Ham Radio for Space Scientists (Invited Tutorial)

Due to inadvertent interference to commercial and military communications, Amateur Radio operators (hams) were forced to wavelengths of 200 meters and shorter by the Radio Act of 1912. This exile, along with a “we’ll show them” spirit, provided new opportunities for important discoveries and data taking by hams. Initially the sheer number of hams provided wide geographic data coverage. In recent years, data-taking systems have been developed by hams. With the focus of this Workshop being “Ionospheric Effects and Sensing”, this presentation will review the contribution by hams to propagation science and their collaboration with the scientific community on propagation issues. Some of the topics covered will be trans-equatorial propagation, long-delayed echoes (LDEs), MINIMUF propagation predictions, fading tests with the Bureau of Standards, the ARRL-IGY propagation research project, the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN), the Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) and data from DXpeditions.