Eckard,
I think others will also find it demanding. I also hope my corrected version is posted.
I agree Cahill is very inconsistent, though found many truths. The big problem is that he assumes SR and contraction a priori to 'massage' all past results to then 'prove' SR. This is not logically consistent so can prove nothing.
In terms of the 'gas mode' I agree entirely that 'medium' and n are relevant in ALL cases, including what we call a vacuum, as sub atomic matter is still there (ions) at significant density, with an assignable state of motion, so modulating c locally by gradual extinction.
I disagree with his P8 comment, and his assumption re 'absolute motion', which is not empirically or logically consistent. Also of course a dense plasma (ion) medium is also n=1. He did get limited support from some of the many 'clutching at straws' but making the same fundamental errors; His work now seems mostly ignored, and correctly I believe.
M. Sato, Physics Essays 23,127 (2010)
R.T.Cahill and K. Kitto Apeiron, vol 10, n°2, April 2003, Progress in Physics 4 (2006) 73-92,
ArXiv:physics/0612201v2, 2 Jan 2007, M. Consoli, ArXiv:Physics/0310053, 13 October 2003.
V.V.Demjanov, Phys.Lett., A 374, 1110-1112 (2010)
Does that fully answer your question yet?
The resolution of the small residual 'ether motion' increasing with altitude is briefly explained on my last page, where the distances are too small for extinction to be 100% completed, and two frames exist, one non rotating, and the atmosphere itself within that rotating, explaining the remaining anomalies.
Is that comprehensible?
I look forward to you essay.
Peter