Performance of Some Radio Systems in the Presence of Thermal and Atmospheric Noise

The performance of several basic types of communication systems are determined experimentally, and in some cases theoretically, under typical conditions with steady or fading carriers, and in the presence of thermal or atmospheric noise. The relative efficiency of various carriers and the interference factor of various types of noise are found to be dependent upon the characteristics of the particular communication system as well as the characteristics of the carrier and noise themselves. Methods are considered for calculating errors expected from a given system, based upon the amplitude distribution of the noise envelope.