NTIA/ITS 13 April ITS HF Propagation Software Greg Hand US Department of Commerce NTIA/ITS

NTIA/ITS 13 April Outline  Models – ICEPAC, VOACAP, REC533  History  Users/Applications  Examples  Free

NTIA/ITS 13 April Disclaimer The software contained within was developed by an agency of the U.S. Government. NTIA/ITS has no objection to the use of this software for any purpose since it is not subject to copyright protection in the U.S.

NTIA/ITS 13 April HF Propagation Models  ICEPAC - I onospheric C ommunications E nhanced P rofile A nalysis & C ircuit prediction program  VOACAP - V oice O f A merica C overage A nalysis P rogram  REC533 - Rec ommendation ITU-R P

NTIA/ITS 13 April ICEPAC  IONCAP – IONospheric Communications Analysis and Prediction program (1983)  ICED - Ionospheric Conductivity and Electron Density profile model -Tascione (1987) sub-auroral trough auroral zone polar cap  Use Kp to model solar storms

NTIA/ITS 13 April VOACAP  VOA adopts IONCAP as model to be used for broadcast station design  NRL - modifies IONCAP into VOACAP  VOACAP released  NTIA/ITS add DOS GUI interface  Windows 3.x 16-bit version  Windows-NT 32-bit version  Present W - Windows-XP/2000/NT/95/98

NTIA/ITS 13 April REC533  Recommendation ITU-R P  First released - July 1993  International HF Coordination

NTIA/ITS 13 April Users of the Software  HF Broadcasters (VOA, BBC, ITU, HFCC)  Military  Defense contractors  Airline communications  HAMs  HF – Sailmail / Airmail  BPL

NTIA/ITS 13 April Other useful links:  Join the VOACAP Mailing List.VOACAP Mailing List User's Guide - Signal-to-Noise Predictions Using VOACAP by George Lane ($65) User's Guide VOACAP Quick Guide - by Jari Perkiomaki (Finland). VOACAP Quick Guide  Space Environment Center for real-time monitoring/forecasting of solar & geophysical events. Space Environment Center  Ionosphere Home Page from the National Geophysical Data Center. Ionosphere Home Page Ionospheric indices information. Ionospheric indices  ITU HF web page contains Rec 705 antenna and other ITU related info. ITU HF web page  The HFCC ( High Frequency Co-ordination Conference ) informally coordinates short wave broadcasting.High Frequency Co-ordination Conference  IBB - International Broadcasting Bureau (VOA, RFE,...) IBB - International Broadcasting Bureau  ARRL - National Association for Amateur Radio – QST. ARRL - National Association for Amateur Radio  NEC Antenna programs (4nec2 by Arie interfaces to ITS HF). NEC Antenna programs

NTIA/ITS 13 April

NTIA/ITS 13 April Other useful links:  Join the VOACAP Mailing List.VOACAP Mailing List User's Guide - Signal-to-Noise Predictions Using VOACAP by George Lane ($65) User's Guide VOACAP Quick Guide - by Jari Perkiomaki (Finland). VOACAP Quick Guide  Space Environment Center for real-time monitoring/forecasting of solar & geophysical events. Space Environment Center  Ionosphere Home Page from the National Geophysical Data Center. Ionosphere Home Page Ionospheric indices information. Ionospheric indices  ITU HF web page contains Rec 705 antenna and other ITU related info. ITU HF web page  The HFCC ( High Frequency Co-ordination Conference ) informally coordinates short wave broadcasting.High Frequency Co-ordination Conference  IBB - International Broadcasting Bureau (VOA, RFE,...) IBB - International Broadcasting Bureau  ARRL - National Association for Amateur Radio – QST. ARRL - National Association for Amateur Radio  NEC Antenna programs (4nec2 by Arie interfaces to ITS HF). NEC Antenna programs

