Adaption of electric field strength models for terrestrial television broadcast application in Ekiti state, Nigeria

Abstract

Electric field strength propagation models play vital roles in planning terrestrial television network coverage, the interference estimations and analyzing the network signal. This work adapted some existing empirical electric field strength models that are best suitable for Ekiti State in Nigeria, using ultra high frequency (UHF) signal. A television signal (Broadcasting Service of Ekiti State (BSES)) was used for this work. The propagation models considered are: free space, Hata, ITU-R and ERC Report 68 models. The BSES channel 41 station transmits at a frequency of 631.25 MHz for video signal. The signal levels of the transmitted signal were measured radially along four routes using a digital signal level meter and the corresponding distances were also measured using a global positioning system (GPS). Data processing and computations were carried out and the results show that the modifed free space model gives a better prediction for the electric field strength in Ekiti State with a correction factor of -25.48 and root mean square error of 6.21 dBµV/m