A statistical model of multipath fading on a space diversity radio channel

Line-of-sight radio path selective fading due to multipath propagation was observed, in space diversity configuration, in the 6 GHz band. The signal was received 26.4 miles from its transmitter by both horn reflector and parabolic dish antennas, whose reception powers were monitored at 12 frequencies spanning a 24.2 MHz band. A simplified three-ray channel modeling function was used to fit every scan on both antennas, characterizing the joint transmission at each observation by means of three parameters for each antenna whose joint occurrence characteristics are described by simple statistical distribution functions. The resulting statistical model allows the prediction of the performance of digital radios operating in a space diversity configuration. Only the average fade levels of the two antennas are found to be statisticaly related.