Static?
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- Pro Met
- Posts: 830
- Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2010 7:45 pm
- Location: Atlanta, Georgia
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For the past week I've noticed that the radios, and some TVs have been very "staticy" and others agreed with me, but theres nothing in the news about a solar flare or anything like that, has anyone else noticed this?
According to NOAA, the sun has been rather quiet.
http://www.n3kl.org/sun/noaa.html
However, sometimes a strong inversion can wreck havoc on radio signals. Not sure if that's the case here..
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Radio_propagation
http://www.n3kl.org/sun/noaa.html
However, sometimes a strong inversion can wreck havoc on radio signals. Not sure if that's the case here..
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Radio_propagation
- wxman57
- Global Moderator
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- Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:34 am
- Location: Southwest Houston (Westbury)
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The reason is what's called "tropospheric ducting". Radio signals travel in the lower 25,000 ft of the troposphere, where certain weather conditions can affect how far they propagate. "The observable characteristics of such high-pressure systems are usually clear, cloudless days with little or no wind. At sunset the upper air cools, as does the surface temperature, but at different rates. This produces a boundary or temperature gradient, which allows an inversion level to form – a similar effect occurs at sunrise. The inversion is capable of allowing VHF and UHF signal propagation well beyond the normal radio horizon distance." This means that distant radio stations can be heard as being stronger than local stations. Read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_propagation
And there's a good website which forecasts where such ducting will take place here:
http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_car.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_propagation
And there's a good website which forecasts where such ducting will take place here:
http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_car.html
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