Between 1951 and the early 1970s, John H. Nelson, a radio engineer employed by RCA Communications in New York, developed and published a method for forecasting shortwave radio propagation disturbances over the North Atlantic. In his seminal article in RCA Review (March 1951, see below), he correlated heliocentric planetary positions with historical logs of signal quality recorded at RCA's receiving station in Riverhead, Long Island. Nelson observed that propagation disturbances tended to coincide with specific angular relationships—primarily 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°—among the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn relative to the Sun. (HERE)
Nelson later reported high predictive accuracy, claiming that of approximately 1,500 forecasts issued in 1967, 93.2% were within one point of observed conditions on a six-point scale. He presented his approach as an empirical engineering technique, avoiding explicit references to astrology, though the angular aspects he identified closely resembled those traditionally employed in astrological analysis (such as conjunctions, squares, and oppositions).
» In summation, after more than 25 years of research in this field of solar system science, I can say without equivocation that there is very strong evidence that the planets, when in certain predictable arrangements, do cause changes to take place in those solar radiations that control our ionosphere. I have no solid theory to explain what I have observed, but the similarity between an electric generator with its carefully placed magnets and the sun with its ever-changing planets is intriguing. In the generator, the magnets are fixed and produce a constant electrical current. If we consider that the planets are magnets and the sun is the armature, we have a considerable similarity to the generator. However, in this case, the magnets are moving. For this reason, the electrical-magnetic stability of the solar system varies widely. This is what one would expect. «
John H. Nelson, Cosmic Patterns: Their Influence on Man and His Communication, 1974.
SHORTWAVE RADIO PROPAGATION CORRELATION WITH PLANETARY POSITIONSBY
J. H. NELSON, Engineering Department, RCA Communications, Inc., New York, N. Y., March 19
51.
Summary—An examination of shortwave radio propagation conditions over the North Atlantic for a five-year period, and the relative position of the planets in the solar system, discloses some very interesting correlations. As a result of such correlations, certain planetary relationships are deduced to have specific effect on radio propagation through their influence upon the sun. Further investigation is required to fully explore the effect of planet positions on radio propagation in order that the highly important field of radio weather forecasting may be properly developed.
INTRODUCTION
MANY investigators of solar activity in the past have conducted extensive studies of planetary phenomena in an effort to account for the maximum and minimum of the eleven-year sunspot cycle and also the shorter period variations in sunspot numbers which take place from month to month. The results of several of these investigators appear to indicate a connection between the interrelationship of the planets and the degree of spottedness of the solar surface. The works of Huntington,¹ Clayton,² and Sanford,³ were found to be particularly applicable to the subject matter of this paper.
The results of their investigations suggested that a similar study relating planetary phenomena to radio disturbances over the North Atlantic might reveal information of value. Since June, 1948, the author has conducted research on this subject, and this paper presents the correlation that has been found between shortwave radio disturbances and certain planetary phenomena as described below.
MOTION OF THE PLANETS
The heliocentric interrelationship between Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn was extracted from the AMERICAN EPHEMERIS AND NAUTICAL ALMANAC published by the U. S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D C. for the years 1942, 1944, 1947, 1948, and 1949. Dates when the heliocentric relationship of any two planets was 0°, 90°, 180° or 270° were recorded. At 0° an inner planet is in line on the same side of the sun with an outer planet; at 90° an inner planet is 90° ahead of an outer planet; at 180° an inner planet and an outer planet are in line on opposite sides of the sun; at 270° an inner planet is 90° behind an outer planet. These relations are hereinafter referred to as configurations.
In addition to plotting the positions of the various planets in this way, a record was made of the solar quadrants over which each configuration took place. The solar quadrants in this study are determined by the Earth-Sun relationship under which the Sun is divided into its four quadrants as follows: The first quadrant is the visible sector of the eastern hemisphere of the Sun as viewed from the Earth; the second quadrant is the invisible sector of the eastern hemisphere; the third quadrant is the invisible sector of the western hemisphere; and the fourth quadrant the visible sector of the western hemisphere.
Every configuration of the type previously mentioned was calculated between Mercury and Venus, Mercury and Earth, Mercury and Mars, Mercury and Jupiter, and Mercury and Saturn. Following this the same method was used with Venus and its outer planets, Earth and its outer planets, Mars and its outer planets, and Jupiter and Saturn. The analysis shows that these configurations are quite random in time and vary from cases where only one configuration between two planets takes place in a 14-day period to cases in which five of these six planets are involved in a configuration with some other planet within a forty-eight hour period. Cases where an inner planet makes a configuration with two outer planets within a twenty-four hour period are quite numerous.
At perihelion, Mercury moves 6° 19' per day and therefore will make more configurations per unit time at this point in its orbit than at aphelion, where its speed is reduced to 2° 44' per day. The variation in orbit speed of the other planets is negligible for this particular study.
