Evaluation of the Effects of some Weather Variables on UHF and VHF Receivers within Benin City, South-South Region of Nigeria

Abstract

The effects of some essential meteorological variables such as temperature, relative humidity and mean sea level pressure on the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radio signals from Edo Broadcasting Service (EBS) transmitting at 743.25 MHz UHF and Very High Frequency (VHF) radio signals from Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) transmitting at 189.25 MHz VHF both in in Benin City, Edo State, South-South region of Nigerialocated within 6°20’17″N and 5°37’32″E was evaluated in this study. The measurements of the radio signal strength from EBS television station and radio signal strength from NTA television station were done using the Digital Community-Access/Cable Television (CATV) analyser, while a self-implemented weather monitoring device was used for the measurement of the weather variables simultaneously at an equidistant position within the City. The measurements were carried out continuously for every six hours (between 12am-1am, 6am-7am, 12pm-1pm and 6pm-7pm local time respectively) all through the year, 2018. From the obtained results, it was observed that the radio signals from both the UHF and VHF television stations were directly proportional to the temperature, inversely proportional to the relative humidity and no defined pattern of proportionality with the mean sea level pressure. Inferentially, the radio signals from the UHF television station were seen to be mostly affected by these weather variables and these effects were more pronounced during the months with high relative humidity compared with the months with lower relative humidity. However, a postulation that would still be subjected to further verification has been proposed from these results. It is believed that these results and proposed postulation would definitely be helpful in guiding and assisting the management of radio communication systems for planning and other purposes.