Propagation Modes

Ground Waves Line of Sight Transmission Sky waves

Ground Waves
Ground waves more or less follow the contour of earth and can propagate considerable distance, well over the visual horizon. Best known example of ground waves is AM radio. Suffers severe frequency dependent attenuation

Sky Waves (cont.)

Sky Waves
Signal reflected by ionized layer of the atmosphere. Signal can travel number of hops. Ionospheric propagation is responsible for inter continental broadcasting and communication. Long distance radio transmission is carried out on the HF bands (3 to 30MHz). This type of propagation utilizes the fact that the earths ionosphere acts as mirror. The actual phenomena is based on refraction in higher layers in the ionosphere. The radio mirror is produced by ionization of upper atmosphere.

Sky Waves (cont.)

Solar energy causes ionization of the upper atmosphere. The air density is very low and energy from the sun strips away electrons from the outer shells of oxygen and nitrogen molecules. The electrons become ve ions and remaining portion of atoms forms +ve ions. Because the air is so rarified at those altitudes those ions can travel greater distance before the combine to electrically neutral atoms again. As a result the average ionization level remains high in that region.

Sky Waves (cont.)

The ionosphere is divided, for the purpose of radio propagation studies into various layers that have different properties. The real physical situation is this that the layers dont have sharply defined boundaries, but instead fade into each other. Thus the division of layers is somewhat arbitrary. These layers are designated as D, E and F. The layer F is further divided in to F1 and F2.

Sky Waves (cont.)

D layer is the lowest layer (40 to 80 km). It is not as ionized as higher layers. It exist during the warmer months of the year. Because of the greater height of the sun above the horizon and longer daytimes. It disappear directly after the local sunset. It exhibits a large amount of absorption of medium and short waves. Signal below 4 to 6MHz are completely absorbed by the D layer.

Sky Waves (cont.)

The E layer exist from approximately 80 to 120 km above the earth surface. The region is ionized during day time, peaking at mid day. Ionization level drops of sharply in the late afternoon and disappear after local sunset. E layer propagation occurs at 50 to 150MHz.

Sky Waves (cont.)

The F layer of the ionosphere that causes the ion-distance short wave communication. The layer is situated between the 150km to 400 km above the earth surface. During the daytime there are two identifiable and distant sub layers. Named F1 and F2 The F1 is found at approximately 150 km to 250 km above the earth surface. F2 is above F1 and extending it up to 400 km above the earth surface.

Line of Sight Propagation

Line of Sight Propagation

Transmitting and Receiving antennas within the line of sight.
For satellite communication- signals above 30MHz are not reflected by ionosphere. Ground Communication- Antennas with in effective line of sight.

Optical Line of Sight

d= 3.57 (h)1/2

Effective line of Sight

d= 3.57 (Kh)1/2 horizon in kms. K=4/3, d is distance between antenna and

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