W5LUU's Moon Data for year 2010

IMPORTANT NOTICE: W5LUU has decided not to continue with his task of editing this calendar, so we could not expect a 2011 calendar. After so many years of excellent job we can only give a big thanks to Derwin and whish him all the best.  However, EA6VQ has created his own calendar of weekends and best days for EME on 144 MHz.

MOONDATA UPDATE-2010 AND RELATED COMMENTS By Derwin King, W5LUU

The best EME conditions occur when:

1. The earth-moon distance is at the absolute minimum and
2. The moon is in the coldest sky region along the moon path.

The effect of distance is independent of frequency, but sky temperature decreases with frequency, up to ~1 GHz and then levels out. The EME signal-to-noise ratio, in dB, is degraded, from the minimum, by a factor (DGRD, see below), which varies over hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly time periods. As a guide for the basic weekend EME conditions for 2010 the W5LUU WEEKEND MOONDATA 2010 lists the DGRD, in dB, for 144 and 432 MHz, and other pertinent EME information for each Sunday at 0000 UT. Factors such as local noise, antenna beam width, side lobes, polarization, etc. can also affect the s/n ratio of moon bounce signals. Low sunspot activity in 2010 minimizes disruptive ionosphere disturbances. Good conditions will prevail.

For frequencies below 1296, 2010 will be the best EME year until 2019 or later. Some Good and Excellent days occur on weekends, but more during the week. Days listed below have a 144 MHz DGRD that is a minimum at d, day and h, hour and may last for + or - several hours.

January: 02d/ 2310h (0.18 dB) and 30d/1051h (0.02 dB)
February: 26d/2215h (0.60dB)
March: 19d/1930h, (0.41dB)
April: 22d/1430h, (0.65dB)
May: 19d/1930h (0.68dB)
June: 16d/0233h, (0.5dB)
July: 13d/1034h, (0.25dB)
August: 09d/2056h, (0.13 dB)
Sept.: 06d/0730h, (0.23 dB)
October: 04d/1822h, (0.66dB) and 31d/0003h, (0.75 dB)
November: 27d/0534h, (0.81dB)
December: 24d/1150h, (0.63dB).

Definitions:

• DEC. (deg) : Moon declination in degrees north and south ( - ) of the equator. This is cyclical with an average period of 27.212221 days. The maximum declination during a monthly cycle, plus and minus, ranges from 18.15 up to 28.72 degrees with a period (maximum to minimum and back to maximum) in about 19 years. Last maximum was on 09/15/2006
• RA (hrs) : Right Ascension, in hours, gives the East-West position of the moon against the sky background. Average period of RA cycle is 27.321662 days but it can vary by a day or so due to the earth and moon motion.
• 144 MHz Temp (K) : 144 MHz sky (cosmic) noise in direction of moon expressed as absolute temperature.
• Range Factor (dB) : The additional EME path loss, in dB, due to earth-moon separation distance being greater than absolute minimum (348,030 km surface-to-surface). Varies from a low of (0 to 0 .7 db) at perigee up to 2.33 + 0.1 dB at apogee.
• DGRD (dB): The degradation in EME signal-to-noise, in dB, due to:
  1. The excess sky noise temperature, in dB, at the listed position of the moon compared to the lowest cold sky temperature and the system noise temperature (all at the frequency of interest); plus
  2. The earth?moon range factor, dBr, for the listed time and date.

  The tabulated DGRD is referenced to the lowest possible sky noise temperature along the moon path, for a system noise temperature of 80 K at 144 and 60 K at 432, an antenna beam width of ~150 and to the absolute minimum earth-moon (surface-to-surface) distance. The dBr affects DGRD equally at all frequencies, but sky noise decreases rapidly as frequency increases. During a monthly lunar cycle DGRD can vary by 13 dB on 144 and 8 dB on 432. DGRD varies less with small antennas than with large.

• Moon Phase : Shows new moon (NM) and full moon (FM) along with the number of days (d) or hours (h) before (?) or after (+) these events. At NM sun noise is a problem while at FM the EME conditions (at night) are usually more stable.
• Conditions : Summary of EME conditions as controlled by DGRD at 144 MHz and NM. Conditions may be worse, due to ionospheric disturbance, local noise and polarity, but not better than indicated. In general, 144 MHz DGRD <1.0 dB is considered Excellent, 1.0 to 1.5 is Very Good, 1.5 to 2.5 is Good, 2.5 to 4.0 is Moderate, 4.0 to 5.5 is Poor, and over 5.5 is Very Poor. Within a day of New Moon (NM), high sun noise can make conditions Very Poor regardless of the DGRD.

