HF propagation measurements in central Australia

During 1986-7, years of low solar activity, it was noted that there was frequently a marked azimuthal dependence in the backscattered power over eight azimuths ranging from west through to north. At the time consideration was being given to the provision of a network of radars (since named the Jindalee Operational Radar network, JORN). Since it was considered likely that at least one site would be located well south of the existing radar an experiment was developed to determine whether there was any variation in propagation losses with azimuth over the more southerly paths. The objective of the experiment was to: measure the azimuthal dependence of propagation loss; compare measured field strengths with CCIR field strength predictions, and, determine the Doppler characteristics of the received signals