Analysis of Wet Antenna Losses on 11.843 GHz Slant Path in Nigeria and Comparison with Some Tropical Climates

Abstract The amount of water deposits on the receiving dish antenna can cause additional losses and consequently contaminate the actual slant-path attenuation. Only a few research works have been reported in the literature on the measurement of wet antenna attenuation (WAA) and the technique(s) of extracting the losses from the total attenuation in tropical and equatorial climates, characterized with heavy rainfall intensities of convective kind. Therefore, the adverse effects of antenna losses due to rain on a 11. 843 GHz satellite link and the methodology of extracting the losses from the measured rain-induced attenuation have been reported in this article. A vertically polarized parabolic dish with diameter and elevation of 0.3 m and 420, respectively have been used in the study. The measured results at 11.843 GHz were frequency-scaled in order to obtain their equivalents at 18.585 and 20.2 GHz; and then compared with those reported from Malaysia and Canada. The study will provide useful information in the planning and designing of an efficient and reliable Earth-satellite communication link in tropical climates. The experimental results also can further enrich the ITU-R databank.