Propagation Loss Modeling for Lower UHF Band with Low Antennas in Rural Area

Abstract

Propagation loss modeling of radio wave for various situations is still gaining great attention from researchers. Most of these studies focus on cellular communication characterized by high base antenna hight. Low antenna height with short propagation range in rural area is one specific case that has not been completely investigated. The authors find that there are inadequate investigations in the open literature regarding simple and high prediction accuracy models that particularly address the lower UHF band (300-800 MHz) with low antenna height conditions. In this paper, the measured results of propagation loss at lower UHF band with low antennas are reported. We present a propagation loss model, to fill the research gap particularly associated to short range propagation conditions. The method of regression analysis of the measured data is used to obtain the parameters of the proposed model. Our proposed model is proved to well reproduce the propagation loss versus frequency and distance at lower UHF band. The root mean square error for measured versus predicted propagation loss is within 7 dB. Thus, the proposed propagation loss model is suitable for radio communication system planning assessment or design.