Signal strength variations at 2 GHz for three sea paths in the British Channel Islands: observations and statistical analysis.

Measurements of signal strength are reported for a study of UHF propagation on three transhorizon sea paths in the British Channel Islands. Enhancements of up to 30 dB from the mean occur for periods of hours or days, especially in the summer, and constitute about 5% of the overall data. The probability distribution of received power is tabulated for the three paths and various antenna heights, and is compared with predictions of signal strength using ITU-R Recommendation P.1546-2. The difference between median and upper decile in the data is much less than predicted, whereas the difference between upper decile and the upper percentile is much greater than predicted.