The tools provided by this web application enable users to predict available frequencies, signal levels and corresponding reliabilities for High Frequency (HF) circuits for user defined paths and times. Predictions are performed using the ITURHFProp application (A software method for the prediction of the performance of HF circuits in accordance with Recommendation ITU-R P.533-14) provided by the ITU.

Downloads

The ITURHFProp application is available from the ITU's website at the following location; http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-R/study-groups/rsg3/Pages/iono-tropo-spheric.aspx.

The source code for the ITURHFProp application is available on GitHub at https://github.com/ITU-R-Study-Group-3/ITU-R-HF.

Linux users wishing to run the application on their own machine can install iturhfprop from a snap package which may be downloaded from here (91MB file). Install the snap with the following command (the --dangerous argument is required as the package is unsigned);

sudo snap install --dangerous iturhfprop_0.1_amd64.snap

The snap package contains the binary code and the required data files. When running iturhfprop from the snap package, the DataFilePath parameter should be set as;

DataFilePath "/snap/iturhfprop/current/usr/share/iturhfprop/data/"

Documentation

Full details of Proppy's features may be found in the Manual, available on-line or as a .pdf download.

Three prediction modes are supported:

Area

An interactive interface used to predict geographical coverage for a given site at a specified time and frequency.

Point-to-Point

Predicts link performance for a specified path over a 24 hour period in a given month.

Planner

Used to create propagation charts similar to those made available by the ARRL; presenting up to 12 Point-to-Point predictions on a single sheet suitable for printing and keeping by the radio.

Useful References

The following material may be of interest when researching HF Propagation and ITURHFProp;

• ITU BR Indices (2016), Circular of Basic Indices for Ionospheric Propagation, Latest
• ITU-R P.533-14 (2019), Method for the prediction of the performance of HF circuits, Recommendation ITU-R P.533-14
• ITU-R F.240-7 (2006), Signal-to-Interference Protection Ratios for Various Classes of Emission in the Fixed Service Below About 30 MHz, Recommendation ITU-R F.240-7
• ITU-R F.339-8 (2013), Bandwidths, Signal-to-Noise Ratios and Fading Allowances in HF Fixed and Land Mobile Radiocommunication Systems, Recommendation ITU-R F.339-8
• ITU-R P.371-8 (1999), Choice of Indices for Long-Term Ionospheric Predictions, Recommendation ITU-R P.371-8
• ITU-R P.372-14 (2019), Radio Noise, Recommendation ITU-R P.372-14
• ITU-R P.1148-1 (1997), Standardized Procedure for Comparing Predicted and Observed HF Sky-Wave Signal Intensities and the Presentation of Such Comparisons, Recommendation ITU-R P.1148-1
• ITU-R P.1239-3 (2012), ITU-R Reference Ionospheric Characteristics, Recommendation ITU-R P.1239-3
• Lane, G. (1997), Required Signal-to-Interference Ratios for Shortwave Broadcasting, Radio Science, 32(5), pp.2091-2098

Acknowledgements

The SWL page uses information provided by the HFCC at http://www.hfcc.org/data/.

Development of this web application has been made possible with the generous assistance of Chris Behm and George Engelbrecht, creators of the ITURHFPROP application. In addition, Bill Ingram provided valuable assistance on the construction of antenna input files.

I would also like to thank John Stephen Dumadag, REE for help with the NEC antenna modelling.

Antenna models for the HX002H0 and HX002H3 antennas has been generously provided by Rohde & Schwarz.

Jari's site, voacap.com, was a priceless source of inspiration for the main user interface and Jari has also generously extended permission for me to use some of the Type 14 antenna models used by voacap.com.

Translations

I'm grateful for the efforts of the following for their help with translating the site;

• Arabic (ar): Rami Saadeh
• Finnish (fi): Jari Perkiömäki (OH6BG/OG6G)
• French (fr): updates from Larry (F6FVY)
• German (de): Heribert Lennertz (7Z1HL / DL8KAY)
• Italian (it): Marco Colombo (IU2DXF)
• Spanish (es): Javier Albinarrate (LU8AJA)

Shortwave Schedules

The shortwave schedules on the SWL page are based on information provided by the HFCC at http://www.hfcc.org/data/.

Open Source Tools

This site uses uses a number of open source tools for which I'm very grateful to the following;

• Flask
• Bootstrap 4
• DataTables table plug-in for jQuery
• Font Awesome by Dave Gandy http://fontawesome.io
• The Matplotlib plotting library
• The Plotly javascript plotting library
• Tempus Dominus Bootstrap 4 Datetime Picker https://github.com/tempusdominus/bootstrap-4
• Bootstrap Switch
• Rossen Georgiev's nite-overlay
• Hamid FzM's Minifyer for Flask
• Goutham Balaraman's Flask-Blogging extension
• JustGage for the gauges used on the space weather page.