US aeronautical L-band satellite technology test program

The U.S. Aeronautical L-Band satellite test program was performed between September 1974 and April 1975 as part of an international ATS-6 L-Band satellite test program. The U.S. program consisted of both technology and ATC communications demonstration tests. The technology tests were comprised of multipath channel characterization tests; modem tests of voice, data, and ranging; and aircraft antenna tests. Multipath results include delay-Doppler scatter function characteristics and calculations of spectra, spreads and autocorrelations for both over-ocean and CONUS multipath. Comparison of sample results with model prediction is given. Voice modem intelligibility scores, digital data bit error rates and ranging modem performance are presented parametrically as functions of C/N sub 0 and S/I. Experimentally derived gain and multipath rejection performance data are given for the slot-dipoles, phased array, patch, and crossed-slot antennas for various aircraft/satellite geometries.