Radio/Tv waves?

[magicbeatle]

Is the radio wave story in the Time Travel film 'Frequency' theoretically possible? If you have'nt seen it, it concerns two people(Father and Son) who can talk to each other over a cb radio with a 30 year gap between them. If not, where do the radio waves go. If they go into space, could you not get a very strong radio and pick up signals from years ago, therefore listening to shows as if they are going out live?

[fo3nix]

well the radiowaves just go into deep space... so theoretically if you were far away and had a strong enough (read: very strong) radio, then yes you could.

it's just the same as with light from stars... often people (or children maybe) think that the light is coming from them "now", but in fact the light has taken a while to travel over here, and so the star may well be considerably older than it seems to be.

[jake-the-peg]

People from the past talk to me all the time through a less advanced form known as books :c)

It's listening to the future that causes problems.

But yes, if you look at the sun today you are seeing it as it was 8 minutes ago and signals from the limits of our observation started out when the universe was very very young

[Hippy]

On the subject of radio wave propagation, provided that they do not encounter too much matter (dust, gasses, planets, stars etc) or stray too close to black holes, and are free from the effects of gigantic radiation storms, the waves shoud travel fantastic distances.

Here on Earth the planet's curvature, atmosphere and objects in the way prevent radio waves from being received ovet great distances. For example, I can't pick up TV from Wales here in Newcastle, but the equivalent distance in a straight line in space would be a doddle!