Depolarization and attenuation effects of radomes at 20 GHz

The problem of describing the attenuation and depolarization effects of a wet radome on a transmitted signal is considered by experiments carried out with two commonly used radome materials, ESSCOLAM-6 and ESSCOLAM-8. The results suggest that a two-component model of depolarization is required to account for the observed results. Predictions for the behavior of a complete radome are obtained, but full-scale testing with an operating radome to compare predicted and actual results remains to be done. An important conclusion is that while highly water-repellent radome materials are desirable from the point of view of attenuation experienced, they are not so desirable when considered in terms of the degree of depolarization introduced between orthogonally polarized signal components in frequency reuse systems.<>