Einstein called it "ether" and who am I to argue?
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com
"According to the general theory of relativity,
space without ether is unthinkable." Albert Einstein

In most of science, God is unthinkable. But then, God said he won't do
tricks for non-believers. "The fool in his heart says there is no God"

I can't conceive of God being a medium, but perhaps he is all that and much
more. There is no "nothingness" Philosophically. Only degrees of scarcity
of something that we perceive or expect to be there. Space is predominantly
empty of matter but there is some from time to time. Perhaps the stars,
planets and other phenomenon are there to keep the space clean. We don't
fully know what we don't perceive (damn little enough what we DO perceive) .
"Ether" is a supposed medium that facilitates an operational paradigm.

Bottom line is: Not all things must be theoretically proven to be
practically utilized. The fact that a theory is practically utilized in a
given application, does not infer that theory is infallible. For instance,
in the application that at any given instant we are oriented with respect to
the tangent of the Earth's surface. So that for the case that we are
instantaneously at one point on the Earth, it doesn't matter if the Earth is
flat, round, oblong or Spherical, even though it has been proven otherwise.
Likewise, to think that an experiment that uses a particular theory and is
successful will fully prove that theory over another yet to come is foolish.

So, conclusions based on application of far reaching theories should be held
at arms length that we might maintain our objectivity. After all, Einstein
and Newton both died before they could achieve a unified theory of the
universe. Nor do I expect those still living will either. For now, none of
them have been proved infallible.

"FREE SPACE" with respect to antenna theory is what? I thought it was
conceptual place so an antenna with a known potential at it's terminals
could be evaluated without ground effects. Is there truly a difference for
our calculations between outer space and several wavelengths above ground in
reasonably dry air?