Skip zone

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Zone of silence" redirects here. For the purported anomaly area in Mexico, see Mapimí Silent
Zone.
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup
reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can. (May 2009)

Formation of a skip-zone using Proplab-Pro 3.

A skip zone, also called a silent zone or zone of silence, is a region where a radio transmission
can not be received located between regions both closer and farther from the transmitter where
reception is possible.

When using medium to high frequency radio telecommunication, there are radio waves which
travel both parallel to the ground, and towards the ionosphere, referred to as a ground wave and
sky wave, respectively. A skip zone is an annular region between the farthest points at which the
ground wave can be received and the nearest point at which the refracted sky waves can be
received. Within this region, no signal can be received because, due to the actual conditions of
the local ionosphere, the relevant sky waves are not reflected but penetrate the ionosphere.

The skip zone is a natural phenomenon that cannot be influenced by technical means. Its width
depends on the height and shape of the ionosphere and, particularly, on the local ionospheric
maximum electron density characterized by critical frequency foF2. It varies mainly with this
parameter, being larger for low foF2. With a fixed working frequency it is large by night and may
even disappear by day. Transmitting at night is most effective for long distance communication
but the skip zone becomes significantly larger. Very high frequency waves and higher normally
travel through the ionosphere wherefore communication via skywave is exceptional. A highly
ionized Es-Layer that occasionally may appear in Summer may produce such an example.
If the radio wave frequency is decreased, a point is reached where all waves (even vertically
incident waves) are reflected back to the Earth.

Another method of decreasing the skip zone is by decreasing the frequency of the radio waves.
Decreasing the frequency is akin to increasing the ionospheric width. A point is eventually
reached when decreasing the frequency results in a zero distance skip zone. In other words, a
frequency exists for which vertically incident radio waves will always be refracted back to the
Earth. This frequency is equivalent to the ionospheric plasma frequency and is also known as the
ionospheric critical frequency, or foF2.

Skip zone is the subject of a film 'SKIPZONE' made in 1992 by UK artist, Peter Lee-Jones. It
refers to areas in Scottish Highlands where it is difficult to obtain radio and TV reception.[citation
needed]