Path diversity for mm‐wave earth‐to‐satellite links

The major obstacle in utilizing recently allocated frequency bands in the mm-wave spectrum for earth-satellite communications is rain attenuation. Since heavy rain is generally quite localized it has been proposed that the required reliability could be achieved through path diversity, which requires two or more earth receiving terminals. This paper describes a year-long diversity experiment in the Boston area involving two sun trackers separated by 7 mi and operating at 35 GHz.