On Thu, 07 Apr 2005 22:22:45 -0700, Roy Lewallen wrote:

Oh, no. Somebody's been rifling through the forgotten notes of the late
Larson E. Rapp, rediscovered the formula for Ether Grease, and has been
burning holes in the bands again. Guess it was bound to happen sooner or
later.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Anonymous wrote:
SIGNALS FADING FROM SHORTWAVE BANDS

Mysterious weakening of frequencies puzzles scientists
. . .
Rather than holes in the bands, or loss of reflectivity of the ionosphere, I
believe the high power SW BC stations in A-fricka have totally dehumidified the
ground surrounding their antenna systems. The result is that the ground is
sucking up all the energy rather than reflecting it. Therefore, instead of
getting the inherent 6 dB gain from the ground reflection we're getting at least
a 30 dB loss in signal strength from ground absorption. This condition is bound
to continue until the heavy metal such as mercury suspended in the atmosphere
rains down on the ground around the antenna systems to reinstate the ground
conductivity to its natural state. Only then will the ground cease being
absorptive and again become reflective. With the present state of the
atmosphere it won't take very long for this to happen.

The only other reason for this phenomenon of lower signal levels is the increase
in the inherent D-layer absorption due to the heavy concentration of heavy metal
suspended in both the atmosphere and troposphere. If this trend isn't reversed
soon the suspension will also gravitate to the ionosphere, in which case no sky
wave signals will propagate and we'll be stuck with only ground-wave
propagation. Now wouldn't that be a helova situation?

Walt, W2DU1/2