Site-diversity advantage for satellite communication at 11.6 GHz

Two ground stations, used as a site-diversity pair, can substantially reduce the duration of fades on satellite links operating at frequencies about 10 GHz. Changes in sky-noise temperature during severe summer rainstorms have been measured simultaneously by five spaced 11.6 GHz radiometers in SE England, and these observations are used to derive the signal fading that would have occurred on a satellite communication link. The results show that a tenfold reduction in the duration of fades exceeding 3 dB can be obtained by switching between a pair of sites spaced 5 km apart along a line perpendicular to the viewing direction. For fades deeper than 6 dB, the same improvement occurs at a spacing of only 2 km.