“…We have concluded that our suggested mechanisms [Lewis and Johler, 1972a] for alteration of the mode excitations because of ionospheric stratification are not significant under normal conditions. However, unusual conditions may be present at night with interlayer resonance effects occurring between the E and F regions [discussion, p. 3, King, 1973;Johler, 1970b]. Also, we have found no substantiation for our previous contention that certain theoretical results presented by Galejs [1972] are invalid for diffuse ionospheres [Lewis and Joblet, 1972b], and we hereby retract our criticisms.…”