ITALSAT-OLYMPUS 20-GHZ ORBITAL DIVERSITY EXPERIMENT AT SPINO-DADDA

This paper reports results of the 20 GHz orbital diversity experiment between the geostationary satellites Olympus (19 degrees W) and Italsa t (13 degrees E), as viewed from Spine d'Adda, Po Valley, northern Ita ly. The results show that: a) the statistical gain is significant; and b) for a small angular separation in the geostationary orbit between the satellites (32 degrees in our experiment) the gain, normalized to single link attenuation and expressed in percent, is, as a rule of thu mb, of the order of magnitude of this angle expressed in degrees, 30% in our experiment.