Dave wrote:

i have a feeling that what you will find is that the individual charges on
drops, flakes, and dust is too small to be detected by a normal amateur
receiver. However, the electric field that must accompany them is what
generates the corona effects that can be heard. Just think about it, how do
small particles get charged without also generating a larger bulk field?
The effect that charges the particles, be it dry friction from wind on dust,
or freezing and convection in clouds (any cloud, not just those with enough
charge to generate lightning) is not an individual particle effect, it
happens to many, many particles at once which cumulatively create a much
larger electric field than any one of them alone could create. And while
the charge transfer of small drops striking a conductor may not be enough to
stimulate a receiver the corona caused by the accumulated field over the
whole height of the structure can be significant.


Charges can be accumulated on objects so as to produce a corona
breakdown in many ways. I think this is one of our fundamental starting
points and hopefully, was never in question. The separation of charges
can be accomplished by a variety of techniques, not all well-understood.

A moving cloud of charged particles can induce very large charges into a
grounded conductor. A sufficient concentration of charge at pointed
components of the conductor will produce a corona. The corona plainly
radiates "noise" that is detected by our receivers.

There is less certainty about whether an ungrounded conductor (say, an
unattached wire) can be made to produce a corona via electrostatic
induction. As I wrote in an earlier post in this thread, an ungrounded
conductor cannot be charged by an external field, but the distribution
of charges preexisting on the conductor can be affected by the field,
perhaps causing coronal discharges. I recall writing that uneven
discharges of the positive and negative "ends" of the conductor could
even leave the conductor with a net charge.

Your points are good ones, Dave, and worth keeping in mind.

73,

Chuck


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