EARTH-BOUND RADIO

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 40, 20 April 1928, Page 3

EARTH-BOUND RADIO

’ HARAVISIDE LAYER THEORY. In accepting the Heaviside theory of wireless transmission, scientists have precluded the possibility of getting in touch with any of the planets through the medium of the radio waves now used. ‘The Heaviside theory holds that there is a layer above the atmosphere, impenetrable by radio waves, that deflects these waves back to the earth, and it is through the acceptance of this theory that scientists have accounted for the freakiness of the shortwave transmissions, whereby signals are heard over tremendous distances, but are inaudible a few miles from the sending point. ° The attempt to listen-in for Martian signals was made this year, just as it was made last year, when the planet was comparatively close to the earth, and nothing of scientific importance was expected to develop from the tests. The recent peculiar blanket that has smothered radio reception in the east has let to the experiments in most of the cases, it was said. The blanket has been attributed hoth to the nearness of Mars to the earth, to the aurora borealis, and to other unknown causes.