 W5LUU WEEKEND MOONDATA - 2010 FOR SUNDAYS AT 0000 UTC

Date 2010	Dec. deg.	RA hrs.	144 MHz Temp.K	Range Factor dB	DGRD, dB 144 MHz	DGRD, dB 432 MHz	Moon Phase	CONDITIONS
Jan     03	14.8	9.1	166	0.19	0.2	0.2	FM+2d	EXCELLENT
10	-22.3	15.2	426	1.67	4.1	2.6		Poor
17	-14.3	21.2	336	2.34	4.6	2.9	NM+2d	Poor
24	19.7	2.7	352	1.40	3.8	2.1		Moderate
31	11.8	9.8	183	0.04	0.4	0.1	FM	EXCELLENT
Feb     07	-24.1	15.9	491	1.69	5.3	2.8		Poor
14	-10.9	21.8	323	2.54	4.5	3.1	NM	Poor
21	22.0	5.3	365	1.65	4.0	2.3		Moderate
28	8.6	10.2	188	0.09	0.5	0.2	FM	EXCELLENT
Mar    07	-25.4	16.6	668	1.64	6.5	3.2		Very Poor
14	-7.3	22.3	264	2.28	3.7	2.7	NM-2d	Moderate
21	23.8	4.4	362	1.38	3.9	2.0		Moderate
28	4.9	10.8	201	0.29	0.9	0.5	FM-2d	EXCELLENT
Apr    04	-25.3	17.3	935	1.60	4.8	3.5		Poor
11	-3.6	22.7	244	2.20	3.4	2.5	NM-3d	Moderate
18	24.8	5.9	412	1.20	4.2	3.0		Poor
25	0.7	11.3	216	0.54	1.3	0.7	FM-3d	Very Good
May    02	-25.0	17.8	2210	1.63	11.5	5.5		Very Poor
09	-0.0	23.3	244	2.13	3.3	2.4		Moderate
16	25.1	5.6	494	0.94	4.6	2.1	NM+2d	Poor
23	-3.9	11.9	249	0.72	2.0	1.1		Good
30	-24.7	18.3	2735	1.75	12.3	6.2	FM+2d	Very Poor
Jun     06	3.5	23.6	247	2.10	3.3	2.4		Moderate
13	24.6	6.2	500	0.68	4.4	1.8	NM+1d	Poor
20	-8.5	12.6	306	0.86	2.8	1.4		Moderate
27	-23.0	18.8	1295	1.92	9.4	6.0	FM-1d	Very Poor
July    04	6.8	0.6	259	2.11	3.5	2.5		Moderate
11	23.7	6.8	410	0.49	3.5	1.3	NM	Moderate
18	-12.6	13.5	315	0.86	2.9	1.3		Moderate
25	-21.2	19.6	633	2.08	6.7	2.7	FM-1d	Very Poor
Aug    01	10.2	1.2	275	2.13	3.7	2.5		Moderate
08	22.2	9.4	381	0.42	2.8	1.2	NM-2d	Moderate
15	-16.0	13.9	334	0.77	3.0	1.4		Moderate
22	-18.8	20.1	378	2.19	4.9	2.9	FM-3d	Poor
29	13.4	1.7	290	2.12	3.9	2.6		Moderate
Sept   05	20.1	7.9	267	0.49	1.9	0.9	NM-3d	Good
12	-18.6	14.5	371	0.68	5.3	1.4		Poor
19	-15.8	20.7	337	2.23	4.5	2.9		Poor
26	16.4	2.3	316	2.03	4.1	2.5	FM+3d	Poor
Oct.   03	17.3	7.6	200	0.63	1.2	0.8		Very Good
10	-20.6	15.1	411	0.65	3.6	1.5	NM+3d	Moderate
17	-12.7	21.3	539	2.23	4.5	3.4		Poor
24	19.0	2.8	357	1.86	4.4	2.5	FM+1d	Poor
31	13.7	9.2	166	0.75	0.7	0.8		EXCELLENT
Nov.   07	-22.1	15.6	450	0.75	4.1	1.6	NM-1d	Moderate
14	-9.4	21.6	518	2.20	4.3	3.4		Poor
21	21.1	3.4	364	1.65	4.2	2.3	FM	Poor
28	9.5	9.9	185	0.75	1.1	1.6		Very Good
Dec    05	-23.37	16.3	539	0.78	5.0	2.0	NM	Poor
12	-6.3	22.3	265	2.20	2.6	2.5		Moderate
19	22.7	4.0	560	1.48	4.0	2.7	FM-2d	Moderate
26	5.2	10.2	197	0.61	1.1	0.9		Very Good

 

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