Diurnal variation of RF power density with distance from selected mobile phone base transceiver stations in Offa metropolis, Kwara State Nigeria

Abstract

Diumal variation of radiofrequency power density with distance from some 20 twenty (20) selected mobile phone base transceiver stations of four (4) major mobile phone network providers (MTN, GLO, 9Mobile, and Airtel) in the Offa metropolis Kwara State Nigeria were studied. A digital Radio-frequency (RF) meter (HF-B8G High Frequency10 Mhz - 8 GHz RF EMF Meter) is used to measure RF field strength first at foot at the base station and subsequently at every interval of 25 m up to 250 m in radial routes. Concurrently, the distance, geographical coordinates, and altitude of each point were measured using a Global Positioning System (GPS). The average maximum power density obtained ranged from 0.294 Wm−2 and 0.057 Wm−2 at a radial distance of 150 m and 0 m away from the base transceiver station respectively. The result of the study shows that the degree of power density variation with distance during the morning, afternoon, and night hours of the day was found to be highly different. The maximum level of exposure to RF electromagnetic radiation was experienced at night, followed by noon, and the minimum in the morning hours of the day in the majority of the base transceiver stations. For the different time of the day considered in this study, the results show that the power density obtained constitute no RF exposure hazard to the dwellers of Offa metropolis when compared with the RF exposure limit prescribed by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).