The Fast Track to Understanding Ham Radio Propagation

by Michael Burnette

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.

205 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 19, 2019