at the beginning of a strategic nuclear exchange there would probably be an EMP attack. residual effects from ionization and E3 pulse leaves the ionosphere saturated with ions.

after a strategic nuclear exchange there are millions of tons of dust in the upper troposphere, which disperses after a time, and a substantial amount injected into the stratosphere, which remains a long time.

how would AM and shortwave reception be affected? they bounce off the ionosphere. would it make it better or worse? would lots of dust/ash block signal?

 

Exoatmospheric nuclear detonations do disrupt HF communications. Not only do they charge the ionosphere creating artificial auroras, they produce a large amount of fission waste products that prevent normally ionospheric propagation and dropping the MUF (Maximum Usable Frequency) out of the useful range for global communications into and out of the affected area.

Lower frequencies are less affected, so the normal AM broadcast band (~.5-1.5MHz) and bands below that may be able to propagate via ground wave. But, the normally reliable bands such as 20m (14MHz) and 40m (7MHz) will be completely dead.

 

how long would that last?

what about effects of dust in the stratosphere? that takes much longer to dissipate than the ionization.

 

at the beginning of a strategic nuclear exchange there would probably be an EMP attack. residual effects from ionization and E3 pulse leaves the ionosphere saturated with ions.

after a strategic nuclear exchange there are millions of tons of dust in the upper troposphere, which disperses after a time, and a substantial amount injected into the stratosphere, which remains a long time.

how would AM and shortwave reception be affected? they bounce off the ionosphere. would it make it better or worse? would lots of dust/ash block signal?

There are technical means to communication after a EMP attack using low frequency ground waves for a counter-strike. After a strategic nuclear exchange we would only be talking about how much food and beer is left for one last party.

 

right, well I've got enough food and beer to last a while and was wondering how long the tunes would be out of commission. if the dust has an effect it could be months or years, which would be a major bummer.

 

right, well I've got enough food and beer to last a while and was wondering how long the tunes would be out of commission. if the dust has an effect it could be months or years, which would be a major bummer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime

While some of the energetic beta particles followed the Earth's magnetic field and illuminated the sky, other high-energy electrons became trapped and formed radiation belts around the Earth. There was much uncertainty and debate[by whom?] about the composition, magnitude and potential adverse effects from the trapped radiation after the detonation. The weaponeers became quite worried when three satellites in low Earth orbit were disabled. These included TRAAC and Transit 4B.[12] The half-life of the energetic electrons was only a few days. At the time it was not known that solar and cosmic particle fluxes varied by a factor of 10, and energies could exceed 1 MeV (0.16 pJ). In the months that followed these man-made radiation belts eventually caused six or more satellites to fail,[13] as radiation damaged their solar arrays or electronics, including the first commercial relay communication satellite, Telstar, as well as the United Kingdom's first satellite, Ariel 1.[14] Detectors on Telstar, TRAAC, Injun, and Ariel 1 were used to measure distribution of the radiation produced by the tests.[15]

In 1963, it was reported that Starfish Prime had created a belt of MeV electrons.[16] In 1968, it was reported that some Starfish electrons had remained in the atmosphere for 5 years.[17]

I wasn't worried about how long the tunes would be out of commission.