Communication Systems/Wave Propagation This page will discuss
some of the fundamental basics of EM wave propagation.
Electromagnetic Spectrum↑Jump back a section Maxwell first
predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves in the 19th
century. He came to this conclusion by careful examination of
the equations describing electric and magnetic phenomenon. It
was left up to Hertz to create these waves, and Marconi to
exploit them. In spite of one hundred years of study, exactly
what radio waves are and why they exist, remain somewhat of a
mystery. Electromagnetic waves in free space, or TEM waves,
consist of electric and magnetic fields, each at right angles to
each other and the direction of propagation. The relationship
between wavelength and frequency is give by: - where c is the
speed of light (approximately 300,000,000 m/s in vacuum), f is
the frequency of the wave, and λ is the wavelength of the wave.
Radio waves can be reflected and refracted in a manner similar
to light. They are affected by the ground