Radio Coverage
Radio Coverage
I can be contacted at E-mail address:-
[email protected]
Found under:-
'Tools/Radio Coverage' (A 'click' on any Red underlined name will take you to that page).
There are a number of types of direct Radio Coverage plots, plus a 'Route Radio Coverage' feature, and two ways to 'Find Best Sites' for communication. This is where locations capable of providing Radio Coverage to a number of selected Units, or to all the Waypoints generated by the Object Editor on a Route, can be plotted. (Use Up or the Back button to return to this page).
In the following plots, the fixed unit(s) and mobile unit - whose parameters are to be used as the receiver - have to be selected. You also have to decide on the Units of measurement and range of signal levels to be displayed, plus the maximum Range to be plotted. It should be noted that the display generated for a Fixed Unit 'Gain' antenna is as if that antenna was pointed towards a particular azimuth, and with a defined antenna Elevation tilt - it can be set as a link direction or defined in degrees, i.e. its radiation pattern and direction does apply to the plot. The antenna pattern can be shown on the plot by checking 'Draw' which creates a small drawing of the antenna pattern overlaid at its location aligned with its azimuth. Clicking on the View pattern button opens the Pattern Viewer which gives a display of the Azimuth and Elevation parameters of the antenna. The mobile unit however is treated as if it has an 'Omni' antenna, even if in fact a 'gain' antenna is specified in its System. The effect of this is to simulate a gain antenna at the mobile Unit which always points towards the Fixed Unit for every location. It should also be recognised that a 'mobile' unit has to be specified for the Field Strength plots, where its antenna height is taken into consideration as the unit is moved.
Note:With these descriptions, a 'mobile' unit is one which is being moved during the plots - a Unit called 'Mobile', with capital
'M', is a named and specified Unit as part of the Base Network Membership.
Click here to see Signal Plot type descriptions Click here to see how to change the Signal Plot legend location. Click here to see how to change the Colour Pallet for plots. Click here for notes on Single Colour plots with customised scaling. Click here for notes on gain antenna patterns. Click here for a full description of the Antenna Pattern Viewer. Click here to see how to produce a Blank white screen for Coverage plots. Click here to see the Unit description pane. http://www.g3tvu.co.uk/Radio_Coverage.htm (1 of 17) [06/08/2009 20:56:21]
Radio Coverage
Click here to measure the distance from a Unit to a map location.
Mouse click shortcuts: 'Left click' on Unit Icon
Displays the Unit Description pane (Closed with Left click on it)
Ctrl-'Left click' on Unit icon
Select left site of Radio Link
Ctrl-'Right click' on Unit icon
Select right site of Radio Link (and display)
SHIFT-'click' on Unit icon
Select a unit for Combined Radio Coverage
followed by SHIFT-'click' at point
Generates a measurement line from the Unit
SHIFT-'click' on a text box
Open the metric conversion tool (if applicable)
Double 'Left click' on Unit icon
Opens Unit Properties pane
'Right click' on Unit icon
Option to move Unit to Cursor position
'Left click' on map
Places cursor at that location
followed by a drag
Generates a measurement line, bearing and marquee box
Double 'Left click' on Map
Opens Map Properties to re-centre the Map
Ctrl-'L/R button' on picture
Allows an over screen size picture to be panned
To see the Unit description pane go here. An additional feature is added with V 9.3.3:Where a Single Unit has been selected using 'SHIFT-click' on its icon, a 'SHIFT-click' anywhere on the picture produces a volatile 'yellow/ black' Azimuth line between the Unit and that location. The Azimuth and range to the point from the Unit being reported on the main window Status area as an additional measurement tool. This feature can be seen here.
Click on the underlined RED title to go to the page:
Single Polar where the performance of a single Unit coverage to a defined mobile Unit is performed in a radial sweep manner. Azimuth covered, and radial range of the plot can be specified. or
'F3'
Combined Cartesian
or
This mode plots the coverage of one or more fixed Units to a defined mobile Unit, producing the radio coverage plots for an area in X-Y rather than radial mode. This produces a constant defined (pixel) resolution over the area. There are a number of different aspects to the operation of this feature which are shown separately below:-
'F4' Note that from Version 9.7.4, after a plot has been performed, the actual signal level at the cross wire cursor can optionally be reported in the data area at the bottom of the pane as shown Here.
Cartesian pane description
Visit this page to see a description of all the controls available on the Combined Cartesian plot setup pane.
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Radio Coverage
Single Unit Coverage
Multiple Unit Coverage
Style Coverage
where only one fixed Unit is selected, and the signal levels experienced by a defined mobile unit are calculated.
where the overall Best signal level at every point from a selected number of fixed units to a defined mobile unit is plotted.
Plots using this feature display signal levels in colour bands determined by the Network Style pane settings.
Best Unit
for coverage plots, where the Unit providing the best signal level is displayed from amongst the selected source Units.
Interference
An Interference plot over an area is produced between a wanted and interfering station, where the minimum signal level and interference margin can be selected and plotted as required.
Fresnel
The first Fresnel Zone clearance required for a link is selected, and a plot of areas where the criteria is achieved are plotted.
Detailed Area Coverage
Note that it is also possible to perform a defined area plot using any of the above Combined Cartesian plot modes.
