Land mobile satellite service (LMSS) is to be established at 800 to 900 MHz (UHF), requiring both a theoretical and an experimentally derived quantitative knowledge of the signal characteristics produced by typical propagation scenarios. Here the theory is described in terms of ray superposition and results are given for an experiment in which an 869 MHz transmitter was carried for some 12 hours by a stratospheric balloon in simulation of a satellite link. Measurements were made in a van at elevation angles from 10 to near 35 degrees while travelling on paved rural U. S. highways.