Vamos, vamos, Argentina!

Last evening, with the kind cooperation of Raul, LU8DPV, WSPR transmissions were sent from a 3-element Yagi in Argentina towards northern Europe. This was to investigate how the signal changes with time.

Conditions were geomagnetically very quiet.  Z component is shown:

Quiet at sub-Arctic latitudes. Image: Tromso Geophysical Laboratory.

This is an extremely interesting path, because it often shows responses to a disturbed geomagnetic field.  It is also a path that includes passage through the South Atlantic Anomaly, where the inner Van Allen belt extends down to only 200km above the surface.

This is what we found last night, noting that transmissions ceased at the time of the last spot (00:32UT):

The strong peak in SNR occurred around 23:00UT.  This is the time of mid-grey line in LU8.  However, because there is 11,300km between us, it is quite a challenge to explain the continued propagation in terms of a direct, great circle path.  There are many ideas, including a run along the grey line initially towards the north, then a deflection to Europe (a non-great circle path).  Or some influence from the South Atlantic anomaly.  Or something else entirely.  

Terminator at peak signal from LU8 last evening.  Image: DX Atlas, with permission.

In future, we will have to do two things: extend the transmissions later into the morning (UT) period, and run during more disturbed conditions.

Gracias, Raul!

Image: Raul, LU8DPV.