Distribution and Frequency Dependence of Incidental Man-Made HF/VHF Noise in Metropolitan Areas

Evaluation and consolidation have been performed on HF and VHF man-made incidental radio noise data obtained from journal publications and corporate reports released during the past seventeen years by several investigators. This summary represents an extention to 20 MHz of a compilation and analysis of metropolitan area incidental radio noise data initially begun for the 200- to 500-MHz range. The data sources included in the present summary represent the noise environments of metropolitan areas located in Australia, Asia, Europe, and North, Central, and South America. The noise regions, Urban, Suburban I, and Suburban II, previously identified for the 200- to 500-MHz frequency range and representing concentric zones in urbanized areas have been found appropriate for classifying the HF/VHF noise data. Prior to graphically consolidating the information, all data were converted into units of noise power in dB relative to one mW/kHz of receiver bandwidth. To the consolidated data of each noise region has been fitted a power series representation. It has been found necessary, because of differences in magnitude, to segregate the noise region data into two group: one set recorded with quasi-peak field intensity meters, and the other obtained with detectors calibrated to measure available power.