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Glite Dictionary
skip distance

skip distance

1 9.9
The shortest distance from a radio transmitter where radio waves bounced by the ionosphere can be picked up
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : distancia de salto
  • The skip distance varies depending on the frequency of the radio waves and ionospheric conditions.

Examples

  • The skip distance for the radio signal was measured carefully.

  • With higher frequencies, the skip distance increases, making closer reception impossible.

  • Radio operators must calculate the skip distance to ensure their signals reach the intended location.

  • What is the skip distance for this frequency?

  • Radio signals can travel great distances depending on the skip distance, allowing them to be received far from the transmitter.

  • The engineer calculated the optimal skip distance to ensure the radio signals reached all intended areas.

  • Understanding the skip distance is essential for effective radio communication, as it determines how far signals can be transmitted.

Surface Forms

skip distance singular
skip distances plural

Morphology

skip + distance

The noun combines a common word 'distance' with 'skip' used in a technical radio-communication sense (signals 'skipping' off the ionosphere), a sense most B1 learners will not know. While the relation to 'skipping' suggests a distance related to where a signal lands, the precise technical meaning (minimum reception distance due to ionospheric reflection) is specialized and not fully predictable from the constituent words alone.

Etymology

Skip distance may come from the image of a stone that skips across water and then lands some way off, leaving the area close to you untouched. So, like that skipped stone, radio waves that bounce off high layers in the sky travel outward and only reach a radio at a certain distance, which is why 'skip distance' means the minimum distance where a signal can be received.