WET ANTENNA EFFECT ON VSAT RAIN MARGIN

This paper describes a theoretical treatment of the contribution of we t antennas to the antenna signal path losses in a VSAT environment. Th e current commercial VSAT systems operating in either C-band or Ku-ban d generally have their remote terminal antenna reflectors and the ante nna feed horn radomes coated with hydrophobic materials. The aim is to prevent the antenna and radome surfaces from becoming wet during a ra infall. This precaution relieves the burden of added rain margin neces sary on the link budget. The objective of this paper is to determine t he magnitude of the propagation loss when the antenna reflector and th e antenna feed horn radome surfaces are wet. The results can provide a guideline on whether the expense of applying and maintaining the hydr ophobic materials on the VSAT remote antennas and radomes is justified under specific loss conditions.