The Five Star DXers Association are off to Christmas Island (Kiritimati) T32C in late September. If you want to work T32C it will pay to do a little bit of planning. In terms of the propagation to that part of the world there are a few factors we need to take into account.
The first question is “where is it?”. Kiritimati, or Christmas Island, is a Pacific Ocean atoll in the northern Line Islands - it should not be confused with an island of the same name in the Indian Ocean (VK9/X)!
The island lies 144 miles north of the the Equator and 8,400 miles from the UK
This highlights the first propagation problem – Kiritimati lies on a beam heading of about 335 degrees from the UK which puts our signals slap bang through the auroral oval around the north pole. Conversely, the long path heading of 156 degrees (and 16,400 miles) goes through the south auroral oval.
I have written a feature on propagation to T32C from the UK, which will appear in RadCom. I am also giving a talk on the subject at the RSGB Convention in early October.
In the meantime feel free to download a copy of the presentation, complete with notes, to get a feel for how hard (or easy) it is going to be.
Download the presentation in PDF format (1.4Mb)
Thanks Steve, a very usefull and interesting presentation. 73, Bas
ReplyDeleteYes I second that, a very interesting presentation it has certainly wetted my appetite for propogation studies. 73 Alan G3TZA
ReplyDeleteSteve, many thanks for the very interesting talk on T32C. I was up at 5:30 this morning but no luck. So I tried the Grey line at 17:00Z on 21Mhz.
ReplyDeleteThey were there in the static and rain at my QTH then at 17:07 I got them only a true 5/5 but I am in the log. So for me I put your advice into practice and nett result in the log.
73 Glyn GW0ANA
Mini beam at 30 feet 200Watts