Wet antenna attenuation during rain events is examined through carrying out simulated rain experiments. These were conducted on the receiving antenna located at Penang, Malaysia. The findings from these experiments are used to estimate rain attenuation data for that path by adjusting the collected data for wet antenna attenuation. This was done for the 1-year period of March 2007 to February 2008 and includes average and worst month cumulative distribution functions. The results of the measurement indicated that the wet antenna effect is a significant attenuator, and should be included in a link budget. The measured attenuation values were 4 dB for the wet feed window and total reflector plus feed window attenuation value of 6.3 dB at 20.2 GHz, at a rain rate of 100 mm/h.
2. Kharadly, M. M. Z. and R. Ross, "Effect of wet antenna attenuation on propagation data statistics," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 49, No. 8, 1183-1191, 2001.
doi:10.1109/8.943313
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doi:10.1109/26.231968
5. Kharadly, M. M. Z. and R. Ross, "Analysis and modeling of corrupt propagation data due to antenna surface wetting during rain events," Proc. 1st Int. Workshop Radiowave Propagation Modeling for SatCom Services at Ka-Band and Above, ESTEC, 65-72, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, October 1998.
6. Acosta, R. J., "Rain fade compensation alternatives for Ka band communication satellites," NASA Technical Memorandum 107534, Third Ka Band Utilization Conference, sponsored by the IIC/Istituto Internazionale delle Comunicazioni Sorrento, Italy, September 15-18, 1997.
7. Atle, B., "Modelling and experimental validation of the surface attenuation effects of rain on composite antenna structures at Ka-band,", Msc. Thesis, New Mexico State Univerrsity, 1999.
8. Jonathon, Y. and C. Cheah, "Wet antenna effect on VSAT rain margin," IEEE Trans. on Communications, Vol. 41, No. 8, 1993.
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