Easy-to-Build Satellite Beacon Receiver for Propagation Experimentation at Millimeter Bands

Abstract

This paper describes the design and development of a digital satellite beacon receiver for propagation experimentation. Satellite beacons are frequently available for pointing large antennas, but such signals can be used for measuring rain attenuation and other phenomena as, for example, tropospheric scintillation. A fairly inexpensive beacon receiver has been built using off-the-shelf parts. This instrument is not at all bulky making it suitable for easy transportation. This article analyzes the receiver specifications, describes in detail its structure and presents some operational test results.

Keywords

• Satellite beacon receiver
• Software Defined Radio
• scintillation
• rain fade
• vegetation attenuation