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DAB maps - another update

Just another look at how the DAB mapping is coming on

published on UK Free TV

Just a quick update to show a more advanced version of the DAB transmitter map for Kilvey Hill.

THIS IS A CORRECTED - BUT NOT FINAL - VERSION OF THE MAP

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Comments
Saturday, 11 June 2011
Bev MARKS
9:57 AM

Even though SFNs, in away, hide many needs for coverage area consideration by many users it is still a very important asset in certain topographical locations - like mine! Soma maps I have seen suggest that Hastings Tx would just serve this location, but its actually behind/underneath a hill. So I guess coverage of Heathfield Tx is important to see mapped - about 20 years ago it was just possible to see the top mounted ANL, after dark on very clear nights. But DAB reception is not great here presumably the Heathfield Tx field strength is terrain limited at this location?

For these sort of reasons, I believe the pixel display is more useful than the "coverage area" display, because they show the small areas in shadow which do not show in area displays.

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Bev MARKS's 2 posts GB flag
Monday, 13 June 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

3:35 PM

Ash: The point of SFN is that you don't create areas served by more than one transmitter if you can help it, thus when a new transmitter is introduced, neighbouring transmitter have their radiation patterns changed to avoid creating "mush zones".

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Briantist's 38,914 posts GB flag
Ash
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:21 PM

Hi Briantist, there isn't a mush zone created in a DAB SFN! The neighbouring transmission sites in a DAB network do not have their radiation patterns changed when a new site comes on.

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Ash's 27 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:06 PM

Ash: I suggest you do some reading up on how they work.

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Briantist's 38,914 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:11 PM

Jm F: The current map is using:

Distance=sqrt((ERPW)*(10^-db))/fpMinW)

Where fpMinW=7.94328234724E-12 (watts) which is -81 dBm, the minimum level for a DAB receiver.

There's some debugging to do, but the power is related to the distance squared, so does not fall off like a "radiation" diagram.

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Briantist's 38,914 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:15 PM

Chris Heard: Redruth



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Briantist's 38,914 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:26 PM

Bev MARKS: Here's Hastings



For some reason Heathfield has not imported ... I will have to find out why.

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Briantist's 38,914 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:08 PM

Briantist: That Redruth map is utterly wrong. It should be fairly smooth from 0° round to 130°, with some ripple from 1.5 to 2.5 dB, then another lobe pointing to 250°.

Check that your angles are actually being treated as degrees by the maths functions, not as radians?

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
Bev MARKS
2:37 PM

Briantist

Many thanks for these betas - I did say WOW to myself on sight of Redruth - didn't look right, since I had assumed it would cover the peninsula up to Newquay and St Austell roughly?

Hastings is interesting! It is now obvious that coverage where I am is outside the area (just to North), but there MUST be loads of deeply shadowed locations to the West, especially behind "Beachy Head" and the "Severn Sisters Downs" range, so it is hard to believe there will be coverage that far West in Brighton/Hove, deep below the Downs ridge, from Hastings. My previous point was that these 'no service' locations are not shown.

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Bev MARKS's 2 posts GB flag
J
Jm F
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

7:35 PM

Briantist: In the maths you've used:

"Distance=sqrt((ERPW)*(10^-db))/fpMinW)"

The 10^-db needs to be 10^-0.1dB. This restores the "normal" shape to the pattern.

Beyond that, I don't see how you get the pattern radius of around 53km (scaled off the Google Map sample for Redruth) using the Rx sensitivity. If I use ERP in W I get massive numbers. If I use ERP in kW it gets smaller but not nearly enough.
Ultimately, what's important is the radius for a 1kW source to give minimum receiver sensitivity. I'd guess around 50km max based on ITU-R P.1546-3 (100MHz land path, 50% time), and a field strength of 43dBV/m (near enough to your -80dBm).
The extra power from Redruth of 1.32kW then increases the max range a bit to 57.4km.

The maths then becomes:
Distance = (max range for a 1kW Tx).sqrt((ERP in kW).(10^-0.1db)), and the pattern is only a bit more "pinched" towards the centre than the regular HRP dB plot (using a 0 to 20dB scale).

Given that we've used a maximum range which is much less than the theoretical "free space" range, the "not so pinched" appearance of the regular HRP plot might actually match reality fairly well, as the ITU curves get a little closer to the "free space" value

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Jm F's 141 posts GB flag
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