Topband: "Artificial" Propagation...?

[Bert Barry]

Hi Eddy,

Don't get your hopes up.  For one thing,  aluminum oxide is a very good 
insulator - its conductivity is around 10 to the 14th ohm.cm - although 
it has a high dielectric constant (around 9 to 11, depending on crystal 
orientation).  A  cloud of this could affect radio waves, but I wouldn't 
want to predict the effect.  But more importantly, 100 km is too low to 
provide much help to us Topbanders.  This is far below the E and F 
layers of the ionosphere  that we rely on for DX.

But I imagine astronomers, professional and amateur, will be up in arms 
about this idea.

73,  Bert

On 10/03/2012 12:01 PM, Eddy Swynar wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> An on-line friend recently sent me this timely link re. an upcoming NASA experiment that involves the releasing of an aluminum oxide "cloud" some 60 miles above earth:
>
> http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2012/120308nasa-rockets-spread-ghostly-glow.html?WT.mc_id=120309epilot&WT.mc_sect=gan
>
> I wonder if the conductivity (if any) of this man-made cloud will have any effect upon radio propagation...? (Heaven only knows that the propagation on Topband this season has been far from stellar---"any and all assistance appreciated", Hi).
>
> This could be of great benefit to VHF DX'ers, perhaps, if not us denizens of the nether-regions of the frequency spectrum...
>
> ~73~ de Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ
> _______________________________________________
> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK