William Eythe's explanation of a nearby radio transmission!
Perhaps it's a reference to Arthur C. Clarke's article "Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations Give World-Wide Radio Coverage?" (Wireless World, October 1945).
Who said anything about dishes? The radio system itself, and the film's dialog, are completely authentic and correct. Inter-continental radio communications existed well before artifical satellites existed - all thanks to the ionosphere.
Back to school for you!
Lesson One: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionosphere#Radio_communication
I'm no techie--but everyone who has a wireless radio knows that at night radio waves can travel half-way around the globe. How many people turn the dial just to see what exotic station they can get in a foreign land? High school science--and now Google--will tell us the ionosphere has something to do with it.
share