The Fast Track to Understanding Ham Radio Propagation

Award-winning ham radio author Michael Burnette, AF7KB, takes you on a journey through every form of radio wave propagation, from ground waves to propagation in outer space. If you've thought "propagation is a lot like the weather -- you can talk about it, but there's nothing you can do about it" -- think again! For each form of propagation, you'll learn the best ham radio practices to increase your chances of "making the hop", whether that's across town or across the globe. * Ground Wave Propagation * Earth-Ionosphere Waveguide Propagation * Line-of-sight Propagation (It's almost never line of sight!) * Terrestrial ScatterPropagation * The Fresnel Zone * Knife Edge Diffraction * Tropospheric Scatter * Tropospheric Ducting * Tropospheric Bending * "Normal" Troposhperic Ducting * Elevated Tropospheric Ducting * Other Forms of Tropospheric Propagation * Ionosphere Basics * The Anatomy of The Ionosphere * How the Ionosphere Bends our Signals * Ionospheric Absorption * What Frequency Should I Choose? * Space Weather and the Ionosphere * Sunspots and Sunspot Numbers * The Solar Flux Index * Solar Flares and Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances * Coronal Mass Ejections * Geomagnetic Storms * Space Weather Terms * Types of Ionospheric Propagation * Getting Started in (Smart) High Frequency DX * Meteor Propagation * How the Pros Use Meteor Scatter * Working Meteor Scatter * Auroral Propagation * Space Propagation * Satellites * Moon Bounce *How we Figured out This Ionosphere Stuff Each topic is fully explained in the conversational, plain-language style of the Fast Track ham license books, with a maximum of illustrations and a minimum of impenetrable math formulas.