Computer prediction of service areas for v.h.f. mobile radio networks

The paper describes a computer program written to predict the effective service area of a transmitter in a v.h.f. mobile radio network. The computed results enable field-strength contours to be deduced, and hence provide more useful information than is possible by reference to standard statistical curves. The transmitter siting can be changed, and the field-strength contours recalculated, without the preparation of new geographical data. As a consequence, the efficiencies of a selection of possible transmitter sitings can be readily compared. The accuracy of the program is verified by comparing the computed results with field-strength measurements on a mobile radio installation operating at 86.2 MHz.