The 5MHz Experiment was conceived by the RSGB 5MHz Working Group as a collaborative project that would allow all radio amateurs to participate whether or not they were able to transmit on the channels.  As well as creating information about 5MHz propagation through making contacts on one of the 5MHz channels and sending in their logs to the 5MHz Working Group, individual Amateurs, licensed for 5MHz or not, were also able to participate by monitoring one or more of the three radio beacons on 5.29MHz.  We are now at the stage of the experiment where we have a sufficiently large database of radio contacts and beacon monitoring reports that we can start the process of analysis. 

As we are aiming to produce an analysis of which we can all feel proud, and as the analysis is seen as a complex task, involving a large amount of work and needing a wide range of skills, we see this as a collaborative task in which we need many, with a wide range of skills and expertise, to contribute.

A few years ago a collaborative project of this nature would not have been so easy, but a high-level of adoption of computer and Internet technology by radio amateurs makes it possible to make big strides forward in terms of analysing data from an experiment of this nature.  This technological advance allows the skills, experience and time amongst the radio amateur community to be combined with those prepared to collaborate who are non-radio amateurs, but who have the necessary skills or expertise and who are keen to participate. It was this concept of a collaborative project that encouraged the RSGB 5MHz Working Group to set up the experiment in the way that it did - an experimental technique whereby we would collect a large amount of data, with the idea that this would be analysed later to see what conclusions could be drawn.  Thus, a large data collection activity would be followed by a collaborative analysis task.  This approach is rather different to the more normal scientific method of designing an experiment to validate (or otherwise) a specific hypothesis, however, it is an equally valid method of approach.

Comparison  of Propagation Predictions and Measurements for Mid-Latitude HF NVIS Links at 5 MHz (8-page/588KB PDF)  - Paper presented at the 13th International Ionospheric Effects Symposium (IES2011), May 2011
The work for this paper was carried out in an amateur capacity during the author's personal spare time. The author would like to thank Plextek Ltd for supporting this work and enabling it to be presented to a professional audience. The fact that the paper was able to stand on an international, professional platform is credit to the imagination and motivation of numerous people involved in the 5 MHz Experiment from initiation, development of the beacon hardware and monitoring software to current participation through operation of the beacon transmitters and monitoring stations. The author is particularly grateful to: Peter Martinez (G3PLX) for developing the beacon monitoring software; Andrew Talbot (G4JNT/G8IMR) for building the GB3WES and GB3ORK beacon systems, the exciter for GB3RAL and also for monitoring; Michael Willis (G0MJW) for the final build and running of the GB3RAL beacon; John Linford (G3WGV) and John Grieve (GM0HTH) for hosting and running the GB3WES and GB3ORK beacons respectively; David Aram (G3SET), John Gould (G3WKL), Alan Reeves (G4ZFQ), and John Pumford-Green (GM4SLV) amongst others for monitoring the beacons and making their data available for this analysis. The Radio Society of Great Britain is thanked for coordinating the experimentation at 5 MHz and also for hosting the 5 MHz database.

Individual analysis & support utilities

Whilst this web-site is encouraging participation in a group analysis activity it needs to be pointed out that Individuals are free to access the tables that make up the 5MHz database and undertake their own analyses.  Whilst we are mapping out an analysis approach for the group activity, we don't want to stifle creativity and innovation, hence our desire to allow people to experiment with their own analysis methods.  We would encourage such individual approaches to discuss ideas and share their findings with the analysis group.

To enable individuals to perform their own analysis the data can be viewed and/or downloaded by following the link on http://www.rsgb.org/spectrumforum/hf/data.php.

One of the useful tools, which one of the 5MHz experimenters has kindly made available, is the data visualisation toolset on G4IRX's website.  Nick has been running a real-time beacon monitoring webpage for some while that allows instant comparison of beacon reception across the country along with a copy of the Chilton ionogram and the GOES X-ray Flux data.  This allows instant comparison and the ability to postulate possible effects such as Sporadic-E, NVIS paths, etc.  In addition Nick also provides some useful utilities for work with the 5MHz database tables, which he has running in the background on the website.  This contribution we are sure will be of great help during the initial stages of the more complex analysis planned.

Recent presentations on the 5MHz Experiment

As further background reading the following presentations on the experiment can be downloaded:

A comparison of measurements and propagation simulations for mid-latitude HF NVIS links at 5 MHz during sunspot minima (11-page/922KB PDF)
By Marcus Walden, G0IJZ
Proceedings of the Nordic Shortwave Conference HF 10, 17-19 August 2010. Published by the Nordic Radio Society.

Paper on NVIS propagation and the extraordinary wave mode, with analysis of 5MHz beacon data, presented by Dr Marcus Walden, G0IJZ, at the IET 11th International Conference on Ionospheric Radio Systems and Techniques (IRST 2009) (508kB pdf)

HFC2004 5MHz Forum presentation (102kB pdf, slides only)

5MHz Experiment (906kB pdf, presentation to the Surrey Radio Contact Club, Nov 2004 - slides and notes)

NVIS & the 5MHz Experiment ( 1.5MB pdf, presentation to Crawley & District Radio Society, April 2005, slides only)

HFC2005 5MHz Analysis presentation (2MB pdf file, slides only)   

Click http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html for a free Acrobat Reader if you don't otherwise have an application to display the above pdf files.