A preliminary experimental demonstration of the Norton Surface Wave in a radio link

This abstract is a communication providing radiofrequency measurements aiming to highlight the emergence of the NSW (Norton surface wave) [1], which appears particularly in radio links close to a conductive ground. In the case where the emitting antenna is a VED (Vertical Electric Antenna), a condition to verify the emergence of the NSW has been given in [2], as well as the critical distances predicting the ranges where the NSW is predominant. Therefore, a careful choice of the radio link parameters, which takes into account the conditions given in [2], must improve significantly the path-loss. The decomposition of the total wave propagating near the conductive ground is given by ${\mathcal{P}}_{\text {Total }}={\mathcal{P}}_{\text {Two-ray }}+{\mathcal{P}}_{\text {NSw }}$. The subscript “Two-ray” denotes the wave component based on geometrical optics, and the NSW, the component derived from the evaluation of the Sommerfeld Integrals [1].