The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / DXers Delight: NASA Launching Scientific Mission To Study E-Skip

**Posted by RadioActive** June 13, 2025 6:34 am

This is a bit of a Brainiac article and may not be for everyone. But it could have some interest for DXers, who depend on E-skip to listen to radio signals from far away. I won't even attempt to summarize what scientists are doing to try and understand the long distance radio phenomenon, but it sounds complicated and pretty unusual.

"There's a lot of interest in predicting these layers and understanding their dynamics because of how they interfere with communications," one researcher explains.

NASA launching rockets into radio-disrupting clouds

**Posted by tdotwriter** June 13, 2025 6:57 am

Unlike tropospheric propagation which occurs over relatively short distances and is purely a product of atmospheric conditions that are well understood in the field of meteorology and even regularly forecast by meteorologist and longtime DX enthusiast William Hepburn on his website, E-layer propagation has remained poorly understood and scientific explanations have remained elusive to this day. Hopefully this mission will change that.

I myself have a bit of experience with that particular type of propagation. Back in late June of 2009, I picked up WXKB-FM "B 103.9" from Fort Myers, Florida at my childhood home in the Erin Mills area of Mississauga. A few days later, I got WRAL-FM "Mix 101.5" from Raleigh, NC coming in quite well on the factory stereo in my mom's car.