RADIO RECEPTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 23 April 1934, Page 8

RADIO RECEPTION

THUNDERSTORMS AND SUN-SPOTS Thunderstorms the world over are connected with the number of spots on the sun. Thu discovery, which is important both for long-distance weather forecasting and for wireless listeners, has been made by Dr. 0. E. P. Brooks, of the British Meteorological Office. The number of sunspots waxes and wanes in an eleven-year cycle, said Dr. Brooks in an address to the Royal Meteorological Society. 'The world as a wlmlo bad 11 per cent, more thunderstorms when there were most sunspots. It had been found that atmospherics are caused by thunderstorms, and that the reception of a European broadcasting station might ho effected by thnndo.rstorms as f£- Away as 4000 miles. Long distance transmissions, such as the 8.8.C.’s Empire services, must be even more affected. But, for tlie Empire services, Nature lias provided a simple and direct form of compensation. Many sunspots meant also that the reflecting layers of the atmosphere which direct wireless round the world were at their strongest. Shorter wave-lengths could therefore bo used and atmospherics largely avoided in this way.