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What causes skip?


'K.M.D.',
The simplest way of thinking about propagation is to think about it as light reflecting from a dirty mirror. A 'dirty' mirror because some light is lost each time it's reflected, same with an RF signal. Some of those reflections will be off of the ground, some from the various layers of the ionosphere. Little bit lost each time it's reflected so at some point there isn't enough left to see/hear.
The ionosphere around the earth is composed of several layers, each reacts a bit different from the others. Deals with the gases that are present at that altitude. Each molecule of that 'air' gets charged and acts as a 'mirror' for electrical signals. Then there are those kind of layers that are composed of very little 'air' but lots of ions, charged parts of an atom, sort of, that get 'blown' off of their original 'molecule'. (That's sort of a long 'stretch', but as long as this is just for general information, it's close enough.)
Where does those thingies in the various layers of the ionosphere get their charge? Mainly from the sun. The light and other radiations from the sun tend to charge things when they 'strike' them. The sun also gives off free ions which are 'looking for a home', and some of them take up residence around the earth (and just where DID you think that song came from?).
The ionosphere changes shape and altitude depending on where above the earth that particular part happens to be. The difference is exactly like 'daylight and dark'. It sort of swells up in the lit regions, sort of shrinks in the dark regions (forget it, I ain't touching that one!). The largest rate of 'change' is on the horizon during sun rise and sun set. Because of that rate of change, propagation in those regions tends to be 'better' than before and after sun rise/set.
There you got it, the short version. No idea where to tell you to find the long version, but there's a bunch of places you should be able to find it. Good luck.
- 'Doc
 
sporadic E, or E skip, what is being heard right this very minute on 11 meters, 10 meters & 6 meters, as well as 46mHz public service freqs & anything else roughly in that range, has never been proven to have any correlation whatsoever with sunspots. google 'sporadic E' & read.
actually, i thought buffy caused skip....
 
that is only part of it
there are many ways that we get skip

obviously solar flares has a lot to do with it

our weather also creats lots of skip
rain and lightning as example

also other things like meteurites

ofcourse you are likly refering mostly to skip on 11 meters
but there is skip on all frequency's
however there are different reasons for conditions for other frequency's

to ask what causes skip
is such a huge subject

is almost as broad as asking
what causes life (ok so i am streching it a bit..LOL )
 

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  • @ heartbreaker3473:
    Hello gentlemen and Ladies. I have the dreaded RCI-2990 receive issue where my radio gets distorted when people get close to my location. I found the C90 Capacitor, but I can not for the life of me find the C89 capacitor. Can or does anyone have a picture of the exact location of C89 ? Thank you in advance, Wes
  • @ AudioShockwav:
    Wes, it's better if you start a thread on the main forum, more people are going to see your question.
  • @ heartbreaker3473:
    Okay, sorry, will put in a forum
  • @ heartbreaker3473:
    I put it in the general disscution help area and started a new thread. Thank you for letting me know.