Noise factor of receiving system with arbitrary antenna impedance mismatch

The system operating noise factor of a receiving system is modeled for arbitrary impedance mismatch of the antenna to the transmission line feeding the receiver. The effect of this mismatch on the noise factors of the transmission line and the receiver is considered. The stochastic nature of the external noise factor is considered. The amount of mismatch that can be tolerated before the internal system noise factor exceeds the external noise factor is determined. Numerical results are presented for a VHF-FM radio receiving system with an electrically short monopole antenna. It is noted that a large impedance mismatch at the antenna-transmission-line interface of a radio receiving system can cause a significant increase in the system internal noise factor (more than a 50-dB increase for a voltage reflection coefficient of 0.999)