Radio Propagation Measurement of a Tropical Cave in Malaysia

Malaysia is a tropical country with abundant natural tourist caves. Ensuring wireless communications are available inside the tourist caves is essential for the safety of tourists. This paper presents the field measurement results collected inside Kek Lok Tong – a tropical cave in Peninsular Malaysia. Polarization effects are investigated and reported for co-polarizations, namely, vertical-vertical and horizontal-horizontal at 2.4 and 5.8 GHz. This field measurement result collected from inside a natural tropical cave in South East Asia is a timely addition to the body of knowledge since there is still limited data collected from inside actual caves worldwide.