The AM Forum

LDE's (long-delay echos) have been reported since the early days of radio.  There are numerous references to the mystery in pre-WW2 QST and RADIO magazines.  Time delays ranging from a few seconds to over an hour have been reported, and cannot be explained as any earth-bound phenomenon.  

Reports of LDE's have sometimes fallen into the same category as UFO's and crop circles, but there seems to be enough evidence from reports to convince some scientists and engineers that this is not some kind of hoax.

The following is the summary of an article written in Japanese to the monthly DX magazine Five Nine, June, August, and September editions 2004, published in Tokyo.

The main points are as follows; it is considered that Long Delayed Echoes (LDEs) actually exist, and that is neither hoax nor mystery and it will be obvious that LDEs is one of physical phenomena whatever the time length of delaying will be unusual. And also it would be reasonable to consider a hypothetical ionosphere in interplanetary space.

http://park1.wakwak.com/~ja7ao/lde/ldese.htm

Common moonbounce is *really* weak, though.  Either there has to be a gain mechanism, or somehow the reflection must come from some sort of huge concave shape that focuses the signal back to its source with some degree of precision.  Huge cosmic corner reflectors?  I suppose it might be possible, maybe even a common, naturally occuring situation with rotating bodies that spew reflective stuff in planes and somehow manage to line up at right angles.  Get three of them lined up X, Y and Z, and bingo.  What goes in, comes back out, and in exactly the reverse direction.

Watch out for what you say on the air. I figure that cloud burner I usually run blasts the signal straight up and bounces it back once or twice for most of my 75 meter contacts. This sorta proves that it does not all bounce back. Some keeps going until it contacts something large enough to reflect some of the energy........The Mother Ship!