Talk:Marconi's law

Merge article?
"Marconi's Law" is an antique empirical rule of thumb invented in 1897 which was very inaccurate and is never used today. The only source in the article is Fleming, John Ambrose 1906 The Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy, who indicates it was out of date even in 1906. This article gives the erroneous impression, which is supported by no modern sources, that the law is accurate and still used. I feel this obsolete "law" is not WP:notable enough to merit its own article and should be merged into Radio propagation. Alternatives are Monopole antenna or Guglielmo Marconi. --ChetvornoTALK 18:04, 3 April 2023 (UTC)


 * The derivation given in the "Description" section, 1906 hand waving by Fleming, is completely erroneous as it does not take into account the wavelength of the waves and electrical length of the antenna. The actual reason for the law was that in the transmitters of Marconi's time the antenna functioned as a quarter-wave resonator which determined the wavelength of the waves. The higher the antenna, the longer the wavelength and lower the frequency of the transmitter. Longer wavelength ground waves have less attenuation with distance, explaining the "law".  In later transmitters, the frequency is determined by tuned circuits in the transmitter, not the height of the antenna, so the "law" fails.  Modern radio propagation theory explains the signaling distance of radio transmitters without any reference to this "law". --ChetvornoTALK 18:02, 3 April 2023 (UTC)


 * ✅ Performed merger --ChetvornoTALK 06:16, 24 August 2023 (UTC)