Reg Edwards wrote:
Whether you call it Refraction or Reflection hardly matters.

This I don't understand. To me, refraction versus reflection IS the
issue. In optics, Brewster's angle is used. I still don't quite
understand thte PseudoBrewster's Angle...it seems to have a different
definition (at least in the ARRL book).

What matters is that the wave, in effect, is reflected from an
ionospheric layer at at a particular height, roughly according to
optical laws. Trigonometry Rules!



Since the transmitted 'beam' has a very wide angle in the vertical
plane, the energy returns to earth over an even wider range of
distances.

The 'elevation angle' reported by antenna simulation programs is not
very meaningfull. It contains very little useful information, mainly
because the height of a reflecting layer is unknown at the time of
transmission. Neither is the number of hops known to a particular
destination.
----
Reg.



Reg,
Thanks for your answer.

I guess I was trying to get at how much ham radio is propagated into
space. Certainly SOME does.

How does this compare to that amount propagated into space by Broadcast?

My assumption has been that VHF TV, etc is easily passed through the
ionosphere (minimally refracted).