24 May Propagation ready reference

Last Updated on July 22, 2023

Here’s a Propagation Ready Reference card you can download, print, laminate and stick on the shack wall.

Amateur radio Propagation Ready Reference

The table shows distance workable and activity level by time of day and frequency. It is approximate and seasonal.

For example, good summer conditions can bring 10 m, 6 m, 2 m and 70 cm alive, with much more than local coverage possible. Whereas winter’s relative absence of static makes bands like 160, 80 and 40 m more usable. Day/night variations are much less on the VHF and UHF bands. However, they still exist. For instance, the higher chance of sporadic-E on 50 MHz during the late morning to afternoon, or tropospheric ducting on 144 and 432 MHz for longer distances around dawn and dusk.

This table originally appeared in AR Magazine May June 2019 and you can download a PDF.

And for those who have stumbled across this post looking for plant propagation, this is radio propagation. Radio signals can travel over vast distances. However, radio signals are affected by the medium in which they travel and this can affect the radio propagation or RF propagation and the distances over which the signals can propagate. Some radio signals can travel or propagate around the globe, whereas other radio signals may only propagate over much shorter distances.

Radio propagation or the way in which radio signals travel can be an interesting topic to study. RF propagation is a particularly important topic for any radio communications system. The radio propagation will depend on many factors, and the choice of the radio frequency will determine many aspects of radio propagation for the radio communications system. There are many factors that affect the way in which radio signals or radio waves propagate. These are determined by the medium through which the radio waves travel and the various objects that may appear in the path. The properties of the path by which the radio signals will propagate govern the level and quality of the received signal.