SPACE (DIRECT) WAVE PROPAGATION

Space Waves, also known as direct waves, are radio waves that travel directly from the transmitting antenna to the receiving antenna. In order for this to occur, the two antennas must be able to see each other; that is there must be a line of sight path between them. The diagram on the next page shows a typical line of sight. The maximum line of sight distance between two antennas depends on the height of each antenna. If the heights are measured in feet, the maximum line of sight, in miles, is given by:

Because a typical transmission path is filled with buildings, hills and other obstacles, it is possible for radio waves to be reflected by these obstacles, resulting in radio waves that arrive at the receive antenna from several different directions. Because the length of each path is different, the waves will not arrive in phase. They may reinforce each other or cancel each other, depending on the phase differences. This situation is known as multipath propagation. It can cause major distortion to certain types of signals. Ghost images seen on broadcast TV signals are the result of multipath one picture arrives slightly later than the other and is shifted in position

on the screen. Multipath is very troublesome for mobile communications. When the transmitter and/or receiver are in motion, the path lengths are continuously changing and the signal fluctuates wildly in amplitude. For this reason, NBFM is used almost exclusively for mobile communications. Amplitude variations caused by multipath that make AM unreadable are eliminated by the limiter stage in an NBFM receiver. An interesting example of direct communications is satellite communications. If a satellite is placed in an orbit 22,000 miles above the equator, it appears to stand still in the sky, as viewed from the ground. A high gain antenna can be pointed at the satellite to transmit signals to it. The satellite is used as a relay station, from which approximately of the earths surface is visible. The satellite receives signals from the ground at one frequency, known as the uplink frequency, translates this frequency to a different frequency, known as the downlink frequency, and retransmits the signal. Because two frequencies are used, the reception and transmission can happen simultaneously. A satellite operating in this way is known as a transponder. The satellite has a tremendous line of sight from its vantage point in space and many ground stations can communicate through a single satellite.