Preparatory calculations of microwave transmission through the MTX access duct, propagation of the waves through the plasma and the resulting power deposition profile on a calorimeter located on the tokamak inside wall have been performed. The microwave transmission calculations include the relative phase slippage of waveguide modes in the duct to determine the spatial structure of the wavefront at the duct exist. Ray-tracing calculations show substantial spreading of the beam in the poloidal direction at densities above 1.5 /times/ 10/sup 20/ m/sup /minus/3/, well within the range of the experiments. Initial experiments with low or high toroidal field (cyclotron resonance outside the plasma) will investigate both diffraction and refraction effects, without absorption. Estimates of the fractional absorption of the beam in the initial experiments with the cyclotron resonance at the plasma axis have also been made. 4 refs., 3 figs
