Studying digital terrestrial TV coverage

This article presents the development of numerical models to simulate the propagation of the TV signal, and a set of measurements of the electromagnetic signal to adjust the models. These tools have been devised to help in the deployment of digital television, ISDB-Tb standard, in Uruguay. The aim is a country coverage as wide as possible. A good estimation of the signal propagation shall be used to choose the best places for transmitters, the transmission modes and to give guidelines for reception antennas installation. The implemented models, which are well known, are briefly described. The measuring method is more thoroughly described as there is no established procedure and the spectrum analyzer´s settings are discussed. Spatial validation, using neighbouring points is proposed. The measuring method is validated both by its coincidence with the Friis formula for free space propagation, when this condition arises, and by the consistency between neighbouring points. Okumura-Hata and Recommendation ITU-R P.1546-4 models are well suited for coverage prediction in Montevideo using certain parameters that are justified in the article. The statistical analysis of the set of data issued from the campaign is presented and discussed.