Experimental measurement of the response of a twisted-wire pair exposed to a plane-wave field

A recent work has presented closed-form expressions for the response of a twisted-wire pair (TWP) above ground illuminated by an external plane wave. This work addresses the same topic from an experimental point of view. The proposed setup consists of a TWP terminated with passive networks equipped with radio-frequency detectors. The measurement procedure and its relevant technical issues are discussed. In particular, the following main aspects are covered: (a) generation of a controlled plane-wave electromagnetic field; (b) characterization of the non-ideal behavior of the TWP terminal networks; (c) need to develop a strategy to separate the common-mode (CM) from the differential-mode (DM) induced voltage, (d) sensitivity of the results to unknown/uncontrolled setup parameters. Measurements are compared with the outcome of the aforementioned radiated susceptibility (RS) model with the objective to ascertain model accuracy and to obtain physical insight in the field-to-wire coupling phenomenon.