A digital signal processing based Ka band Satellite Beacon Receiver / Radiometer

This paper describes a Ka band satellite beacon receiver / radiometer for measuring both the sky noise and the attenuation caused by rain and water vapor to satellite signals, at the same frequency and look angle. To enable the receiver to stay locked to satellite beacon signals with received power levels between -110 dBm and -170 dBm, a receiver with an ultra low phase noise, an absence of spurious signals and using advanced digital signal processing (DSP) techniques is required. To obtain rain fade statistics, the received signal power of a satellite beacon is recorded continuously at an eight times per second rate.