When you're strange...

The past week has been interesting, challenging and, to some degree, despairing.

Interesting, because I've had a lot of fascinating discussions with the top scientists in the field of atmospheric science. 

Challenging, because this field of endeavour attempts to study a region that is 85km up, inaccessible to all but sounding rockets.

And despairing, because I have really seen the worst of the amateur radio community.   Luckily, I also saw the best.

The discussions were about the potential for PMSE to play some part in 50MHz radio propagation.  Being science, one professor was sure PMSE has no role, whilst another said he "would not be surprised" if they did provide long-distance propagation - providing many reasons why that could be.

None of this, of course, is the same as saying that PMSE do, as a fact, assist DX radio propagation.  Nothing is settled, but there is reason behind wondering about this.  This is a subtlety that escapes some of the 'big gun' 50MHz operators I've had the distinct misfortune to come into contact with this week.

PMSE seen over mid-Wales by 46.5MHz radar.

Some of these 'big guns' behaved very predictably in not responding at all to enquiries about their beam headings during Europe-JA openings at 50MHz.  Sadly, one of them is Welsh.  I suppose their egos are so big that anybody asking a question is a 'weakling' that doesn't know something - unlike them, who know everything.

Indeed, I was rather amused to read the response of one person, who has a vast collection of VHF antennas stuffed into a small area such that he must never have heard of adverse antenna interaction.  I suppose the drive to be the biggest and best is just too much of a draw for some.

This man - I'll spare him the embarrassment of identification - did at least respond.  Some of his response could be taken to be rational.  But much of it wasn't.  Having admitted he had never heard of PMSE before, and that was only "what YOU" call it (?), he then proceeded to very confidently - but very wrongly - decide PMSE was what radio people call "Aurora-Es".

Nope.

And, apparently, only "some researchers" call PMSE, erm, PMSE.  He didn't enlighten me as to what the 'other researchers' call 'it'.  Again, ?

In a second response, my dear correspondent was "sure" he'd "seen a paper somewhere" (haven't they all?) that showed PMSE only occur due to aurora, and that my information to him about how they actually occur - accepted in broad detail by all scientists - was a load of rubbish.

The underlying physics that leads to PMSE is pretty well understood, and aurora has no primary role in their formation.  A very recent study by the South African Antarctic programme showed that aurora (high geomagnetic activity) suppresses PMSE formation.  Not very surprising, given that these energetic events will warm things up, not cool them down.

PMSE plotted on a restricted height scale.  Image: MAARSY.

I never did receive the reference he claimed to have seen, nor any explanation of why someone so involved in 50MHz had never heard of PMSE, regardless of whether or not it is involved in radio propagation.

It was clear that this man simply wanted to dismiss absolutely anything that anyone else had to say as nonsense, regardless of how ignorant he was - and admitted to being - and how self-evidently accomplished, yet at the same time careful in their conclusions the atmospheric scientists and their support staff are.

It really is very sad.  I had a think about what motivates people like this.  In the end, they are idiots who can't accept their very significant limitations but who feel that typing rubbish neatly out on a screen lessens their stupidity. The vast money spent on chasing their dream of being the biggest and best in the 50MHz world makes them omnipotent, apparently.  No need to work for a degree, a Ph.D, and a professorship.  Just stick an antenna up, buy an amplifier and rule the world!  I suppose building up your reality in this way must be very difficult to let go of and, evidently, it is.

And the best side of radio?  The responses from Bas, PE4BAS, about his experiences at 50MHz.  Others were equally lovely, including Jim Bacon, G3YLA -  a professional meteorologist who once graced our TV screens.  And Tim Kirby, GW4VXE.  Nice, open-minded discussions, with questions, critical and supportive back and forth, and some useful data that helps us all - not just me - wonder about PMSE and any role they may have.  A big thanks to all of them.  The others?  Well...

To relax from all this, why not enjoy some classic Echo and the Bunnymen: 'When You're Strange':