Radio signals can be badly affected by the weather, fading significantly
in the rain or sleet. This is bad news for telecommunications operators
who must be able to guarantee a reliable service in all weathers. In particular,
some operator links in the 23 GHz and 38 GHz bands have suffered higher
than expected outage time.
The aim of this project is to try and find out why these particular
frequencies are so badly affected. Researchers are monitoring the signal
levels of a number of links in Winchester, Swindon and near Southampton.
Whenever the signals fade badly, meterological radar data is collected
from the Chilbolton Observatory to try and determine what may have caused
the problem. Using this data, researchers should be able to demonstrate
whether the fading is a link hardware problem, if a greater power margin
needs to be built into the system to compensate for the unexpectedly strong
effect of the weather, or if sleet and snow is to blame. In August 2001,
RCRU engineers installed a new 3 GHz radar at St Andrew's to investigate
how sleet and snow affect links in that area.
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Radar image of a storm over Reading
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