Generating a Blank white screen for Coverage plots :
With all these plots it is important to plot over a greyscale or black/white picture to avoid colour degradation. An even better way is to produce a 'Blank' picture by merging an elevation map of an area with a road map after setting the merge screen to 'Copy' and contrast set to zero, with brightness set to 2.5. This will produce a white screen referenced to the Elevation Matrix which can be saved as a new picture under the name 'Blank'.
(Don't forget to 'reset' the brightness and contrast afterwards on the Merge pane, as you may think the servers are down!)
As an alternative method of producing the blank white screen which contains the elevation data, open a Map Picture and save it as the name 'Blank'. Next open 'Picture properties' - select 'Grey scaled slope', contrast to 0% and Brightness to 100%. A click on 'Draw' will then produce a white screen which can be saved again as 'Blank'. This procedure is used to avoid overwriting the original source picture properties.
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Radio Coverage
The Blank screen (which holds the elevation data) can then be used to produce the colour plots without any other detail, and saved as a new picture. These colour pictures can then be merged over any other picture you have prepared to show pertinent detail.
Note that the losses incurred by the Land foliage coverage can also be incorporated into these plots - to see how, visit:
Note: During plots, the computer CPU load can be reduced by pressing the 'S' key to slow down processing, or paused using the Space Bar - these actions are reported on the lower data area of the main window.
Plot Signal Strength Legend location :
The signal strength legend is visible and placed in the Top Left corner of a plot by default. If you wish to change its location - or not have it displayed - open the Single Polar Radio coverage pane.
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Radio Coverage
This pane is where the details of the plot to be drawn can be seen.
When Rainbow colours are selected in the Plot area, a left click on the Colour button adjacent to the 'Fill area' produces another pane where the displayed colours may be changed and signal level ranges examined. At the lower right of this pane is the area controlling the legend position, with a check box to disable it.
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Radio Coverage
Default File - Colors.dat
Similarly for Combined Cartesian coverage, where the pane below is displayed:
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Radio Coverage
A click on the Colour button in the 'Signal range to draw' area, when Rainbow colours are selected, then produces the same Rainbow colours pane as above, with the legend location being selectable.
Note: Checking the 'Completed.wav' box on the above pane causes the computer to generate a 'Plot complete' sound when the plot generation is finished. This is a very useful feature where multi-unit high resolution plots are being performed as they can take a considerable time to complete. It is also useful to be able to use the S and Space bar features Here to control CPU usage during the task.
Changing the Colour pallet for plots: When the Rainbow Colours pane is open, a click on the 'Load' button will open a browse pane showing the RM folder and a different Colour pallet can be selected - named 'Colour*.dat' where '*' represents 1 to 5 for the extra five pallets available as shown below.
Colors1.dat
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Colors2.dat
Radio Coverage
Colors3.dat
Colors4.dat
Colors5.dat
A click on a number by a colour, opens a colour pane which allows the colour to be changed as required. The new colour selection can then be saved for future use by using the 'Save' button.
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Radio Coverage
The following 'Color0.dat' has had all colours in the range saved as White, with levels below the range set as Blue. This is particularly useful where a single colour area is required showing that a criterion has been met on the plot. Use of this colour pallet is most useful for the 'Find Best Sites' plot where, for instance, a white area for more than 20% coverage may be plotted, with areas of <20% shown as blue.
Colors0.dat
Single colour Plots : In both the Single Polar and Combined Cartesian Radio Coverage panes shown above, Rainbow Colours have been selected for the plot. By un-checking the Rainbow box, a single colour plot can be performed as shown on the Single Polar coverage page. In this case a selectable single colour is used, (in Solid or Transparent form), to show areas meeting the selected signal range criteria. If 'Contour' is selected in the Polar Plot, this coloured line will be placed at the lower signal boundary of the plot. With both Polar and Cartesian plots, a succession of signal range plots can be performed and 'kept in picture' with your own signal range specifications. The only thing that is required for completion is a 'custom' legend. This could be generated in an external photo program - copied then pasted and saved in the plot produced by extracting it from the RM folder, modifying, and then returning it to the folder.
Gain Antenna Patterns :
Where a gain antenna, such as the Yagi, is selected in Network Properties for my Base unit System:
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Radio Coverage
Moving to the Membership pane, and selecting a 'Fixed' antenna, with 10˚ Azimuth and -10˚ antenna Elevation tilt in that direction:
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Followed by a click on the 'View Pattern' button, opens the Pattern Viewer pane:
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Radio Coverage
This shows the Azimuth pattern for the antenna in
Yellow, with the Maximum gain available for the antenna before tilting in Black.
Selecting the Vertical check box, then shows the Elevation pattern for the antenna:
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Radio Coverage
For further information go to the
Antenna Pattern Viewer page.
Unit description pane : As an additional feature, a click on the description of the Unit can be saved.
+ button by the Unit Name on the Unit Properties pane, opens the following entry pane where a
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Radio Coverage
The significance of this description pane is that, by performing a 'left click' on the Unit, the description will be displayed on the main screen as shown below. A left click on the description message closes it.
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Radio Coverage
Unit to location measurement :
Where a Single Unit has been selected using 'SHIFT- click' on its icon, (which is then shown in a Bold font), a 'SHIFT- click' anywhere on the picture produces a volatile 'yellow/black' Azimuth line between the Unit and that location.
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Radio Coverage
the Azimuth and Range from the selected Unit to the location are reported in the Status area as seen above.
This page is available in .pdf format here
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Radio Coverage
Please keep checking back for updates/additions.
Top of Page © Copyright G3TVU 2nd August 2009
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