Skip distance

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A skip distance is the distance a radio wave travels, usually including a hop in the ionosphere. A skip distance is a distance on the Earth's surface between the two points where radio waves from a transmitter, refracted downwards by different layers of the ionosphere, fall. It also represents how far a radio wave has travelled per hop on the Earth's surface, for radio waves such as the short wave (SW) radio signals that employ continuous reflections for transmission.^[1]

Propagation Path[]

Radio waves from a particular transmitting antenna do not all get refracted by a particular layer of the ionosphere; some are absorbed, some refracted while a portion escapes to the next layer. At this higher layer, there is a possibility of this radio wave being bent downwards to earth again. This bending happens because each layer of the ionosphere has a refractive index that varies from that of the others.^[2] Because of the differing heights of refraction, or , the radio waves hit the earth surface at different points hence generating the skip distance. Skip distance is greatest during the night when the ionosphere is the highest.

References[]

External links[]

• Principles of Radio Wave Propagation
• Radio Waves and Communications Distance

See also[]

Maximum usable frequency

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