Optimum receiver for impulsive atmospheric radio noise

Optimum detection of binary signals in impulsive, atmospheric radio noise has been considered. It has been show that an optimum, and a locally optimum receiver (weak signal), consist of a nonlinear device followed by a linear filter, the output of which is compared with a fixed threshold for making a decision. The receiver operating characteristics and the performance of a locally optimum receiver have been obtained. The channel capacity in impulsive, atmospheric radio noise has also been determined for low-signal/noise-ratio signals.