With multi-hops through the ionosphere there will be reflections from
the ground between adjacent hops. If there are N hops there will be
N-1 ground reflections.

At each reflection a signal loss is incurred. But the ground is a
variable quantity.

What rule of thumb relating to reflection loss is used by radio
professionals when calculating path loss?

At the back of my mind I have a figure of 5 dB per reflection. Is this
in the right ball park?

Thank you.
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Reg.