Measurement and analysis of Satellite Digital Audio signals in Rayleigh fading scenarios

Satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) has been introduced in North America since 2001. Performance degradation occurs mainly due to the weak satellite signals in rural environment particular underneath dense foliage. Antenna diversity technique at the receiver is a suitable approach in order to overcome the problem of performance degradation. In order to analyze and optimize an antenna diversity system an exact knowledge about the received satellite signals at each diversity antenna is essential. Thus, a measurement and recorder unit is built which samples and records signals from up to four different antennas, simultaneously. A comprehensive software tool is developed which provides numerous features which calculates e.g. the signal level, the cross-covariance, the diversity efficiency, and the probability density function.