European research on Ka-band slant path propagation

Europe saw two major initiatives in the mid-1980's to verify the viability of 20-50 GHz frequency bands for high capacity radio transmission. The first was the experimental telecommunication satellite OLYMPUS commissioned by the European Space Agency; the second was the ITALSAT program planned by the Italian Space Agency. Both spacecraft were equipped with highly stable propagation beacon payloads for accurate measurement of propagation conditions. Two international groups of experimenters (OPEX for OLYMPUS and CEPIT for ITALSAT), who had agreed on a set of common procedures for the earth stations' design, experiment management, and comparison of results, carried out the propagation measurements in a collaborative manner. This paper gives a summary of these activities and their results.