Chapter 18: Terrestrial Microwave Communication Systems

MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Another term for a single microwave link is a:
a. section
c. skip
b. hop
d. jump
ANS: B
2. Microwave systems use:
a. FM
b. SSB

c. QAM
d. all of the above

ANS: D
3. The typical reliability of a microwave system is:
a. 90%
c. 99.9%
b. 99%
d. 99.99%
ANS: D
4. A typical microwave system uses a transmitted power of about:
a. 2 watts
c. 200 watts
b. 20 watts
d. none of the above
ANS: A
5. In analog microwave systems, additional repeaters increase the:
a. reliability
c. jitter
b. noise level
d. all of the above
ANS: B
6. In digital microwave systems, additional repeaters increase the:
a. reliability
c. jitter
b. noise level
d. all of the above
ANS: C
7. LOS stands for:
a. Loss Of Skip
b. Loss Of Signal

c. Line-Of-Sight
d. Line-Of-Signal

ANS: C
8. Too much antenna gain causes:
a. a very narrow microwave beam
b. a very wide microwave beam
ANS: A

c. excessive noise
d. jitter

9. The microwave signal path should clear obstacles by at least:

a. 60% of the Faraday zone
c. 60% of the height of the antenna tower
b. 60% of the Fresnel zone
d. 60% of the highest obstacle height
ANS: B
10. Satisfactory performance of an analog microwave system is defined as:
a. a carrier-to-noise ratio that exceeds a given value
b. an ERP level that exceeds a given value
c. an energy-per-hertz level that exceeds a given value
d. none of the above
ANS: A
11. Satisfactory performance of a digital microwave system requires a:
a. low level of transmitted power
b. high level of ERP
c. good energy per bit per transmitted Watt ratio
d. good energy per bit per noise density ratio
ANS: D
12. Fading is caused by:
a. multipath reception
b. attenuation due to weather

c. ducting
d. all of the above

ANS: D
13. The effects of fading due to multipath reception are often reduced using:
a. diversity
c. high-gain antennas
b. power
d. all of the above
ANS: A
14. Repeaters are used in a microwave system:
a. always
b. when distance exceeds line-of-sight

c. above 10 GHz
d. below 10 GHz

ANS: B
15. Microwave repeaters can be:
a. IF type
b. baseband type

c. regenerative type
d. all of the above

ANS: D
16. An advantage of digital techniques over analog in a microwave system is:
a. less bandwidth is required
c. it requires less power
b. accumulation of noise is reduced
d. all of the above
ANS: B
17. MMDS stands for:
a. Multichannel Microwave Distribution System

b. Multipoint Microwave Distribution System

c. Multichannel Multipoint Distribution System
d. Multiple Microwave Distribution Systems
ANS: C
18. LMDS stands for:
a. Local Microwave Distribution System
b. Local Multipoint Distribution System
c. Local Multichannel Distribution System
d. Low-power Microwave Distribution System
ANS: B
19. LMDS is:
a. bidirectional
b. unidirectional

c. multidirectional
d. none of the above

ANS: A
COMPLETION
1. One microwave link is called a ____________________.
ANS: hop
2. STL stands for ____________________-to-transmitter links.
ANS: studio
3. A typical microwave system has about one hour per ____________________ or less of downtime.
ANS: year
4. Adding more links causes ____________________ in a digital microwave system.
ANS: jitter
5. In microwave systems, it is more convenient to use noise ____________________ than noise figure in
calculations.
ANS: temperature
6. In digital microwave systems, the energy per bit per ____________________ is a key parameter.
ANS: noise density
7. Multipath reception can cause 20 dB or more of ____________________.
ANS: fading

8. Two antennas stacked one above the other on a tower is an example of ____________________ diversity
in a microwave system.
ANS: space
9. The ability to use two frequencies simultaneously is an example of ____________________.
ANS: diversity
10. Microwave systems generally use less than ____________________ watts of power.
ANS: ten
11. ____________________ are necessary in a microwave system that extends beyond the line-of-sight
distance.
ANS: Repeaters
12. Analog microwave systems use both IF and ____________________ repeaters.
ANS: baseband
13. Microwave digital radio techniques reduce the accumulation of ____________________ as a signal goes
from link to link.
ANS: noise
14. MMDS is unidirectional, but ____________________ is bidirectional.
ANS: LMDS
SHORT ANSWER
1. If the line-of-sight distance for an optical beam is 12 km, what would it be, approximately, for a
microwave beam?
ANS:
16 km
2. A line-of-sight microwave link operating at 4 GHz has a separation of 40 km between antennas. An
obstacle in the path is located midway between the two antennas. By how much must the beam clear the
obstacle?
ANS:
16.4 meters
3. A transmitter and receiver operating at 1 GHz are separated by 10 km. How many dBm of power gets to
the receiver if the transmitter puts out 1 Watt, and both the sending and receiving antennas have a gain of
20 dBi?

ANS:
42.4 dBm
4. A microwave system has a feed-line loss of 2 dB and sees a sky temperature of 150 K. Calculate the noise
temperature of the antenna/feed-line system referenced to the receiver input.
ANS:
201 K
5. A microwave receiver receives 60 dBm of signal. The noise power is 100 dBm. What is the carrier-tonoise power ratio?
ANS:
40 dB