In this paper the propagation of electromagnetic waves in a medium with non zero conductivity is discussed, analyzing the dielectric properties of the sea water, in order to accurately characterize a wireless communication channel. Mathematical models for sea water dielectric constant, wavelength, propagation speed and path loss when an electromagnetic wave at 2.4 GHz propagates through sea water are presented. A Bow-Tie microstrip antenna that is required to overcome the high path loss and bandwidth requirements in sea water is studied. A dual-band antenna, with arcshaped circular slots, operating for IEEE802.11 b/g/n standards, at 2.4 GHz and 5.1 GHz for WLAN communications, with dimensions 1.4 cm 2 is implemented. Return loss, input impedance and gain have been extracted in order to characterize antennas' performance in a conductive medium.

The recently modified Pascal function is further exploited in this paper in the design of passive analog filters. The Pascal approximation has non-equiripple magnitude, in contrast of the most well-known approximations, such as the Chebyshev approximation. A novelty of this work is the introduction of a precise method that calculates the coefficients of the Pascal function. Two examples are presented for the passive design to illustrate the advantages and the disadvantages of the Pascal approximation. Moreover, the values of the passive elements can be taken from tables, which are created to define the normalized values of these elements for the Pascal approximation, as Zverev had done for the Chebyshev, Elliptic, and other approximations. Although Pascal approximation can be implemented to both passive and active filter designs, a passive filter design is addressed in this paper, and the benefits and shortcomings of Pascal approximation are presented and discussed.

A microwave free space reflectometry technique with swept frequency measurements for the profiling of wall structures and the detection of hidden (covered) layers has been applied to the Hagia Sophia byzantine monument. Experimental measurement results are presented and compared with three-dimensional (3D) simulated results, exhibiting fair agreement in some (though not all) aspects. Based on the experimental results, the possibility of clear discrimination between regions with and without covered mosaic layers, and hence the detection of such layers, is demonstrated.