Ionosphere And The Magic Of Radio

 Once the radio waves go out of a radio transceiver, they can go a short way to a home nearby or a hundred miles apart, or due to radio propagation they can travel around the globe, but how can this be, if the globe is round and waves would be lost further the horizon.

Image source iStock via blog Lenovo

 Well radio waves journey can go straight up to the atmosphere and there meet the beauty of one of her layers, the ionosphere, who acts as a mirror due to the ions provided by the sun, kiss her goodbye and come back to earth a thousand miles apart from their origin.

Learn more: The Effects of Earth's Upper Atmosphere on Radio Signals

slash or stroke good to know

Yo ham radio operators and SWL enthusiasts out there.
 When transmitting in a visited country the licence holder must use his national call sign preceded by the call sign prefix of the visited country. The call sign prefix and the national call sign must be separated by the character "/" in CW or the word "stroke" (phone).

    So if I (EA6VY) was visitting Australia, my callsign would be VK/EA6VY (Victor Kilo "Stroke" Echo Alfa 6 Victor Yankee)!!

Image via ArtStation by Vuk Banovic

For a mobile amateur radio station the national call sign must be followed by the characters
"/M" (telegraphy) or the word "mobile" (telephony). For a portable amateur radio station the national call sign must be followed by the characters "/P" (telegraphy) or the word "portable" (telephony)." 
Source: Elecraft Ham