The effect of sporadic e on television reception

For several years now reports of long distance reception have been coming in from, television viewers. Host frequently these receptions have spanned distances of around 1,000 miles. There has been considerable speculation as to whether these anomalous receptions were tropospheric in origin or transmitted via the sporadic-E region of the ionosphere. A consideration is made here of the type of evidence leading one to conclude that transmission paths up to 500 miles can, roughly speaking, be attributed to tropospheric propagation, while sporadic E accounts for those transmissions of between 500 and about 1,600 miles. The importance of these receptions to television service in the United States lies not so much in the service gained through the long distance receptions themselves, but in the possible interference to a station's fringe area from distant co-channel stations.