I was first licensed in 1968 - I only operated on 40, 20 and 15 meters. Never operated higher than 15 meters, until 2006. I finally retired my HW-101 and purchased a TS-2000. Put up an antenna on 6 that I had heard so much about and for 5 months heard nothing on the band and never made a contact. In June of 2007 one day suddenly the band came a live and I made 100 plus contacts that first evening - I was hooked on the activty. In 2009 I took part in my 2nd 6 meter contest - by chance I had worked J.D N0IRS during the contest - he asked about other bands, all I had was a set of stacked 13 element Yagi's vertical for 2 so Ruth and I could work each other at the ranch via a very distant repeater. He said let's try and I performed my first 2 meter SSB contact - 100 watts and stacked vertical beams- I worked him 5/9 into Kansas City from San Antonio and 10 other stations out of the Kansas City area...I WAS BEYOND HOOKED and today 90% of my ham activity is on 6 meter SSB/CW through 23cm.

J.D really assisted me in learning about VHF and above operating, was at the time posting a lot of encouraging video's and formed the Grid Bandits to help promote Weak Signal.

So frankly I owe N0IRS all of the responsibility for my VHF/UHF activity and fanatical enthusiam for Weak Signal.

I mostly want to quote the part in bold. This was from a man on Facebook, who lives in San Antonio.


So he had Yagi antennas, which amplify a very weak signal, but a signal that's there.
His antenna setup was quite impressive, quite souped up.

"2 meters" is 144 - 148 MHz, considered VHF or Very High Frequency. You can google it; this band only propagates by LINE OF SIGHT and occasional atmospheric ducting. But important to note: VHF frequencies DO NOT propagate via the ionosphere (Firmament?) nor the ground (a.k.a. "ground wave").

"Worked him" means he made a contact with him.
"5/9" means perfectly readable contact, as well as a strong radio signal received.

There was a great example during World War 2 -- the nαzιs used a special VHF signal to guide their bombers during the bombing of Britain. They certainly weren't waiting for "Sporadic E" (an occasional phenomenon that allows some VHF frequencies to propagate through ducts in the atmosphere, kind of like mirage reflection). They were aiming VHF hundreds of miles away, and it worked! VHF is LINE OF SIGHT only. It travels in a STRAIGHT LINE, no bouncing takes place. So how is it heard, with a good antenna, hundreds of miles away? No curvature in the Earth, apparently!

Another proof:
This same man is into "weak signal VHF" which means SSB mode. SSB requires less bandwidth than higher quality modes like FM. But let me get to the point: VHF can communicate 200+ miles any day of the week, as long as you use a mode that allows weak signals -- like SSB -- and you have a good antenna to pick up and amplify that signal. In other words, the curve of the earth is nowhere considered, much less capitulated to. The ONLY ISSUE, it seems, is the weakness of the radio signal as it gets further from the origin antenna (due to atmosphere, obstacles, etc.) so if you have a good enough antenna, and the mode itself doesn't require a booming signal -- which SSB does quite well -- you're in business.

But again, my point: if the Earth were curved, there would be no signal to amplify -- with a basic antenna, or a super-duper set of Yagi antennas. A mode that only needs a weak signal like SSB, or a high-bandwidth hog like FM. All of the above would be toast, if the whole signal was lost into Outer Space. SOME of that signal has to be taking a STRAIGHT LINE to that point hundreds of miles away. Only possible on a Flat Earth.

To summarize and recap what I was saying:

There are antennas that can amplify a WEAK signal. And modes of communication that can deal with a very weak signal.
HOWEVER, there is no antenna, no mode, which can deal with a signal that was TOTALLY LOST due to the curve of the earth causing it to fly off (in a straight line, which is how VHF and higher radio waves travel) into outer space.

And yes, there are bands much higher than VHF, collectively referred to as "microwave" bands. There's UHF, but even that is exceeded by the 10 GHz band for example. That's a whole "hobby within a hobby" in Ham Radio. Some guys live for the Microwave stuff.

The biggest, best Yagi array can't bring a signal back "from the dead". It can only nurse a very weak signal back to health, so that it's usable. But a remnant of the original signal has to BE THERE -- the only way for such a signal to make the long trek 200+ miles is if the earth is basically flat, not a globe, no curvature.

Oh, there was that one long-range UHF test the US military did, where they came up with a new one, something about air columns that would magically line up to refract the signals.

Yes, they teach Hams about "tropospheric ducting" or "tropo", which supposedly gives you occasional super propagation on higher bands like 2M, 6M and 10M. Maybe it's true (air density could present some kind of reflective surface or tunnel in this way)
HOWEVER, that would only explain OCCASIONAL prodigies of propagation -- not things you can do "any day of the week".

And I was taught that "you can get about 50 miles on 2M FM, but if you use SSB you can get more like 200 miles" HOW?
Sure, SSB permits weaker signal communication -- but SOME PART of SOME SIGNAL has to get there -- and 2M is still 2M as far as propagation goes. The mode is irrelevant when it comes to how those radio waves propagate. And 2M (VHF) DOES NOT PROPAGATE "Ground wave" or via the ionosphere like lower-frequency bands do. VHF is line-of-sight.

Here's the thing -- even 50 miles is impressive, given a 40 foot tower, and the usual Globe Curvature math. You shouldn't have any signal 50 miles out if your antenna is only 40 feet up.