Groundwave propagation along three-section mixed paths

Recent theoretical work on the propagation of groundwaves along 2-section mixed paths is extended to 3-section paths. A corroborating experiment was conducted at a microwave frequency of 4.29 Gc/s (¿ = 7 cm), using water to simulate imperfectly conducting mediums and aluminium plates to simulate perfectly conducting mediums. The experimental results show that the theoretical solutions are accurate to within a few per cent., provided that both aerials are at least a fraction of a wavelength from the separation boundaries.