What Doesn't Cause Sporadic-E Short Skip

Today, I decided to investigate whether strong thunderstorms tend to cause sporadic-E clouds in the ionosphere above themselves.  So I looked at the storm data for Okaloosa County, Florida and the stored ionograms for Eglin Air Force Base located in that county.

In short, no.  Since 2009, a recorded thunderstorm only has about a 20% chance of being associated with a sporadic-E ionogram.  In looking for short skip, the better way is to look in the morning (local) in June, July or August.

My thanks to the National Climate Data Center, The US Air Force, and Lowell Digisonde for providing the data.

Fooling Yourself with Quantum Mechanics

Here's how to deceive yourself in three easy steps:

1.  Use Newton's gravity equation to calculate the position of a planet.  It works fine, but in its most common form contains the assumption that all the mass of the planet is concentrated at a single point in the center.

2.  Use Schrodinger's equation to calculate the position of an electron.  Still works fine, still contains the same assumption.

3.  Conclude from step two that the electron is a point particle.  Don't notice that the assumption is also the conclusion. 

MMANA-GAL Easter Egg

MMANA-GAL (the basic edition) is free antenna analysis software.  MM is for Makato Mori, the initial author.  Or maybe it's for Method of Moments, how the software works.  GAL is for some German fellows who translated it and brought it to the non-Japanese speaking world.

Some of its best features are hidden under the tabs for Tools, then HF components.  Here is a section to calculate loading coils, LC matching circuits and three different flavors of stub matches.

If you do antenna designs, you should try it.