skip distance
Noun: - The shortest distance: This refers to the minimum length between two points. - That permits radio signals (of a given frequency) to travel from the transmitter to the receiver by reflection from the ionosphere: This specifies that the distance is the shortest path over which a specific radio frequency can be successfully transmitted via a single reflection off the ionosphere, a layer of Earth's upper atmosphere.
The term "skip distance" is used in radio communication and physics to describe a specific propagation phenomenon. It is the zone between the point where ground waves become too weak to be received and the point where the first sky wave (reflected from the ionosphere) returns to Earth. Signals cannot be heard within this "skip zone."
- Noun:
- The skip distance for the 20-meter amateur radio band varies with solar activity.
- To communicate with a station 2000 km away, we need to use a frequency with a suitable skip distance.
- There was no reception for several hundred miles due to the skip distance effect.
- "To be within/outside the skip distance": Used to describe whether a receiver's location is at a distance where the skywave signal can be received.
- Our station was just outside the skip distance, so we couldn't hear the broadcast.
- Skip zone (n): The area of silence between the end of ground wave reception and the point where the first skywave returns. It is the region inside the minimum skip distance.
- Skywave (n): A radio wave that is reflected back to Earth by the ionosphere.
- Ionospheric propagation (n): The method of long-distance radio transmission using the ionosphere.
- Minimum usable skywave distance: A more descriptive technical synonym.
- Hop distance: In multi-hop propagation, the distance of a single reflection. "Skip distance" often implies the distance for the first hop.
- Maximum Usable Frequency (MUF): The highest frequency that can be used for skywave propagation between two points. It directly influences the skip distance; a higher MUF typically results in a shorter skip distance for a given frequency.
- Ground wave: A radio wave that travels along the Earth's surface, important for understanding the beginning of the skip zone.
- the shortest distance that permits radio signals (of a given frequency) to travel from the transmitter to the receiver by reflection from the ionosphere