[Elecraft] Elecraft General Interest: SFGate: Robert Helliwell, radio science pioneer, dies

[Rex Lint]

Jim,

"It was possible to hear "whistlers" from storm centers long before you
could hear the thunder."

I doubt the whistlers you heard was from a storm that was close enough to
hear the thunder:

"Very low frequency (VLF) radio waves shoot past the ionosphere and into the
next region of space, the magnetosphere.

Here, the atmosphere is completely ionized. The Earth's magnetic field
controls the motions of charged particles, creating channels of ions aligned
with the horseshoe-shaped magnetic field lines. These channels trap VLF
radio waves, guiding them between opposite hemispheres along a path that
reaches up to 15,000 miles from the surface."
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/may/robert-helliwell-obit-052011.html 

I visited the lab when I was a freshman (before the advent of dirt) as part
of the tour they gave incoming engineering students.

      -Rex-
 
       K1HI
       Rex Lint
       Merrimack, NH
       WWW.QRZ.COM/db/k1hi