VHF/UHF urban sites coverage planning with special care to mixed terrain transitions

This work addresses the main features of a coverage planning algorithm for VHF/UHF low power radio communications systems operating at urban sites, in which special attention was given to mixed terrain clutter transitions. Most of the available commercial prediction tools adopt rough solutions to some problems derived from the use of semi empirical models with geographical databases. The influence of mixed-path terrains and the path loss due to dense vegetation are typical related examples of usually overlooked aspects. The developed code is based on Hata´s semi-empirical approach with additional point-to-point adjusts, and includes specific procedures for those two aspects. It has been developed as Matlab™ routines, which were evaluated comparing its outputs to the ones obtained from the use of a commercial planning tool. Results were coherent with the specific features of the site chosen for the analysis.