Keen-eyed readers of Armada’s military communications webpage may remember an article we ran in April that looked at tropospheric radio.

The article discussed the British Army’s recent acquisition of a tropospheric communications system. As the name suggests, tropospheric techniques exploit the troposphere. This is a layer of the atmosphere stretching up to 43,000 feet (13,106 metres) above the Earth’s surface. When aimed at an angle towards the troposphere, some radio signals can jump over the horizon reaching distances of up to 500 kilometres (311 miles).

Tropospheric communications are proving attractive for long-range military communications, joining their high frequency and satellite communications brethren. Why is tropospheric radio in vogue? What can it do that other forms of communication cannot? To answer these, and other questions, we are joined on this Radioflash! podcast by Daniel Gizinski, Comtech Telecommunication’s chief strategy officer.