The variation with height and plasma frequency of the distribution function of ambient electrons (EDF) in the F region ionosphere during high-power, HF radio wave modification experiments is discussed. It is shown that the deviation of the EDF from a Maxwellian distribution (MD) in the high energy, >2 eV, range may be quite significant (decreasing by a factor of 2 to 5) depending on the background parameters. As a result, the cooling and excitation rates are reduced with respect to a MD calculation. This, for example, can improve agreement of the model based on excitation by heated thermal electrons with the observations of 630.0 nm airglow during HF modification experiments. ¿ 2000 American Geophysical Union