Troposcatter Bandwidth on Ku Band

[joedzekevich at charter.net]

Some news from the salt mine.
Joe, K1YOW

Raytheon Dramatically Improves Troposcatter Bandwidth 
    MCKINNEY, Texas, Aug. 15, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- Following on the heels
of a recent June 2006 communications breakthrough, Raytheon Company has
achieved another important milestone in troposcatter (TROPO) solutions.
Besting its own industry-first 20 megabytes per second (MBps) Ku band TROPO
or "over the horizon" communications link, Raytheon successfully
demonstrated a 40 MBps link.
    This milestone significantly exceeds current TROPO bandwidth rates that
today are in the range of 16 MBps. Increased bandwidth enables soldiers to
transmit and receive greater amounts of video and voice data information
more quickly.
    TROPO is the ability to transmit radio waves over the curvature of the
Earth, without using satellites, by bouncing signals off irregularities
(small changes in humidity, temperature and pressure) in the troposphere,
approximately 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) above the Earth's surface. The U.S.
military currently employs TROPO systems for tactical and strategic
communications throughout the world.
    "Improved TROPO solutions provide our warfighters with access to
information without reliance on already overburdened satellites," said
Jerry Powlen, vice president, Network Centric Systems' Integrated
Communications Systems.
    Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), with 2005 sales of $21.9 billion, is an
industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information
technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft.
With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people
worldwide.
    Contact:
    MB Hodgkiss
    508.490.2607

SOURCE  Raytheon Company