Refractive Index and Operating Frequency

Snell's law
  Also known as law of refraction is a formula used to
describe the relationship between the angles of incidence and 
refraction, when referring to light or other waves passing through
a boundary between two different isotropic media, such as
water, glass, or air. Snell's law states that, for a given pair of media,
the ratio of the sines of the angle of incidence θ1 and angle of
refraction θ2 is equal to the ratio of phase velocities (v1 / v2) in the
two media, or equivalently, to the refractive indices (n2 / n1) of
the two media.

sinθ v n
1 1 2
sinθ v n
2 2 1
Refractive Index and Operating Frequency
:Where
.e,m electron charge & mass
N electron density in e/cc
free space permittivity
W radians frequency
where
θ the refractive angle in the ionosphere
na the air refractive index (which is unity)

for incident critical angle θ=90 and sin(θ)=1

for vertical incident wave (Φ = 0, nRF = 0)

 ε mw2
N 0 1.24104f v2
e2

fv N  9103 N Where fv is in MHZ

1.24104

.For oblique transmission “ f” can be solved in two components

If the vertical fv
f v  f cosφ OR f  f vsecφ
F is called the MUF for certain φ. The operating frequency
has to be such that
LUF  f  MUF

Optimum working frequence (OWF)

OWF = 85% of MUF or OWF =0.85 MUF
When light travels from a medium with a higher refractive index to
one with a lower refractive index, Snell's law seems to require in
some cases (whenever the angle of incidence is large enough) that
the sine of the angle of refraction be greater than one. This of course
is impossible, and the light in such cases is completely reflected by
the boundary, a phenomenon known as total internal reflection. The
largest possible angle of incidence which still results in a refracted
ray is called the critical angle; in this case the refracted ray travels
along the boundary between the two media.
 Example
consider a ray of light moving from water to
air with an angle of incidence of 50o The refractive indices
of water and air are approximately 1.333 and 1,
respectively, so Snell's law gives us the relation
n
sin θ  n1 sin θ 1.333sin 50 1.3330.766  0.021
2 2 1 1

which is impossible to satisfy. The critical angle θcrit is the

value of θ1 for which θ2 equals 90°
n n
θ  sec( n2 sin θ )  sec( n2 )  48.6o
crit 1 2 1
 HF Link Calculation

The Received power Pr can be

obtained from

Pr  Pt  L  Gt  Lp  L  Lgr  Gr  L
tf it fr
Where
Pt transmitted power in dB
Lft transmission line loss of the Tx in dB
Lp total path loss in dB
Lit Total ionospheric loss
Lgr Surface ground loss in dB
Lfr transmission line loss of Rx in dB
Gt Transmission antenna gain in dB