🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 17 Jan 1998 00:46:34 -0500, Joe Vrankovic <va3vis@rac.ca>
wrote:

>Has anyone noticed EMF fluctuations at ~34cm on the signal strength
>meter of a cellular phone?  I have observed that at different times of
>the day, the signal strength may vary.  Would this have anything to do
>with solar flux activity?  I know that solar flux activity affects HF.
>I can't come up with any ideas because we are not talking great
>distances here between the base station and the mobile unit.
>
>Suggestions anyone?
>

Since the signal from the base to the phone does not go through or
reflect from the ionosphere, the solar flux activity does not affect
your signal strength. Anyway, at these frequencies signals penetrating
the ionosphere are only very slightly affected by the ionosphere.
These variations are of some concern only for GPS, since it degrades
the accuracy, since the signal is slightly bent, thus increasing the
path length and propagation time.

What you are seeing is normal tropospheric variation in the relative
refractive index due to temperature and humidity variations in the
atmosphere at different elevations. In extreme cases of these
variations, you will have mirages both in the optical as well as radio
spectrum.