Hi Eddy,
Don't get your hopes up. For one thing, aluminum oxide is a very good
insulator - its conductivity is around 10 to the 14th ohm.cm - although
it has a high dielectric constant (around 9 to 11, depending on crystal
orientation). A cloud of this could affect radio waves, but I wouldn't
want to predict the effect. But more importantly, 100 km is too low to
provide much help to us Topbanders. This is far below the E and F
layers of the ionosphere that we rely on for DX.
But I imagine astronomers, professional and amateur, will be up in arms
about this idea.
73, Bert
On 10/03/2012 12:01 PM, Eddy Swynar wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> An on-line friend recently sent me this timely link re. an upcoming NASA
> experiment that involves the releasing of an aluminum oxide "cloud" some 60
> miles above earth:
>
> http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2012/120308nasa-rockets-spread-ghostly-glow.html?WT.mc_id=120309epilot&WT.mc_sect=gan
>
> I wonder if the conductivity (if any) of this man-made cloud will have any
> effect upon radio propagation...? (Heaven only knows that the propagation on
> Topband this season has been far from stellar---"any and all assistance
> appreciated", Hi).
>
> This could be of great benefit to VHF DX'ers, perhaps, if not us denizens of
> the nether-regions of the frequency spectrum...
>
> ~73~ de Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ
> _______________________________________________
> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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