Simple Methods for Designing Troposcatter Circuits

As troposcatter circuits come more and more widely into use, there is a need for simple and reasonably accurate design methods for routine use, since the speed of obtaining a suitable design is sometimes of the utmost importance. This paper attempts to present such a method, derived primarily from experimental data, but with occasional reliance upon theoretical calculations. Certain essential design factors, some of which are still rather controversial, such as path loss and correction factors caused by terrain and climatological effects, aperture-to-medium coupling loss, etc., are discussed in detail. Circuit reliabilities determined from combining instantaneous signal-fading distributions are briefly described. Sets of appropriate curves in simple form are proposed for practical engineering applications.