Long-term wide-bandwidth channel characteristics and bandwidth-dependent fading for a mid-latitude HF path

摘要

The MITRE wide-bandwidth HF test facility is used to measure the channel characteristics of a west-east 3000 km path from Boulder, CO, to Bedford, MA, USA. A 1 MHz bandwidth direct-sequence pseudo-noise coded probing signal repetitively estimates the channel impulse response over runs lasting several minutes. Owing to the wideband signaling, the receiver can resolve a particular mode and examine it by itself. Several fading statistics are calculated, including standard deviation of the received power, decorrelation time, and fade depth and incremental fade depth at a specified probability of occurrence. In addition, long-term data are obtained for the time-of-arrival drifts of the centroid of the channel impulse response.