Land mobile satellite propagation measurements in the S-band with non-geostationary ETS-VI satellite

Since the main problem in land mobile satellite communications is the frequent blockage of the satellite link by shadowing, this paper analyzes the propagation measurement results of land mobile communication obtained from a satellite at a high angle of elevation in different environments. From these measurements of the ETS-VI satellite, which has a sub-recurrent orbit and 10-20 degrees higher angle of elevation than a geostationary satellite, the shadowing probability is proved to become lower with increasing angle of satellite elevation. Moreover, the cumulative distributions of the fade duration (FD), which is the duration when communication is unavailable and of the non-fade duration (NFD), which is the available duration, are analyzed to verify that the use of high angle of elevation has significant advantage in land mobile satellite communications.