J. B. Wood wrote:

I think investing some time with this math (it's not all that difficult)
will provide one with insight into the concept of polarization and perhaps
head off some misconception. If anyone is interested and has Mathcad,
I've got a worksheet that allows one to vary these parameters, plots the
resulting ellipse (or circle or line) and also calculates ellipticity
(axial ratio) and eccentricity. Sincerely, and 73s from N4GGO,

All I have to know is that Circular Polarization always helps when one
end of the path is prone to random polarizations, even with the 3 dB
power loss.