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Great article. Sunspot activity also affects radio communications. A series of books I'm hooked on, 1632, by Eric Flint which is a SF story that sets and entire town of modern folk into the middle of Germany in 1632 has to take this into account as it continues. Seems that during the Maunder Minimum, it would have been difficult to use shortwave radio for long distance communication because you wouldn't get the atmospheric skip that you do today.

BTW: the above link is a free copy of the entire 1632 novel available from the Baen Free Library.

You can download several books from the series and many others, free of charge. No registration, no nothing. They are available in several different formats. I highly recommend the 1632 series.

Shortwave? How about during 1859, a solar storm was so strong it enabled it to be 1.) observed, 2.) connected to auroras,
and 3.) disrupt telegraph systems.

Great article. Sunspot activity also affects radio communications. A series of books I'm hooked on, 1632, by Eric Flint which is a SF story that sets and entire town of modern folk into the middle of Germany in 1632 has to take this into account as it continues. Seems that during the Maunder Minimum, it would have been difficult to use shortwave radio for long distance communication because you wouldn't get the atmospheric skip that you do today. BTW: the above link is a free copy of the entire 1632 novel available from the Baen Free Library.

You can download several books from the series and many others, free of charge. No registration, no nothing. They are available in several different formats. I highly recommend the 1632 series.

I love "1632!" My guess on shortwave communication, had it existed then, is most likely at night, you would probably have to resort to using frequencies from above the AM band (1700 kc) to about 7000 kc. Daytime, maybe 9000 kc to around 14,000 or 15,000 kc much like you'd experience in the solar minimum. Anything above perhaps 20,000 kc would be useless for long distance comms, most likely act VHF-like in behaviour. You might have to resort to some sort of VLF backup system for long range comms much like our subs use where you can at least ocmmunicate using low baud data from a computer or teletype, perhaps using Morse Code too.

One question I always wanted to have answered is, does Mars have an ionosphere? How about the Moon? What would shortwave comms be like on Mars or the Moon? OK, that's three but still it is interesting to wonder. B-)