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Copyright 2002 by SoftWright LLC
Q: How do I include directional antenna information with a handheld radio?
A: The Mobile Facility Database is used for mobiles (handhelds, vehicles, etc) and TAP assumes that the mobile antennas are omni-directional, since doing separate calculations at every location for multiple antenna orientations would be a pretty big task. The assumption is the mobile is either an omni, OR that if it is a directional antenna, the major lobe antenna gain is pointed in the right direction (toward the base station).
If you have a mobile unit with a directional antenna, you could enter two (or more) different records in the Mobile Facility Database. Let's say you have a mobile with a 3dBd antenna that has a directional pattern such that on the back side of the antenna the gain is 0dBd. You could create a mobile facility record with the 3dBd value, and another one with the 0dBd value. Each of these would have a different computed value for the required field necessary for that particular configuration. When you do your coverage plot, you could plot the field level for the 3dB version (the "best case" of the antenna correctly aligned toward the base station) in one color, and the 0dB version (which assumes the antenna is pointed the wrong direction) in a different color. You would also probably want to include other losses (building loss, body loss, etc) to show areas of coverage under different conditions.
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Copyright 2002 by SoftWright LLC