What The System Link Budget Tells the System Engineer or How I Learned to Count in Decibels

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / November 19-21, 1979 / Town and Country Hotel, San Diego, CaliforniaBecause it is analytically straightforward, link budget analysis often takes a back seat in engineering curricula, yet this technique represents one of the most important tools available to communications engineers and managers. This paper presents a tutorial examination of link budget development, with an emphasis on satellite communications systems, and catalogues the typical sources of loss and noise. In addition, it treats the concepts of the range equation, free space, antenna gain and effective area, system temperature, and digital versus analog parameters. This paper also illustrates a typical budget and tradeoffs using a communication satellite example.International Foundation for TelemeteringProceedings from the International Telemetering Conference are made available by the International Foundation for Telemetering and the University of Arizona Libraries. Visit http://www.telemetry.org/index.php/contact-us if you have questions about items in this collection