Microwave and Wireless Communications Technology

Ionospheric Effects 23

normally pass through the ionosphere into outer space are scattered (a random re-

flection event) by clouds of randomly ionized particles. Ionization in the upper

ionosphere occurs from several sources; passing meteorites, dust, and artificial

satellites are examples. Although opportunistic in nature, meteor scatter is rou-

tinely used for communications in some systems. During a 2-year period, records

of false-alarm complaints on a 150-MHz VHF radio paging system showed that

distinct peaks of two to three times normalized monthly averages occurred in Au-

gust and December, corresponding ...