The excitation of electromagnetic wave packets by delta function current sheets in a dispersive magnetoplasma is studied, in which the wave normal direction is vertical to the current sheet but the Earth's magnetic field is assumed to have an arbitrary direction to the wave normal direction. The temporal and spatial evolution of wave packets in the ionospheric F2 plasma layer is analyzed by an exact numerical inversion method of the Laplace transform. Properties of these excited waves are discussed in different frequency bands; (1) quasi-free space modes, (2) whistler mode, and (3) hydromagnetic wave modes. By interpreting the waveforms at fixed points in the plasma as experimental data, the obtained results provide explicit information about the nature of the transient response, and this can be used as a diagnostic technique of the plasma. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1994