A Strange Plan To "Enhance" The Ionosphere

[Schroedingers Cat]

If a nation has abandoned AM and SW, perhaps this isn't a big deal. Seems kind of risky for a nation like the US that still heavily uses AM BC. Potentially, it could create strong and unpredictable skywave interference.

The strangest thing about it is that they act like this ionospheric reflection is something new.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...al-plan-bomb-sky-improve-radio-reception.html

 

[Ai4i]

I have fantasized about having large reflectors hovering over or between cities which would passively reflect all VHF and above signals.
More recently, my thoughts have shifted to mounting active repeaters onto steerable, maneuverable, high altitude balloons.
Of course, Stratovision was waaaay ahead of me, but today we all can enjoy both satellite TV and satellite radio.
AIR is gearing up to launch an all-digital domestic shortwave radio service soon (I like the idea).

 

[rbrucecarter5]

One of the stranger things I have heard is how people in valleys sometimes band together, get the necessary permits, and put passive reflectors on top of a nearby mountain to get TV and FM in the valley. All you have to do is put two antennas on a tower on top of the mountain, one aimed at the stations, the other aimed into the valley. Connect them together and you have TV and FM where you previously had none. A colleague described this to me - he grew up in a such an area. In theory, I suppose, it would work.

 

[crainbebo]

Enhancing the ionosphere? Sounds good to me. Especially if it involves a certain region known as the E-layer. We will all take man-made sporadic E!

 

[davideduardo]

One of the stranger things I have heard is how people in valleys sometimes band together, get the necessary permits, and put passive reflectors on top of a nearby mountain to get TV and FM in the valley. All you have to do is put two antennas on a tower on top of the mountain, one aimed at the stations, the other aimed into the valley. Connect them together and you have TV and FM where you previously had none. A colleague described this to me - he grew up in a such an area. In theory, I suppose, it would work.

Nothing strange or unusual here.

It worked all over the mountain west as well as areas of Appalachia before cable and before even small towns got FM stations galore.

As technology goes, it is "old" by today's standards and very tried and proven.

If the system rebroadcast on the same frequency or channel, it was a booster. If it rebroadcast on a different channel, it was a translator.

In much of Latin America, such systems were used to build national networks in some countries, ranging from El Salvador to Peru and Ecuador. The home station would either be very high, or would have a repeater near the hometown on a high spot. Other cities would use hilltop or mountaintop sites and pick up the originating station and rebroadcast it with fairly high power to the local area. In some cases, multiple hops were used.

 

[gr8oldies]

It sounds like one of the schemes to fix "global warming/climate change" or whatever it is thus week. "It's 10 degrees cooler in the midwest, but....wait....it snowed in the Bahamas?"