Mobile Area Coverage Checklist (with notes)

Q: What information do I need for using TAP to design a mobile coverage system?

A: The following checklist will help you gather the required information:

The Base Station or Repeater information can be entered into the Fixed Facility database:

Site Information
TX Site description: __________	TX Site Latitude: __________	TX Site Longitude: __________	q NAD27 q NAD83 q WGS84 q Other q unknown If the coordinate datum is not known, use the "No Adjustment" selection in the database. If the datum is WGS84 or other recent datum, use NAD83.
TX Site Elevation: q Interpolate q _________ If you know the site elevation above Mean Sea Level you can enter the value. If the value is not known, the Elv Look button can be used to interpolate a data value from the topographic elevation data.	TX existing tower height height above ground level (AGL): __________	TX Antenna mounting height above ground level (AGL): __________


Transmitter Information
TX Frequency (MHz): __________					TX Power Output: __________ This is the rated power output from the transmitter itself.
Line 1 Type: __________	Line1 Size: __________	Line 1 Length: __________
			TX Line 1 Loss: __________ If you know or can estimate the transmission line loss, you can enter that value directly. You can also use the Line Loss Lookup function to compute the loss based on the line length and type.
Line 2 Type: __________	Line2 Size: __________	Line 2 Length: __________
			TX Line 2 Loss: __________
			TX Circulator Loss: __________
			Jumper Loss: __________
			TX Connector losses: __________
			TX Radome Loss: __________
			TX Combiner Loss: __________
			Other losses: __________
				Total TX Losses: __________

TX Antenna Model: ________________________________________ You can enter an antenna gain value, or you can use the Antenna Lookup function to find a particular antenna in the antenna libraries. If you want to include any antenna directionality in the horizontal and vertical planes, you must use the Antenna Lookup to read that pattern information from the libraries. Orientation: ______________ Tilt: _____________________ The orientation and tilt values relate to the physical installation of the antenna.			TX Antenna Gain: __________
			TX PreAmp Gain: __________
			Other TX Gains: __________
				Total TX Gains: : __________
					Major Lobe Effective Radiated Power: __________ If you know or can estimate the ERP you can enter it directly. You can also enter the parameters for TPO, losses, and gains, and the program will compute the ERP value.

When the information for the base station has been added to the Facility database the HDCoverage program can be used to set the other parameters of the study.

Determine the type of study you want to run:

Coverage Area Type
	Tile Study	Radial Study	Contour Study
Basic Settings (used when the 'Advanced Settings' box on the Area Setup form is not checked)	Uniform rectangular grid of points, with the transmitter site at the center. The Distance from TX value sets the range from the transmitter in all directions. The Distance between Points sets the grid spacing.	Uniformly spaced, equal length radials from the transmitter site. Use the Radials list to select or enter the number of radials to compute. For example, 72 radials will space the radials every five degrees. The Distance from TX sets the length of all the radials. The Distance between Points sets the increment along each radial where the field strength will be computed.	A radial study with the values along each radial interpolated to set a distance along each radial for the desired coverage. The interpolated points for all the radials are connected to create a closed contour.
Advanced settings (used when the 'Advanced Settings' box on the Area Setup form is checked)	Uniform rectangular grid of points located independently from the base station. For example, if a repeater is on the side of a hill and the only area of interest for the coverage study is a 5x5 mile area at the bottom of the hill, such as a small town, the Advanced Tile study can compute the coverage only in that area. A Basic Tile study would compute the coverage all around the base station, even where the coverage was of no interest.	Radials of any desired spacing and any desired length. Advanced Radial studies are especially useful from a base station to specified individual locations, such as telemetry points or remote stations. Using the 'Target Points' option, you can compute the field only at the desired points and not all along the radials.
General comments	Tile studies usually provide a more uniform and appealing presentation, but take long to execute. This is because the elevation data from the base station to every point on the tile grid must be read, one path for each point. You can speed up the execution by selecting a wider grid spacing for large studies.	Radial studies run faster than tile studies because the topographic data for all points along a particular radial is only read once. The appearance of the radial study, like the spokes of a wheel, spread out the computed points the farther you are from the base station.	Contour studies provide a simplified presentation of the coverage area. It is important to remember that because of the interpolation process used to determine the contour, there will usually be points inside of the contour that do not meet the field strength requirement, and there may be points outside of the contour that exceed the field strength requirement.

Path and Propagation Information
Topographic Data to Use: q All q 1-sec NED q 30-met DEM q 3-sec DEM q 3-sec SRTM q 30-sec Usually you will select 'All' data types, and the program will find the best resolution data for the area of your study. Data on your TAP system must be indexed once before it can be found by the software.	Path obstructions (trees, vegetation, buildings, residential area): __________ Obstructions (also called Surface Features in the software) to represent trees, buildings, etc., are added with the Surface Feature Editor. Surface Feature information can only be added to a study using the Advanced Settings on the Area Coverage Setup form.	Preferred propagation model: __________ You can select the propagation model best suited to your application.	Special settings for Prop model: __________
q Path LOS Check q Path Fresnel Check If there are certain locations where you want to check for line of sight or Fresnel zone clearance, you can draw a path profile from the base station to those locations. You can also use the Path Preview and Field Preview functions to view the profiles and compute field strength as critical locations, even before running the area coverage study.

The Mobile Facility section on the Area Coverage Setup form is used to specify the mobile unit you want to use for the study. After the study has been computed you can use the results to apply other mobile parameters based on Required Field Values.

To set up the initial area coverage study, you can select the mobile configuration in HDCoverage program, or you can click the Lookup button to to open the Mobile Facility database and edit or add mobile information.

Mobile Information
		Mobile 1	Mobile 2	Mobile 3
	Description
	RX Antenna Gain:
	RX PreAmp Gain:
	Other RX Gains:
	Total RX Gains:

	Line Type:
	Line Size:
	Line Length:
	RX Line Loss

	Connector loss:

	Body Loss: These losses are important practical considerations that affect the actual operation of the mobile service.

	Building Loss:

	Vehicle Loss:

	Other loss:

	Total losses:

	Required Receiver Input:

	Required Field:

Plotting Options

The initial calculation can create the output for plotting in TAP5 HDMapper.

In either of these format, the field strength levels to be plotted can be set for any desired values based on required field values for different configurations. For example, you can set a mobile unit that includes only minimal losses to represent an optimistic situation, and another mobile configuration with significant body losses to represent the "worst case" scenario. Both levels can be plotted using different colors or fill patterns to show various levels of service on the same map. The values are in TAP5 HDMapper from the HDMapper legend.

You can re-plot the same information with different settings or field levels without needing to re-compute the entire study.

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