The predictions tell you when and on what bands the best openings are in the given direction at a suitable signal strength, so that the QSO rates can be maintained at their best;

at what times it'

s good to use those valuable long-path openings, and when to focus on working those hard-to-reach areas while the band opens elsewhere at the same time. For these specific purposes I developed a new service on my Web site ― VOACAP Propagation Planner. It provides VOACAP propagation predictions as numeric data, which can then be entered into an Excel template giving you zone-specific summaries and thus helping to create your own contest or DX operation plan. It all boils down to making optimum use of the openings ― being in the right place at the right time. So, the better predictions you have, the better basis for operating planning. Nevertheless, we must remember that predictions are just that ― predictions, not exact science. And, due to the nature of VOACAP, you must visualize low-band openings with the help of grayline map software such as DX Atlas by Alex VE3NEA or GeoClock by Joe Ahlgren. VOACAP predictions are of less help there. VOACAP Propagation Planner is in two parts: 1) a Web site ( www.voacap.com/planner.html ) that offers VOACAP predictions as numeric data, and 2) Windows and Mac software called PropPlanner (together with a user'

s manual plus an Excel template) that helps you work on the VOACAP prediction data on your own computer and make it more usable. VOACAP Propagation Planner Page

2 Step 1. Creating a numeric VOACAP prediction online To begin, we will start by creating a numeric VOACAP prediction online at www.voacap.com/planner.html. This will provide us with the raw material which we will then process into a working propagation prediction with the help of PropPlanner and Excel. Image 1. The home page of VOACAP Propagation Planner at www.voacap.com/planner.html The user interface is divided into four sections: Date, TX Site Settings, Ionospheric Parameters and DX Site Settings. Let'

s take a closer look at the parameters: In the Date section you will choose the year and month for your prediction. At the moment, the years available are 2012,

2013 and 2014. The list will be regularly updated. The two parameters will be used to select the correct Smoothed Sunspot Number (SSN) for VOACAP calculations. In the TX Site Settings section you will enter the coordinates of the Transmitter (TX), the antennas to be used for predictions, the transmitting power and the transmitting mode. VOACAP Propagation Planner Page

3 The transmitter'

s coordinates can be entered in three alternative ways: 1. Choose the appropriate location (QTH) from the QTH pop-up menu. This menu offers a wide selection of pre-defined DXCC countries and more (currently

480 locations). 2. Type a Maidenhead grid locator into the Name field and press the Loc calc button. The corresponding coordinates will be calculated for you and entered into the Latitude and Longitude fields. 3. Enter the Latitude and Longitude coordinates manually in their fields in decimal format. To find the correct coordinates, you can use my Google Maps based QTH Locator as an aid. Then you will need to enter the transmitting antenna details for all bands from