Excellent thoughts, makes one think...

Warmest regards,
John

"Richard Harrison" wrote in message
...
Chris wrote: "?"

I saw a response noting earth-moon-earth amateur transmissions. The moon
is a large reflector but its spherical shape temds to scatter energy ,
not concentrate it in a beam as a concave shape might.

Another response was:
"The Sun for transmission, and the earth for reception."

The earth is conductive. So it interferes with straight line
transmission of waves from the sun. It casts a shadow. It is conductive,
so the earth does not absoeb all the radio energy it receives form the
sun. It must re-radiate much of the energy it receives, related to its
impedance discontinuity with that of the unabsorbed energy striking it.

A lightning bolt travels an ionized path which is a good conductor and
suffices to radiate static around the globe. Martin A. Ulman in
"Lightning", Dover Books, 1984, says the ionized trail may reach 30,000
degrees K and a length of 14 km (8 miles). That`s a long antenna but may
not be a record even for lightning.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI