Signal interference and the FCC license freeze

[Electronic M]

I believe that under certain conditions the transmissions in the VHF band can "skip" between the ionosphere and the earth like SW (sometimes called "world band") radio signals. I believe that prior to the war the only places where experimental broadcasts occurred in the US were NYC, Chicago, and LA. and I believe that most recievers were placed in the estimated good signal area of those stations. thus the full extent of the skip phenoninon was not able to be documented because no active recievers were present far enough away from the transmitters.

After the war there were many new stations and a comparative TON of new active recievers at all distances from the stations thus the FULL extent of the skip could be documented and recoreded. This new documentation I believe surpassed estimates based on previously documented info and led to the licensing freeze as the new info was analyzed.

This was a big headache for the FCC, but a big benefit for the TV mad public that bought and operated sets well outside of the estimated usable signal zone.