ITALSAT radio propagation measurements at 50GHz in the United Kingdom

Measurements of troposhperic attenuation (excess and total) made at Sparsholt in Hampshire, UK using the ITALSAT satellite F1 beacon signal at 50 GHz. ITALSAT F1 (owned and operated by the Italian Space Agency) was in geostationary orbit at 13 degrees east, and it could be seen from the receiving station at an elevation angle of 30 degrees. The received signal was vertically polarised and was sampled once a second. North-south tracking of the satellite with the beacon receiver maintained ~20dB of dynamic range thought of the measurement period. The method applied to remove the nonatmospheric changes of the beacon signal and to establish the reference level from which to measure the excess and total attenuation is described in [Ventouras et.al., Long-term statistics of tropospheric attenuation from the Ka/U band ITALSAT satellite experiment in the United Kingdom, Radio Sci.,41,RS2007,doi:10.1029/2005RS003252]. The accuracy of fade level retrieval is estimated to be ~+/-0.5dB