This is a continuation of the "Setting up a new POP" submission by Tim Wolfe of Wavecrazy.

Michael Erskine of freeantennas.com fame utilized various tools:  Radio Mobile Deluxe, shuttle radar topography mission data and terraserver-usa.com to come up with the maps within this submission. 

This is arguably the first step to take when considering a potential POP location.

In addition, you might find the pictures submitted in our image gallery interesting and helpful.

Enjoy!

Visual Line of Sight

2.4GHz, no clutter, no vegetation

2.4GHz with clutter

2.4GHz with vegetation

First Plot
The Visual Line of Sight plot shows VLOS from the pop to points 20' above the ground. Most roof installs are at about 20'.

Second Plot
The no clutter plot shows coverage for a 2.4 GHz system operating with 17 dBm transmit power into an 8 dBi omni antenna. Feed line losses were modeled at only 1 dB. The receive sensitivity for the system was modeled at -86 dBm. This is a fairly close model of the Alvarion FHSS system when operating at 1 MBit. I am not modeling high gain antennas at either end of the link. The CPE is also modeled with an 8 dBi gain antenna.

Third Plot
The same system is modeled with losses for 33 percent urbanization. The plot presumes the presence of buildings across 33% of the terrain.

Fourth Plot
The same system is modeled with losses for 33 percent forestation. The plot presumes the presence of forest across 33% of the terrain.

There are some caveats I am adding. The 2.4 GHz stuff was modeled with an EIRP of only 250 mw, whereas the Canopy model was a high fidelity model and therefore modeled at 36 dB EIRP.

I have removed the 900 MHz plot for the time being. Probably not necessary in this context.

Actual size of plots

JohnGalt:

I was trying to figure out why the signal to the north was so diminished. Now I see why...

Those hills sure put the "kibosh" on the signal.

superdog1:
I just want to thank Michael for taking the time to do this!. I think radio mobile is the best, I just don't have the patience for it.. I hope that we all can learn from this one?.

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