NTIA/ITS 13 April

NTIA/ITS 13 April Other useful links:  Join the VOACAP Mailing List.VOACAP Mailing List User's Guide - Signal-to-Noise Predictions Using VOACAP by George Lane ($65) User's Guide VOACAP Quick Guide - by Jari Perkiomaki (Finland). VOACAP Quick Guide  Space Environment Center for real-time monitoring/forecasting of solar & geophysical events. Space Environment Center  Ionosphere Home Page from the National Geophysical Data Center. Ionosphere Home Page Ionospheric indices information. Ionospheric indices  ITU HF web page contains Rec 705 antenna and other ITU related info. ITU HF web page  The HFCC ( High Frequency Co-ordination Conference ) informally coordinates short wave broadcasting.High Frequency Co-ordination Conference  IBB - International Broadcasting Bureau (VOA, RFE,...) IBB - International Broadcasting Bureau  ARRL - National Association for Amateur Radio – QST. ARRL - National Association for Amateur Radio  NEC Antenna programs (4nec2 by Arie interfaces to ITS HF). NEC Antenna programs

NTIA/ITS 13 April What SunSpot Number indices should be used. NOAA has changed how they put out the Ionospheric indices that are used in the NTIA/ITS HF Propagation Models. This will try to explain what indices to use. The SunSpot Number (SSN) used by these HF prediction programs should be what is called R12 - the Smoothed SunSpot Number.R12 - the Smoothed SunSpot Number NGDC used to have it linked in this table.in this table That was last updated May 15, George Lane says to use: ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/STP/SOLAR_DATA/SUNSPOT_NUMBERS/sunspot.predict for compatibility with VOACAP.ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/STP/SOLAR_DATA/SUNSPOT_NUMBERS/sunspot.predict SEC also maintains SunSpot data with slightly different numbers under Solar Cycle Progression.Solar Cycle Progression For past values, you must use the Recent Solar Indices table.Recent Solar Indices The proper column in this table is Smoothed RI For predicted values, you must use the Predicted Indices table.Predicted Indices The proper column in this table is SunSpot Number Predicted You will notice that the Predicted table is about 6 months behind the current date. That is because it takes that long for the smoothed SunSpot Number to become permanent. I questioned someone at SEC as to what was the difference between SEC's and NGDC's sunspot predictions, and here is his response. here Note: We cannot control the content nor accessibility of the NOAA web pages.

NTIA/ITS 13 April Other useful links:  Join the VOACAP Mailing List.VOACAP Mailing List User's Guide - Signal-to-Noise Predictions Using VOACAP by George Lane ($65) User's Guide VOACAP Quick Guide - by Jari Perkiomaki (Finland). VOACAP Quick Guide  Space Environment Center for real-time monitoring/forecasting of solar & geophysical events. Space Environment Center  Ionosphere Home Page from the National Geophysical Data Center. Ionosphere Home Page Ionospheric indices information. Ionospheric indices  ITU HF web page contains Rec 705 antenna and other ITU related info. ITU HF web page  The HFCC ( High Frequency Co-ordination Conference ) informally coordinates short wave broadcasting.High Frequency Co-ordination Conference  IBB - International Broadcasting Bureau (VOA, RFE,...) IBB - International Broadcasting Bureau  ARRL - National Association for Amateur Radio – QST. ARRL - National Association for Amateur Radio  NEC Antenna programs (4nec2 by Arie interfaces to ITS HF). NEC Antenna programs

NTIA/ITS 13 April Point-to-Point Data Input

NTIA/ITS 13 April Ionospheric Coefficients  CCIR/Oslo  URSI88/Australian  Daily foF2 – interpolated URSI88

NTIA/ITS 13 April ICEPAC - Effective SSN

NTIA/ITS 13 April Point-to-Point Output

NTIA/ITS 13 April Point-to-Point Graph

NTIA/ITS 13 April Point-to-Point by Distance

NTIA/ITS 13 April Point-to-Point by Time

NTIA/ITS 13 April Point-to-Point by Time

NTIA/ITS 13 April Area Coverage Data Input

NTIA/ITS 13 April Area Coverage Map

NTIA/ITS 13 April Combine Multiple Coverages

NTIA/ITS 13 April Overlay Multiple Coverages

NTIA/ITS 13 April Conclusion  Free –  Current funding  Modifications via CRADA  Future?