Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) propagation can be used for radio communication in a large area (200 km radius) without any intermediate man-made infrastructure. It is therefore especially suited for disaster relief communication, communication in developing regions and applications where independence of local infrastructure is desired, such as military applications. NVIS communication uses frequencies between approximately 3 and 10 MHz. A comprehensive overview of NVIS research is given, covering propagation, antennas, diversity, modulation and coding. Both the bigger picture and the important details are given, as well as the relation between them.

Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) communication uses the ionosphere as a reflector to cover a continuous area with a radius of at least 150 km around the transmitter, on frequencies typically between 3 and 10 MHz. In developing countries, in areas lacking any other telecommunication infrastructure, it is used on a daily basis for voice and data communication. It may also be used in ad-hoc emergency (disaster) communication in other regions. This paper proposes optimum heights above ground for horizontal dipole antennas for NVIS, based on simulations and empirical data. First, the relationship between elevation angle and skip distance is obtained using ionospheric ray tracing. The high elevation angles found by simulation are confirmed by elevation angle measurements using a professional radio direction finder. The measurements also show the dominance of NVIS over ground wave propagation starting at a short distance. For these elevation angles, the optimum receive and transmit antenna heights above ground are derived using antenna simulations. A distinction is made between optimum transmit signal strength and optimum received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). These optima are verified experimentally, demonstrating a novel evaluation method that can be used in the presence of the fading typical for ionospheric propagation. For farmland soil ( 20 mS/m, "r 17) the optimum height above ground for the transmit antenna is 0.180.22. If the antenna is lowered to 0.02 a transmit signal loss of 12 dB occurs. This corresponds with the theory. The receive antenna height, however, while appearing uncritical in the simulations, showed a clear optimum at 0.16 and a 27 dB SNR deterioration when lowered to 0.02.

The ionized upper portion of the atmosphere, the ionosphere, affects radio signals traveling between satellites and the ground. This degrades the performance of satellite navigation, surveillance, and communication systems. Techniques to measure and mitigate ionospheric effects and in particular to measure the total electron content (TEC) are therefore required. TEC is usually determined by analyzing the differential delay experienced by dual‐frequency signals. Here we demonstrate a technique which enables TEC to be derived using single‐frequency signals passing between geostationary satellites and terrestrial Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. Geostationary satellites offer the key advantage that the raypaths are not moving and hence are easier to interpret than standard GPS TEC. Daily TEC time series are derived for three ground receivers from Europe over the year 2015. The technique is validated by correlation analysis both between pairs of ground receiver observations and between ground receivers and independent ionosonde observations. The correlation between pairs of receivers over a year shows good agreement. Good agreement was also seen between the TEC time series and ionosonde data, suggesting the technique is reliable and routinely produces realistic ionospheric information. The technique is not suitable for use on every GPS receiver type because drift in derived TEC values was observed for profiles calculated using receivers without links to highly stable clocks. The demonstrated technique has the potential to become a routine method to derive TEC, helping to map the ionosphere in real time and to mitigate ionospheric effects on radio systems.

Separate excitation of the characteristic waves in the ionosphere results in two orthogonal propagation channels on the same frequency, which may be used in diversity and multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) systems. In this article, a method to measure the isolation between these paths is proposed and demonstrated in a near vertical incidence skywave (NVIS) experiment at a frequency of 7 MHz over a 105-km distance. Characteristic wave isolation exceeding 25 dB is measured during "Happy Hour": the interval when the propagation path just opens or closes and only the extraordinary wave propagates.

Near Vertical Incidence Skywave propagation can provide High Frequency (HF: 3-30 MHz) radio coverage in an area of 300 by 300 km without the need for any intermediate infrastructure. It is therefore very well suited for disaster relief communication. However, electromagnetic waves refracted in the ionosphere are prone to fading caused by multipath propagation and by polarization change in the ionosphere. Historically, different diversity reception systems have been devised to reduce this fading. By contrast, modern HF Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) techniques exploit the multipath aspects of the ionosphere to achieve an increased data throughput or a reduction of the required signal-to-noise ratio. The effectiveness of diversity reception and HF MIMO increases with decreasing correlation between the received signal streams. Electromagnetic waves propagating through the ionosphere consist of two characteristic wave components with circular polarization of opposite sense, the ordinary and extraordinary waves, each following a different path through the ionosphere. Adaptation of the polarization of the receive antennas to these characteristic waves provides two signal streams with high isolation. This is demonstrated with an experiment where both the ordinary and extraordinary wave are received separately. An isolation of at least 13 dB is shown.

In the E-region of the ionosphere, at heights between 90 and 130 km, thin patches of enhanced ionization occur intermittently. The electron density in these sporadic-E (Es) clouds can sometimes be so high that radio waves with frequencies up to 150 MHz are obliquely reflected. While this phenomenon is well known, the reflection mechanism itself is not well understood. To investigate this question, an experimental system has been developed for accurate polarimetric and fading measurements of 50 MHz radio waves obliquely reflected by mid-latitude Es layers. The overall sensitivity of the system is optimized by reducing environmental electromagnetic noise, giving the ability to observe weak, short-lived 50 MHz Es propagation events. The effect of the ground reflection on observed polarization is analyzed and the induced amplitude and phase biases are compensated for. It is found that accurate measurements are only possible below the pseudo-Brewster angle. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the system, initial empirical results are presented which provide clear evidence of magneto-ionic double refraction.