As surely as autumn turns to winter in some parts of the world, radio operators are curious about the impact that seasonal changes are going to have on propagation. A recent extended field operation by a group of 17 hams from the West Bengal Radio Club tracked those changes by getting on the air near the Earth’s Tropic of Cancer. This was as much an academic exercise as a radio exercise, as two professors from nearby universities collected data over the 30-hour period to be used in their research.

Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA, the club’s secretary, said that Suman Patra from Jhargram University and Ambika Ghosh from the Heritage Group of Institutions in Kolkata are both studying disaster communications at the Indian Academy of Communication and Disaster Management. The pair hope that analysis of the data will show ways to improve the quality of emergency communication at this challenging time of seasonal change. The Tropic of Cancer was chosen because when it is summer in the northern hemisphere, the sun’s rays are directly overhead. With the approach of winter, the sun is lower in the sky.